Adsense, Blend or Pop?

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I used to think that the best CTR for adsense was made by making the ad box blend in with site as much as possible, but I have discovered that I am getting good CTR from adboxes designed to be garish and stand out.

For instance making everything black and have bright yellow text (not yellow from google pallette, as its not right for contrast, something like #FFFF00). Or make background light grey and text red (this is working best for me right now).

The colours dont match my page design at all and are a real eye sore. But it seems to make people click them.

This surprised me a lot, perhaps it is because I target buying keywords where people are actually looking for where to buy the item/service.

What do you do? Blend box into design, or try to make it pop out at visitors with bright colours?
#search engine optimization #adsense #blend #pop
  • I make the site quite plain, text is black on a white background and the images are the dullest ones I am able to find. Adsense the highlight in big blue letters, it stands out above everything else.

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    • This sounds sensible idea. Have you tested any other designs?

      My site design usually has grey menu links so they dont really stand out, so when they look for something to click, the adsense box is first thing they see.
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    • Hehe, that is kinda like I have it. I use default fusion theme on a lot of my sites which is grey and menu links are grey also. So having some nice bright red links really stands out.
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  • I just replied to your other post about how playing with Adwords on the Content Network will help realise what does and doesn't work as an advertiser on a web site.

    I always get the highest CTR (as an advertiser) with ugly ads with big blue underlined text and 2 red arrows pointing to the text. If the advertiser does this to get noticed with images then it might be an idea to replicate with the text ads...
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    • Good point. I had done adsense on general interest sites where more from people trying to find out information and mot so interested in adverts. In this case it worked best to try to blend the text in to the design of the site. Since getting that data I just always used the same method until now.

      I think moral of the story is that each site probably need testing and experiementing. Sticking with one theme or method across the whole network is probably not the most effective approach.
  • I have just changed an ad unit (in-line and blended) on a page of mine that gets 200UV/day but with a CTR of < 1% with a red bordered, large blue text ad unit. Will be interesting to see the result.

    The page is for a reviewed product that I now link out to Amazon (due to poor Adsense response) and do get daily sales. The ads are competitors to the product review they are looking for so this obviously effects the results. I am hoping this is a case where the in your face ads are required to distract from the article.

    The Amazon product is low cost so I am hoping that the Adsense produces a high eCPM.
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    • I have attached an image of the blended layout I used on a site that wasn't converting so well.

      If you have read many books on website usability you will know that most people are conditioned to look for row of links at top of site or side of site to naviagate with.

      In this design I use horizontal link list in bar at top of screen and it looks just like a menu. The real site menu is at the very bottom of the page, the user has to scroll down to see it.

      On one site I had my own site menu at top and google ads under it. CTR was 0.5%-1% (due to topic I am guessing). By moving the menu to bottom and having google link list at top it went up to 6%+ which is a good increase.

      It is very important not to have any other links near top of page. I found even just adding 1 single navigation link at top of page killed the conversions again.
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  • The only problem with that is the site is no longer built for the user and isn't easy to navigate. I know it all comes down to intepretation but this paragraph from the Google Adsense Program Policies makes me a little cautious of hiding (or using an unusual position for) the navigation menu.

    "Sites showing Google ads should be easy for users to navigate. Sites may not change user preferences, redirect users to unwanted websites, initiate downloads, include malware or contain pop-ups or pop-unders that interfere with site navigation."

    I have increased the CTR on many of my sites by adding an ad unit at the end of the content - especially if the content is long.
  • It is easy to navigate. Menu is obviously at bottom. It's not hidden, there are no rules saying menu has to be at top, people just expect it to be there.

    I dont use this layout on all sites, but have been using it for several years without a single issue.
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  • Yeah, I'm not having a go at you. I'm just saying what Google states and their opinion is the only one that matters.
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    • Fair enough, I didn't think you were having a go at me. Just saying that I don't think that layout breaks their guidelines. But it is always best to go with your own gut feeling, having doubts can be a bitch, especially if something actually does go wrong
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  • Well the ad (blend to pop) change has made an immediate impact - from < 1% to > 20%. It is only after 1 day but such a large jump shows some promise
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    • That's a BIG jump. When you say "red bordered", is red the color of the border of the ad unit, or the background - or both? If not red for both, what colors specifically?

      Thanks.
  • Nice! That's a big jump. Fingers crossed that rate holds.
  • Mine do better with blended, rather than popping.
  • Hubpages obviously has it worked out as my CTR's on there are incredible.

    I think their idea is a bland grey site to make image ads stand out. Blue links and blue adsense links (the web default!) are used.

    Ad placement at the top or inline with the content (but I don't know the relative CTR's of the ad units) is used.

    Since everyone writes different looking hubs the ads end up in different places on each hub, so users don't get used to where the ads are on the site and blank them out.
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    Adsense, Blend or Pop?

    I used to think that the best CTR for adsense was made by making the ad box blend in with site as much as possible, but I have discovered that I am getting good CTR from adboxes designed to be garish and stand out. For instance making everything black and have bright yellow text (not yellow from google pallette, as its not right for contrast, something like #FFFF00). Or make background light grey and text red (this is working best for me right now).