Blending experiment

[wizarddave]

[posted in an effort to get a non-doom-and-gloom thread going...]

I have just changed my two placements on one of my high traffic/low CTR sites from being very "blended" (same colors as site fg and bg) to standing out a bit more using colors that don't appear in the look-and-feel of the site. I'm anxious to see if it affects the site's CTR.

The AS help pages seem to advise that both standout and blended are successful, depending on the site. What's everybody else's experience with the CTR on blended ads?

[trillianjedi]

As per the AS help page - mileage will vary depending on the site.

You're doing the right thing though - test it for 2 weeks and see what happens.

TJ

[hunderdown]

When I briefly experimented with non-blended ads, the CTR went down.

However, I have been placing ads on more pages--they used to be on only a third of the pages on my site--thus making it more likely that a visitor will see ads more than once. And CTR is going down. I'm going to watch this, and if it doesn't turn around, I may try a rotating palette to combat ad blindness.

[Swebbie]

I've not found this to be any kind of contest... blended is much better for CTR. I easily get 3X the CTR vs. standout ads (same placement and ad size).

[ann]

Question is: Is your earnings going up or tanking?