Need Some Adsense/CTR Help

[tomstark]

Hey guys, I've haven't been on here much, but there seems to be a lot of great people here, so I figured I'd give this a shot. I've been working on just this one site for the past couple of years intermittently. It's getting about 14-15k visitors per month, but my adsense earnings aren't where I think they should be.

My site is a blog for motocross/dirt bike tips, how-to articles, and product reviews. I monetize the review articles with Amazon, and everything else with Adsense. I have about 100 pages of unique content.

Last month was my best for adsense at about $65 with 20.5k pageviews (from adsense), but my CTR was about 0.7% (which has been about my average). The couple previous months were about $50, and this month is bad at about $15. I've tried different ads, ad layouts, and colors, but none of them seem to make that much of a difference. I realize my niche is different than most, so I don't expect 40, 20, or even a 10% CTR. If I can get to around 3-5% I think I'd be happy.

I'm still adding content regularly, but if I could get some help on converting a little better, that would be great. Thanks!

[tomstark]

Anyone care to give their opinion/suggestion?

[Bryan V]

There are about 4 other ads, 1 video, and 2-3 images on the pages I looked at, aside from 2 Adsense units. There's a whole lot of things competing for attention.

Your review pages would probably bring in more clicks than, say, the DIY section, just because of the topics. Why are people coming to your site? What are the traffic sources?

[tomstark]

Ok, I'll get rid of the getfitridefast ads. So you're saying I should try putting adsense on the review articles as well? People are coming for tips on motocross riding, bike maintenance, and product reviews. Right now it's about 3/4 organic traffic and the rest is direct and some referring.

[yukon]

Do a 50/50 split test with the Newsletter banner in the header & an Adsense text Ad, run that for 2 weeks & keep an eye on your Adsense CTR.





<?php
$rand = rand(1,2);

if ($rand == 1){
?>

Adsense_Text_Code_Here

<?php
} elseif($rand == 2){
?>

Newsletter_Code_Here

<?php
}
?>

[tomstark]

Ok, I'll have to try that after I test the changes I just made. Thanks.

[caseycase]

I would also suggest testing out moving the sidebar ads to the top left of the page rather than the bottom left.

[Buyseech]

I would widen the content part. Remove all ads except the big box and I would also move the sidebar to the right.

I have tested a lot of variation of placing ads and by far the best CTR and RPM came from this exact positioning. Perhaps you can try to put a 160x600 in the sidebar (on the right prefferably) beside the big box, but absolutely get the TExt&Image ad, not just the text.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely, Buyseech

[tomstark]

Thanks for the tips guys! I want to try all of these, but one at a time so I know what works and what doesn't.

[Dev!l]

Firstly, I'd suggest you change your theme and you'd probably see a huge change in the CTR that you get.

Secondly, your ads aren't being viewed by your readers because they're at the bottom corner of the page. Try putting a Leaderboard (728x60 Ad unit) just below the header and one in between paragraphs.

[tomstark]

I really like this theme, but if you have one to suggest, I would consider trying a new one out. I'm using a 728x15 right now in the middle of the page. I've heard a lot of people say the 336 x 280 is good, so I'm trying that out.

[tomstark]

Ok, I need a little help on how to adjust the width of the content and sidebar. I'd like the sidebar narrower so the 120x600 ad looks centered in it, and the content a little wider so that everything fits.

[lovboa]

Originally Posted by tomstark

Ok, I need a little help on how to adjust the width of the content and sidebar. I'd like the sidebar narrower so the 120x600 ad looks centered in it, and the content a little wider so that everything fits.

Just go into the css files and adjust the settings of the sidebar width and content width.

However much you subtract from the sidebar width, add that exact amount to the content width.

[tomstark]

Been trying this past month with several different things. My result: no better than before. Granted my traffic was down 5-10% in December, but my CTR should have gone up. Still can't get over 1% no matter what I try. I'm considering changing themes to see what happens. (Can I change back to my original theme without losing anything?). If so, what's a good theme for free/cheap?

I'm kinda' thinking that this niche (automotive/dirt bike/motorcycle) is just bad in general for ads because there are less advertisers, and their ads aren't the greatest. What do you think? Anyone else use adsense for these kind of sites? I want to stay in the automotive/extreme sports niches, otherwise I would get sick of it very quickly.

I've tried large rectangle ads above the content (right and left), changing the color theme of the site to match adsense ads, changing content links to green (as opposed to blue), skyscraper in content, made the ad text the same size/font as content. I've also added the section targeting code to most of my articles, as well as gone into the settings and blocked the ad topics that aren't generating money....

[tomstark]

Anyone?

I also started two new niche sites to see if I could put to use what I've these past few months...

[tomstark]

I'm probably going to change my theme (lifestyle) to see if it makes a difference, and was wondering if I can switch back to my theme I have right now without losing any of my content/saved options/etc. Also, I have a couple of free themes in mind to use, but am open to suggestions for other free/cheap themes.

[tomstark]

Anyone use Chitika? I hear it's not as good as adsense, but I just realized that you can upgrade to silver and gold level. I was at bronze when I tried using it several months ago, which is why I didn't have relevant ads. So, I applied for an upgrade this weekend and just noticed I got accepted for gold membership. I think I'm going to try them again in February and see what happens...

[warriorspirit786]

Just went to your site and all i can see is banner ads, i think you should try using text ads to see if your CTR improves.

[tomstark]

Yes, I changed to banners this past week just to try it out. Last year I was getting 2-3 times the Page RPM from image and rich media than text ads, so I figured I might as well test it. But, I think the best for me so far is a mix of text/image ads.

[bhuff85]

Have you tried other forms of monetization? While I didn't check your site, I would test with Amazon. You can post up relevant products (i.e. helmets, gloves, apparel, bike parts, etc) that would be perfect for that demographic.

Also, are you just using text ads? If so, try doing text/image split and see how that performs over the next week or two. Doing that opens up more room for advertisers just doing image ads.

Let us know how things go. Don't make too many changes at once though or you will only make it harder to track what worked and what didn't.

[tomstark]

Yep, been using Amazon from the beginning for all of my product reviews. For the traffic the articles are getting, it's pretty good revenue. I tried using just text for almost a month, and this past week I've been using just image ads, but I think I'm going back to a mix of both because that worked a little better. Yeah, I'm only doing 1-2 small changes at a time. I've tried everything recommended for getting better CTR for adsense, and nothing has really helped...