Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Ads that blend in with content?
-or-
Ads with lively colors that stand out and grab the visitor's attention?
Thanks.
Extensive testing on one site shows ads that stand out get higher CTR.
Which just means you need to try different styles on your site to see what works best for you.
Extensive testing on one site shows ads that stand out get higher CTR.
That's been my experience, too. I use a rotating scheme of four standard AdSense color schemes (blocks of vanilla, blue, etc.), which communicates a subliminal message that the ads are different on each new page that the reader visits.
In my opinion, ads that blend in too much are likely to confuse clueless readers into clicking, which is good for CTR but bad for advertisers' conversion rates. (Of course, sites with low conversion rates may find that "smart pricing" catches up with them after a while.)
I run AdSense on lots of sites, and it works very differently. Some sites just won't produce any clicks if the ads doesn't stand out and on others I have to really try to hide the fact that thesea are ads to get any clicks at all...
edit due to morning coffee being late
I have sites where the ads are blended and sites where the ads stick out like dogs bal%$.
Test as much as possible. You will see the difference if you use your channels correctly.
Even a subtle colour change to the title, text and URL can make all the difference. I recently changed a title from a blue to a orange and it made a massive difference.
I have one site in particular that loads of lovely people like to visit everyday. I change the colour combination most days. Changing the colours makes the users, advertisers and myself very happy : )
I also suggest that you read some info on effective ad design in relation to colours ; )
I have seen other sites that show the Google ads with a really poor color combo, so I try to avoid that.
A lot of reasearch that I've read seems to suggest that ads that blend in reduce "ad blindness", where users subliminally block out the images and focus on the content.
However, the extent of ad blindness varies depending on the users' exposure to ads in general.
I would theorise that blending ads with your site will work better if your site targets experienced Internet users (say SEO sites). However sites that tend to get a high percentage of occasional or new Internet users would probably get a higher CTR with contrasting ads.
I personally use blending ads on my ad-revenue sites because it makes the site look better as a whole. Remember that CTR isn't everything. A site that has high CTR but looks ugly or annoys users is not necessarily a good thing. It would be better to look at total revenue as well. If your ads scare away half of your users, it's a disaster even if your CTR is increased by 25%!
I personally use blending ads on my ad-revenue sites because it makes the site look better as a whole. Remember that CTR isn't everything. A site that has high CTR but looks ugly or annoys users is not necessarily a good thing.
If AdSense ads annoy users, it's probably for one or more of the following reasons:
1) The AdSense ads are poorly matched to the page content.
2) The site's topic doesn't attract users who respond to ads.
3) The site has too many ads, or they're presented in an annoying way.
On the right kind of site, AdSense ads will increase the site's value to the user. For example, the user who's reading a review of an Elbonian kayak cruise will be pleased to see ads for travel agents that specializes in Elbonian kayak cruising, and the user who's researching digital cameras will value ads that offer "Discounts on Nikon Coolpix" or whatever. This is no different from the offline world, where special-interest magazines are sometimes valued as much for their relevant ads as for their editorial features.
I've been touched by a bit of negativity lately, due in part, to a case of identity theft and general life stresses. Yet, when I see people such as yourself openly sharing insights that have taken you a lifetime of experience and effort to gain, I am enabled to regain focus and mission and courage.
You're a lifesaver pal. You do a world of good and then, even in ways you may not know, every time your show up. Really.
Thank-you.
On the right kind of site, AdSense ads will increase the site's value to the user
I concur.
Observe what advertisers are advertising for. Investigate what visitors are looking for. Create a match between the two with content. That's your job as a publisher.
If you do your job right, ctr's skyrocket no matter what the color, position and blending of your ads.
If your content doesn't work, any attempt to raise the ctr artificially will irritate both advertisers and visitors.
and
Stand out by placing the ad in a location where the eyes are naturally drawn to, along with lots of white space to keep the content readable.
Good asthetics are very important. If the ads overshadow the content then my visitors won't look at my content. If they don't look at the content, they won't remember my site. If they don't remember my site, they won't come back.
A few days ago, I implemented these tidbits into many of my pages, and my CTR and my earnings doubled! Just got the channel data in this morning, and the no-border change alone was almost a triple improvement in CTR. Wow. I don't think it looks ugly or obtrusive, either, which is important to me.
So my vote is for "blended," for my site anyway. My link colors have always matched my general color scheme and I am going mostly borderless now.
Thank you, Webmaster World! Yay!
A few days ago, I implemented these tidbits into many of my pages, and my CTR and my earnings doubled! Just got the channel data in this morning, and the no-border change alone was almost a triple improvement in CTR. Wow.
OK, but ask yourself: "Why have my earnings doubled? Why did removing borders cause my CTR to triple?"
Also ask yourself: "Is it likely that advertisers' earnings from the ads on my pages have doubled or tripled?"
Making ads look like editorial content may increase clickthrough rates, but it's likely to result in lower conversions for advertisers. That wouldn't matter so much if they were paying by the impression, but when they're paying by the click, nonconverting clicks eat into their profits. That isn't just bad for advertisers; it's also bad for publishers, because those unhappy advertisers are more likely to opt out of the content network.
