4 Terrific Spots for Ad Placement on your Blog

[This article is part of the CTR Wednesdays series that is aimed at equipping you with all what you need to increase your site’s CTR. You would find these articles especially useful if you are looking for a quick boost to your CTR.]

Placing ad units on blogs are a bit different from ad placement for standard sites. The standard placement on sidebars and the navigation would hold good for blogs though. The important difference would be placing ads in and around posts. Lets have a look at some of the best ad placements for blogs today.

Ads Inside Posts
This is one of the best positions for ads on your blog for the simple fact that the ads can’t go unnoticed. By default, Blogger doesn’t allow this placement so you will have to do a bit of copy pasting in your template to work this out, but it’s well worth the effort. This works the best when used on individual post pages rather than on your main page.


Placing ads top left inside the post. Ad units that fit here are square / Large Rectangle (336 x 280)


Placing ads just below the post title inside the post. Ad unit that would go in here is the Large Rectangle (336 x 280). Few bloggers have got warning for this placement from adsense. So, take care that users don't get misled by the post title.


Placing ads just below the text inside the post. Ad unit that would go in here is the Large Rectangle (336 x 280).

Ads between Posts
Though this is readily available within Blogger, it offers little flexibility in terms of using custom channels and ad alignment. I tried this position on one of my blog and found the results not much encouraging. But that’s my case; you can always give it a try and see what the results are.


Left Sidebar
We have already discussed the left sidebar position in a previous post on ad placement for standard websites and it works the same for blogs too. The left sidebar, if you have one, is an area of high visual importance and can be used for button link units as well as 160x600 Wide Skyscrapers. If your own links are formatted like the link buttons, the more the ads get clicked.



Right Sidebar
The right side bar, if you have one, is yet another position for button link units and 160x600 Wide Skyscrapers. This too would work the same way as in the case of standard websites. You can also have a search box on this sidebar.



Below Navigation
Be it your blog or your standard website, this position is unbeatable when it comes to your 486x15 or 786x15 row link unit placement. This position can’t just go unnoticed.




These are the common spots that work best on most blogs. But then, every site is unique and what works on one may not necessarily work on another. So it’s your duty as a webmaster, to figure out what works best for your site. Use some custom channels and do your bit of testing. That’s what differentiates sites that earn well and that earn just pennies! Which one do you own?


The next (and the last) post in this series would cover Ad placements on forums. Stay tuned!

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4 Terrific Spots for Search Unit Placement

Search units are a form of value addition to your site. Here’s why I say this -

»Adsense Search Units make your site(s) searchable, and that too FREE of cost. If you were to implement this by your own, it wouldn’t have been as efficient as this one from Google.

»Your users can search the web without leaving your site. You can either set the search results open in a new window or you can develop a page on your own site, for the search results to open.

»Custom search is a great feature that would keep visitors coming back. With the new Custom search from Google, you can configure to search selected sites or sites that are built around a selected phrase. (ex:- body building)

»You get paid when they click on an ad in the search results. The page that displays the search results also has ads on it. When some users click you get paid.

Having seen the merits, now let’s see the 3 most successful spots for the search box. Yes, it’s important to keep them at these spots to be easily seen by your visitors.

Top Tittle Side
This is one of the places where your visitors would look at when they feel like searching your site. This position goes in accordance with the Google Golden triangle and won’t interfere with other components of your site.


Top of Right Sidebar
This is another position for your search unit where it would get just the required attention and not more. And this holds good if you already have a right sidebar in place. As this location is not always the very best for your ad units, you can use the search unit here. Just below the search box, you can also place ad units where they would get a better visibility that if the search box were not there.


Top of Left Sidebar
This is yet another good position where your search box can go in well without making the site look cluttered. This is also based on the Google Golden triangle. However, this location can be a prime spot for ads. So do a bit of testing for yourself before you fix up your search units at this position. You will have to draw a balancing line between ads and search unit for this spot.


Now if you have both side bars, it’s better to place the search unit on the right one and consider the left one for ad units / link units. (Of course, you may have your own links!)

Bottom of the Long Page
While all the above spots suited well for the first search unit on your page, this spot can hold your second search unit. When your visitors reach the bottom of the page, they may not see the search box that is above the fold. You wouldn’t want your visitors to scroll all the way up to search. This would especially hold good for long pages. The large rectangle unit placed just above this search unit can also work wonders.

