Tip to Increase your Adsense clicks - straight from the Google adsense blog!

[Jeremy Banks]

I thought this was a great tip, it is a tactic I use and it is good to hear it straight from google!

The top-paying ads will be shown in the ad unit that appears first in your HTML code. To take advantage of this, you will need to understand which of your ad units has the highest clickthrough rate (CTR) by using custom channels. Then, you can easily change the code of your website to make sure that your top performing unit is the one with the highest-bidding ads.

This means if you use 3 ads when 1 would do, someone might click on your 3rd ad block (very low paying ads) when if you only had ONE in a good location you would have earned a lot more for that click!

Read more here The do's and dont's to increase cost per click - Inside AdSense

[zoqy71]

I also use this model. Main landing page I have 2 units (sidebar and bottom) but on single posts views (90%+ of traffic) I only have a single unit in the footer. Less ads = More Cash.

[ljanak1]

Thanks! I'll be implementing this immediately.

[steve*]

What size blocks do you use and text image or both, what do you think?

Best regards Steve-o

[markowe]

Yes, less CAN be more, despite some people's blanket claims (on this forum) that more ads = more money. Especially if there are not many advertisers for a given niche, CPC can drop drastically the further down the page you go. I try to make sure there are not too many things to click on below the fold so they have to head back up the page anyway, and maybe opt for the ad. I still get double-figure CTR this way, and the highest-paying clicks available (68% of av. 'promised' KWT CPC). Test, test, test, it's not always logical. I also get better CTR with a smaller font sometimes - go figure.

[Jeremy Banks]

Originally Posted by zoqy71

I also use this model. Main landing page I have 2 units (sidebar and bottom) but on single posts views (90%+ of traffic) I only have a single unit in the footer. Less ads = More Cash.

I have tested and found Less does = more most of the time. I usually go with 2 ads on the homepage and 1 ad on my posts.

That ad unit in the footer must not get a lot of clicks, I find the best CTR is either the 728x90 unit under the header or square ad wrapped with text at the top of the post

Originally Posted by steve*

What size blocks do you use and text image or both, what do you think?

Best regards Steve-o

See above for sizes, text only

[steve*]

Thanks form the response, are you having success with text, image or a mixture of both, do you believe rotating adsense ads maybe text then image so the ads change each time the page is refreshed would work well. thanks steve-o

[paulgl]

If you quote google, you need to find all quotes. There is a lot of missing info
there.

First, google tells you to put all 3 ad blocks on your page, and use image/text.
Not just one block as you tell people above. My highest performing site has
all 3, text/image.

Second, google does not explain how the adwords auction works. You cannot
make a blanket statement about the highest paying ads in the top block.
The auction is largely based on QS and some high bidders will never make the
top spot. That post must have been made by someone who completely forgot
about how adwords works.

Top users get a lower price to appear on top. If that ad is an image, that's on
top. It would in fact be a lower paying click than any one the next ad block
in some cases.

The highest paying ads may not get the most clicks. Think about that one.
There are numerous global advertisers that pay big, over ride everyone, but
are a lousy fit. I'd hate to have that baby appear on top.

The highest paying ads may be quote useless.

Google contradicts themselves, and other "experts" because they are
looking after their own bottom line.

Google ignores something very important. You can't just juggle ad blocks.
Many don't fit on top. To try and mess up your site to get a certain ad
block on top, might make your whole site suck or have less of a chance of
a click.

Example, if 468x60 is the best performing, it might be best performing
due to location. What happens if you change the location? Changing
location can have a huge effect on CTR. You might have this ad smack in
the middle of content. Moving it to the top, CTR could go to zero. not
to mention that if you had an ad block above it, swapping would mean
different ads are going to show. That has to effect CTR as well.

Again, google looks for their bottom line, not yours.

The bottom line, after all, is to test things on your site.

If you start rearranging ad blocks, it could backfire.

Paul

[wtktg1]

Thanks for sharing. Will test out whether it is truly less is more

[JasonB]

Changing the color of your ads as well, could help out in a BIG way, but could also crew everything up...

Trial and error until you master it... Which will probably never happen...

[timpears]

When I see this argument, which I got to say makes sense, I always think, what if they are not prompted to click an ad in the first block. At least if I have more ad blocks, they might be tempted by those ads, but if I don't have them there, no clicks will occur because none of the ads appealed to them.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by timpears

When I see this argument, which I got to say makes sense, I always think, what if they are not prompted to click an ad in the first block. At least if I have more ad blocks, they might be tempted by those ads, but if I don't have them there, no clicks will occur because none of the ads appealed to them.

That's why I reiterated that google tells you to add all 3 blocks.

I can't help but stress again, moving your best ad block from middle to
top can only muddle things up.

Then again, google looks out for them, not us. Test, test, and test again.

Paul

[esdavis]

Both points of view have validity here. And testing is also important. There are too many variables at work.

Maybe 3 ad units won't work on your site as well because your testing reveals higher earnings and EPC on a single prominent one (or two). Maybe the reverse.

Mainly we can't 100% trust anything Google says all the time, but they do understand one thing. Profits. If that big advertiser doesn't make them enough money because they have to baby the account and cut them deals because they are big, Google will change things. They don't care about advertisers. They care about customers. If those ads don't get a decent CTR, Google tends to find a way to penalize them. Probably by raising the CPC from their nice "discounted one."

Anyway, the bottom line is every site is different, every topic is different, and every set of advertisers is different. It's really hard to put a bulls-eye based on general results.

The one constant is Google's desire to make money. And with AdSense and Display Network, that means getting users to click on the ad that pays them the most. Period. All we can do is study their "reasoning" on their site docs and figure out how telling us that will make them the most money.

To me, it's kind of like dancing on the head of a pin while juggling. You never quite know what's going to happen next. So track your channels, track which keywords are getting you clicks on those pages, and optimize and test the snot out of it. And then test and do it again.

The guys doing 5 figures a month on AdSense have a plan. They stick to it because on average it works the best for them. They tweak, but they find a formula and then they don't overthink and obsess.

So, long-winded me. Test and trust your logic and results. Don't jump at every bleep in the system. Keep moving forward. In business (this is your business and not a hobby, right?) you want to expend 90% of your effort on the 10% that really makes you money. Don't waste it reverse engineering a few duds. We all know this is a mass numbers game.

[frans4u]

Thank you for sharing this topic. . this may help me in improving my adsense. .

[beamup]

I am not geek on adsense. I recently brought a website where I need to use adsense. Maybe this tip will help me out to get maximum revenue.

Thanks for sharing...