Just because Google makes it easy to be greedy doesn't mean we should be greedy. My own rule is simple: "If it's bad for advertisers, it's bad for publishers in the long run."
Side note: Unless you're 100% sure that Google has no way of tracking or estimating conversions from your site, it may be worth thinking twice before doing anything that might lead to higher "smart pricing" discounts for advertisers and lower earnings for you.
Side note: Unless you're 100% sure that Google has no way of tracking or estimating conversions from your site, it may be worth thinking twice before doing anything that might lead to higher "smart pricing" discounts for advertisers and lower earnings for you.
The "smart pricing" algorithm isn't so smart. I took AdSense off of two of my best sites because "smart pricing" had dropped the CPM to such a ridiculously low rate that I knew I could do better with other programs.
The funny thing is the advertiser that had been consistently in the number one position on many of the pages of the largest site contacted me and asked why I had taken down the ads. I told her that "smart pricing" had killed the AdSense revenue stream on that site. Her reply, word-for-word, was "You're kidding, right? Your site was one of my best converters".
Before the day was out we had negotiated a deal where she would "sponsor" 160 odd pages of the site for more than I had ever made via AdSense on the entire site. The kicker was she was still saving about 30% on the clicks.
Chalk one up for the advertiser and publisher at the expense of the middleman. "Smart pricing" will cost Google dearly when real competition arrives, and it appears that it will be arriving very soon.
The "smart pricing" algorithm isn't so smart. I took AdSense off of two of my best sites because "smart pricing" had dropped the CPM to such a ridiculously low rate that I knew I could do better with other programs.
You could be right, but my point wasn't that "smart pricing" is smart. My point was that lower conversions for advertisers, or Google's perception that a site might deliver lower conversions, could backfire on publishers who try to maximize CTR at the expense of advertisers.
You could be right, but my point wasn't that "smart pricing" is smart. My point was that lower conversions for advertisers, or Google's perception that a site might deliver lower conversions, could backfire on publishers who try to maximize CTR at the expense of advertisers.
I agree 100% with your point. My point is that Google's voodoo called "smart pricing" can and does backfire on Google as the "smart-pricing" algorithm appears to be nothing more than an educated guess based upon woefully inadequate data and inaccurate "profiles" for various types of sites.
I don't believe the AdSense would be mistaken for content or non-sponsored links, and that was certainly not my intent - I have put a whole lot of work and love into this site and want it to be respected as well as make some income. The ads are embedded in the article text so that there is a good amount of white space around them (I put the Google rectangle in a table that is at least 15px wider than the rectangle) and the text wraps around the rectangle. The "Ads by Google" is as plain as day, floating out there in white space all by itself. Looks like an ad to me, but then again, I have a trained eye.
All this to say, my suspicion is that my changes won't affect the conversion rate, as the reason for clicking has probably not changed. I hope so, anyway. My site is very informational in nature so I fear the conversion rate is not great to begin with - the ad probably just looks interesting in most cases.
I don't entirely understand the concept of "smart pricing" yet - is the general idea that the better CTR an ad gets, the lower Google charges the advertiser for that position, and therefore pays me? Should I be doing something to try to keep smart pricing from kicking in?
I don't entirely understand the concept of "smart pricing" yet - is the general idea that the better CTR an ad gets, the lower Google charges the advertiser for that position, and therefore pays me? Should I be doing something to try to keep smart pricing from kicking in?
Smart pricing is based on the likelihood of conversion for the advertiser (as determined by Google, using its "secret sauce" criteria).
I don't think there's anything you can to to influence smart pricing except by:
- having content that Google deems likely to convert (the example given by Google last spring was a camera review as opposed to a page of photo tips), and..
- not doing anything to boost CTR artificially.
1 - Google has at its disposal a statistically insignificant amount of hard conversion rate data to perform calculations on.
2 - A bot simply cannot acertain whether a particular page has content that will lead to a high conversion rate or not.
Short of statistically analyzing a useful sample of real conversion data on each and every website that runs AdSense, smart pricing cannot work as described with any reasonable level of accuracy.
Personal experience with my own sites and those of my clients bears this out. Google is making guesses about the "quality" of clicks from sites that are turning out to be very wrong. In the long run it will come back to haunt them.
Short of statistically analyzing a useful sample of real conversion data on each and every website that runs AdSense, smart pricing cannot work as described with any reasonable level of accuracy.
That may not be as important as important as having advertisers believe that it works with a reasonable level of accuracy.
If advertisers are getting discounts and a decent ROI, that's probably good enough for the advertisers--and for Google.
That may not be as important as important as having advertisers believe that it works with a reasonable level of accuracy.
If this be the case I suppose the "Do no evil" slogan got dumped with the IPO. Based upon feedback I have received from advertisers Google isn't passing the entire "smart pricing" discount onto the advertisers.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that "smart pricing" more or less coincided with the IPO. They're killing two birds with one stone: Appease the shareholders by boosting profits while giving advertisers the hope of receiving big discounts.
Based upon feedback I have received from advertisers Google isn't passing the entire "smart pricing" discount onto the advertisers.
How would the advertisers know? (Not suspect without proof, or assume, or be inclined to think, but know)?
