Are people lying or am I doing something wrong?

[treezie]

Okay so I'm fairly new to the Adsense thing...just got my first two sites ranked #1 and now working on ranking my other sites in the top 3 results. But going around the forums, I'm seeing people throw out outrageous numbers when they are talking about their CTR. Yesterday, I had a thread that said 20% CTR...and today I read a thread that said 7% CTR is modest estimate. Okay so it is against the Google TOS to say explicitly what my CTR is, but let me tell you, it is nowhere near 20% and it is not 7% either. In fact, I would be very happy with 7%. I am thinking CTR depends a lot on placement and I'm also thinking it might have to do a lot with your niche. Since I've only got two sites ranked at #1, I don't really have a big sample size to work with. So when people are dropping these seemingly outrageous CTR figures, are they they charlatans or am I doing something wrong? If it is me, I (and I'm assuming many others) would love some tips on improving CTR.

And before we get to people suggesting that I put my ads in the content and get my ads to match with the theme of my site, I've done that.

[John Alves]

Originally Posted by treezie

Okay so I'm fairly new to the Adsense thing...just got my first two sites ranked #1 and now working on ranking my other sites in the top 3 results. But going around the forums, I'm seeing people throw out outrageous numbers when they are talking about their CTR. Yesterday, I had a thread that said 20% CTR...and today I read a thread that said 7% CTR is modest estimate. Okay so it is against the Google TOS to say explicitly what my CTR is, but let me tell you, it is nowhere near 20% and it is not 7% either. In fact, I would be very happy with 7%. I am thinking CTR depends a lot on placement and I'm also thinking it might have to do a lot with your niche. Since I've only got two sites ranked at #1, I don't really have a big sample size to work with. So when people are dropping these seemingly outrageous CTR figures, are they they charlatans or am I doing something wrong? If it is me, I (and I'm assuming many others) would love some tips on improving CTR.

And before we get to people suggesting that I put my ads in the content and get my ads to match with the theme of my site, I've done that.

I'm not sure whether they are making up stories. However, if you are using WordPress, you could use CTR Theme. It converts well for adsense sites that I have. In general, you should have boring layouts when creating adsense sites. You want the advertisements to distract the visitor, and the best way to do this is by using boring layouts. I like to use white layouts with dark blue adsense link color.

[paulgl]

CTR is most often related to the traffic you generate.
Does it match your content? Does your content
satisfy them, or are they looking for more?

Next is the ads that are being served. You need
to use the general category blocking and ad filter.

The ads must stand out, not disappear. I have
never bought the idea of some CTR theme. That
is at the bottom of the list if the above is not
taken care of first.

People will not click on an ad unless they have a
reason. Not because it's in their face or in some
CTR-secret location.

All sites are not equal. I have many that have close
to 100% CTR. Yes, 100%. Others are below 20.

#1 one is getting the right traffic.

CTR is also overrated. It's not CTR, but the bottom
line. Google tells you flat out to stop worrying about
CTR. It's good, honest, real people clicking. Not
tons of clickers.

Paul

[treezie]

The ads are always pretty relevant because the niches I've ranked for are in personal finance and real estate...so yeah. High paying niches too. What I'm thinking is that those two niches are dime a dozen so ppl have been blinded by seeing those ads over and over. Sad. Anyhoo, I'm giving diff layouts and such a try with my other sites.

[NEseO]

I am no Adsense expert, nowhere near in fact!!! But I would make sure the content was of course relevant but didn't give them everything the search term indicated they were looking for, leave them wanting more.

Then start playing around with different placements, try a day with one setup another with another and so on. Once you are happy you have a good test sample then go with the best. Also test different colours on the pages, place an image on the side where the ads are and hopefully at a point in your content that makes the reader think they should maybe look elsewhere, ooh look at that add, that looks like just what I need!!

All just my opinion, never even played with Adsense, although there is time yet!!