4.5 Ad Link Units

So far, I’ve been talking about where to put your ads and I’ve recommendedabove the fold, with little competition and suggested that you might want toput them in a table. But you should also think about which kinds of ads youwant to place where.

Ad Link units let you place a box on your site that contains four or five links.They come in sizes ranging from 20 x 90 to 200 x 90, and are really meantto be placed on a sidebar.

Because you can place one Ad Link unit as well as three other units on thepage, you might find that the choice helps: if a user doesn’t spot somethinginteresting in one type of ad block, he might spot it on another.

Where Ad Links differ from other types of ads is that they only display a listof topics that Google believes are relevant to the content of your pages. Theydon’t display the ads themselves. When a visitor clicks on a topic, Googlepops up a new window with targeted ads.

It can be argued that the Ad Links are ineffective because people have to gothrough two clicks in order for you to get paid. That’s right, you only get paidfor the second click (but that does mean you can check to see which adsyour users are being served.)

But it can also be argued that if someone is taking the time to click on atopic, then they are probably very interested and are likely to click an actualadvertisement on the resulting page. Some people have found that justabout everyone who clicks on an Ad Link will click on the ads that appear onthe next page.

I have tested Ad Links on multiple sites and have seen vast differences inresults. That makes it more difficult to say whether or not they are for you.

In the first case, I placed the Ad Links on an information-based site with avery general audience. The results were nothing to write home about. Let'sjust say that you could just about buy a large candy bar with the CPM I saw.

In the second case, I placed the Ad Links on a product specific site with anarrow audience. The results were fantastic! We're talking about a CPM thatis greater than what someone might make flipping burgers in one day.

The conclusions should be obvious. If you’re going to use Ad Links unitscampaign. You need to put them:

1. On a site with a specific field of interest. A general site will giveyou general ads — and few clicks.

2. Above the fold with few other links. For Ad Links, this is crucial: Ifyour users are going to click a link, it should be a link that gives you money.

It’s also a good idea to keep your Ad Link units for sites with high-payingkeywords. If someone comes to your site seeking out information or aproduct on a top-notch keyword, they tend to be more likely to click as aresult.

Let’s take a look at an example:

I’ve already mentioned Chris Pirillo’s site at Lockergnome.com as anexcellent template for how to do AdSense properly. While I don't have accessto his AdSense statistics, I have watched his sites long enough to speculateas to his success.

The center column of his page is classic AdSense placement. He is using amedium or large rectangle with blue links, black text and subtle URL. The adsare placed inline and right justified. People start on the left and drift to theright. My testing has also shown that ads on the right perform best.

He is using a 120 x 600 skyscraper ad, which I usually don't recommend.However, many people use the skyscraper ads in sidebars. Pirillo has thoughtoutside the box and used the white space next to his bullet points for thispage. Right justifying the skyscraper block and placing it inline is a slick move.

But look where his Ad Links are: in the top left column of the page, abovethe fold. That means you can see Ads by Google as the first item. As long asthose AdLinks are very targeted to the content on the page, they couldgenerate 1%-2% in clicks. If you have the space and they fit in yoursidebar, I would test them on your site as well.