That’s it about search box placement for your site. Start experimenting with these positions and choose the best among these for your site.

We have already covered ad unit placement for standard web sites. The next post in this series would cover Ad unit placements on blogs. Stay tuned!

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3 Terrific Spots for Link Unit Placement

This is the fifth article in the CTR Wednesdays series that is aimed at increasing your site’s CTR.
In the last article in this series you saw the best placement for ad units on your standard website. Today, you will see the 3 best spots where your little links units if placed will rake in some real cash.

Link units are great when it comes to monetizing small areas on your site without compromising on the design. These little units also have a multiplying effect on click through, as they don’t look like ads. These are different from ad units and do better if optimally placed in their on hot spots.

Navigation / Menu Bar
Most of your visitors will look at the navigation. So it makes perfect sense to keep a 486x15 or a 786x15 row unit just below the navigation. If you can blend the link unit to your site, you will find that this would look similar to your navigation or a menu item and would get clicked.


Side Bar
The top left part of the sidebar is where all visitors in variably too. The side bar mostly contains links. So when you place a 180x90 button link unit there, it will catch the eye. Now if you blend that well enough to look similar to your other links, you are done!


Page Bottom
Visitors who reach the bottom of your page are mostly people who read what you have on your page. After reading it, they may be in need for more information. There comes link unit to help you. With links related to your content and appearance similar to your sites links, a 486x15 or a 786x15 row link unit when placed below the content gets clicked often. This spot may be better monetizing if a 336x280 Large Rectangle is used. But if you have already used all 3 of your ad units at the prime positions, give this spot to your link unit and it will do the rest.

That said; you should do your bit of experimenting with ads and channels to arrive at the best placement for your site, as every site is different. And take care to keep your ads distinguishable from the rest of your links or be ready to face the Google hammer!

In the next post, we will see the best placement for Search box. Stay tuned!

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3 Terrific Spots to place Ad Units on your Website

This is the fourth article in the CTR Wednesdays series. You can find all the articles in this series here: CTR Wednesdays

By now you know what ad units to use. Today we will see where to place these ad units for getting the maximum CTR.

Like for every other thing on the internet, here too, there is no solution that fits all - ad placement for blogs, websites and forums can be significantly different. While we discuss ad placements for a standard website for today, we will soon have posts dedicated to placements on blogs and that for forums.

Google Golden Triangle
It has been a long time since the Google golden triangle got widely known on the internet. The google golden triangle says that the top left corner of the google results page is the part most looked at. This holds good for any website and placing ads in this area can get them better noticed. Ad unit placement for the maximum CTR is most often based on the good old Google golden triangle, though not always. This space in my opinion can accommodate and monetize most of the ad formats including Leaderboard (728 x 90), Banner (468 x 60) or the Large Rectangle (336 x 280).

The Google Golden Triangle


Sample Placement derived from the Google Golden Triangle

Food for the Curious
This method specially holds good for long pages. On these pages, users would read till the last line and then look for more information. At this point, placing ads (that are relevant) at the bottom of the long text can serve as food on which the curious readers will feed. They get the needed info and you get paid! The 336x280 large rectangle would just be fine here.

Placing ads at the end of long pages

Wide Sidebars
Sidebars commonly accommodate links and other short text and have a large number of users looking at them. They, with their high potential to double up as ad space are the hot favorites of advertisers. Make the most of them by using a (or two) Wide Skyscraper (160x600) on it. A sidebar can overlap the google golden triangle if it’s on the left and can prove to be more advantageous. That said don’t bother to change your site’s right sidebar to the left for placing ads. Consider this for your nest site at least.

Sample placement for the sidebars

NB: This post is exclusively for ad units on a standard website. Stay tuned for ads units on blogs and forums. Also on the way are articles on link units and search box placements.
So stay tuned!

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2%, 34%, 7% - What CTR is Good?

This is the third article in the CTR Wednesdays series. You can find all the articles in this series here: CTR Wednesdays

This is a common question in the adsense forums today. It has been the same, almost since adsense was launched. So let me try to add my own two cents to it.

CTR highly varies between sites. A CTR that is considered high in a vertical may be close to nothing in another. So we can’t say what CTR is good and what CTR is bad. So what should be the benchmark for comparing your CTR?

You may not be well aware of the CTR that other similar sites have. The web masters are not always ready to share it. And it’s against the Google ToS to discuss CTR too. So the only CTR that you will ideally know is your own.

Compare your present CTR with the past CTR as the bench mark. How is your present Click Thru when compared to the past? Is it high, low or the same?

You should continuously do this comparison. Say every month or every quarter. Watch it closely, experiment with your ad formats, colours, positions etc. Use channel to evaluate their performance and select the best one for your site. Do educated selection rather than making wild guesses.

Say you have a CTR of 1% and you do all tweaking and manage to increase it to 2%. This small increase will effectively double your income!
So keep trying – it’s worth spending time on!

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3 Best Ad Formats for maximum CTR

This is the second article in the CTR Wednesdays series. You can find all the articles in this series here: CTR Wednesdays

Why would your users ever click on an ad? The answers that just came to your mind includes – the ads are targeted, they are looking for more information and so on… Right?

Now tell me what good is laser targeted ads for if a user is not going to see it? If the user is going to ignore it completely?

Can you do something about it?
Yes! You can. You can do a variety of things to make your ads get noticed (be sure that you don’t end up doing any of these things that can get you banned). Among these, we will today discuss Ad Formats.

The most read tip on this topic would be to use wider ad formats.
Now, why should you use wider formats? Is it because Google said you so? Ever thought why does Google say that?

They have done extensive research on it and found that readers absorb information in thought units (that is, several words at a time) and the wider format lets them comfortably read more text at a glance. Many of them won’t bother to fully read an ad with 5 line breaks. By now you know that to generate interest in a user to click, they should first read the ad!
Also, wider formats are not fully avoided by users.

Hope this gives you enough reasons to include the wider formats. Now let’s see what the wider formats that are supported by Adsense are.

336x280 Large Rectangle
300x250 Medium Rectangle
160x600 Wide Skyscraper

When the space available is limited, link units come handy. Thoughtfully placed link units can get you a lot of clicks. In fact, they can be money mills.

That said; use only ad formats that go along with the design of your site. Don’t try to squeeze large formats where they can’t fit well and finally don’t clutter your site with ads and ads alone!

Apply this to your blog and see the results for yourselves, it will start to show almost immediately.

Stay tuned for the next post in the series - What CTR is good?

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Increase CTR: Use Section Targeting

I have often been told by friends that the comments their users left were bringing in some ads that were in no way related to the original post. What can you do to attract ads that are better targeted to your post rather than user comments? Read on…

Higher Relevance – More Clicks
What makes your users click? What is special to Adsense that made it so successful?
You guessed it right; it’s the contextual nature of ads! When people find a link to something they are already interested in, it’s only natural that they click. Though publishers do a lot of testing on their ads, many of them overlook this. If you don’t, you definitely have an advantage!

So it’s clear that when you have a highly relevant ad, your users would like to click. The more relevant the ad, the more the number of clicks!

How do I bring in highly relevant ads to your pages so that I can sky rocket my CTR? Can I do something about it?
Yes you can! This is exactly for which Section Targeting was introduced. Let’s have a deeper look at it.
Section Targeting
For emphasizing a section
To give added emphasis to a particular section on your page, you need to include that particular section between the following tags. The parts of your article that speaks about the core topic can be placed between them.
<!-- google_ad_section_start -->

<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

For de-emphasize a section
To de-emphasize a particular section on your page, you need to include that particular section between the following tags. User comments / the general talks can go between these tags.
<!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) -->

<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

You can emphasize / de-emphasize as many sections on your page as you want. It may take around 2 weeks before you start getting results from the section targets.

All said, you should have enough content for this to work well.
Google also warns you against misusing this to bring ads that are not related to your page, which would be a violation of the Google TOS.

Give it a try and let me know the results.
And Stay tuned for our next article in this series - CTR Wednesdays!

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Increase Your CTR Every Wednesday!

We are launching a series on increasing your CTR. We will have a post here on increasing your CTR every Wednesday. We will call the series - CTR Wednesdays!

We will also label all posts in this series as ‘CTR Wednesdays’ so that you can later refer to all the posts in this series through this label.

Let’s start the CTR Wednesday series right away with the next post.
Stay tuned!

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