AdSense newbie, low CTR help

what am I doing wrong?

[tcoop25]

My site is fairly new, and am also pretty new to AdSense. I have been quietly watching these boards and picking up a ton of great information. I believe I have a decent layout of ads on my site, but no matter what I do, or how I change my ad layout, I still have a horrible CTR.

this was last months numbers

12,714 19 0.1% $0.27 $3.41

I am not looking for huge numbers or anything, I just want to know if that .1% is normal? Any suggestions?

[bbcarter]

since your profile has no web link, I can't review your ad layout.

I used to get 20% CTR with very ethical techniques- but now it's down to 5%.

I believe AdSense is now using partial matching, instead of just exact matching, to serve ads. Not sure why.

But here are some free, ethical tips for better CTR.

1. Make sure your content actually matches the need of the keyword searcher
2. Give the reader useful, factual info with a dash of personality
3. Warm them up to the topic and to associated services and products, but without hype or deception.

[tcoop25]

Sorry about that, I updated my profile.

[hunderdown]

But since he is a New User, his URL won't be displayed to others. You have to hit a certain level--defined by number of posts--before the WebmasterWorld system makes your URL "public."

That's the policy. I didn't set it up, though if you think for a bit you can come up with good reasons why the WebmasterWorld folks did that.....

[xbsjason]

I think he is asking more from the standpoint of ad layout, perhaps anyhow.

I know different webmasters will have different results, but I have found that ads that appear on the right of the screen, and not at the very top, but before the fold perform the best.

I too however am looking for ways to increase the performance of these ads, so if anyone else has recommendations please reply.

[tcoop25]

I have a two column layout. The top of the right column has a text only banner ad, followed by articles. At the bottom of my articles, below the "next page" button, there is the same type of banner ad. I have a ad links ad half way down the left column, and a skyscraper lower down in the left column. Either way...is ad layout the main reason for low CTR?

[JoaoJose]

Blend the ads with the text. Try different positions and see where the ads are better targeted.

Good luck!

[bbcarter]

For ad layout:

The best thing to do is experiment, as with all marketing and advertising.

But my best performers have always been in the middle third (horizontally) of the page, above the fold.

I'm going back now to add in 2 more ads on each page, because I've only been using 1...

My testing of horiz banners at the bottom of pages showed some clicks- but not nearly as many as above the fold.

On the other hand, hasn't AdSense become more sophisticated so that we should promote quality clicks (quality prospects) rather than just quantity?

I haven't really kept up with the AdWords changes over the last 2 months.

[Mikey85]

Mail me your site, I can give you free optimalisation tips.

[tcoop25]

Sent via forum mail.

[qbert]

pm me also. I made some changes on my site, that have increased my ctr. maybe i could share my ideas.

[tcoop25]

WOW, I made the changes that Mikey85 told me to make and since I made those changes, less than 2 hours ago, I have made the same amount of money I made for the entire month of May! Wow, I can't believe it. My CTR is 10 times what it was only 2 hours ago. Thanks Mikey85!

tcoop25

[xxxxxpp]

You probably don't need it anymore, but if you want i'll take a look at your site too if you sticky me the url.

[ShunT]

May you share those tips in this topic?

[xbsjason]

I could use some of those tips as well. 8)

[bbcarter]

ya, i stickied mike to find out too, but no response as yet.

B

[Porkchop]

I need all the help I can get too!

Can you be a good friend to all and post them here? :-)

[Mikey85]

I replied to the private messages :)

[xbsjason]

Thanks Mike, I'll be sure to let you know if this helps, appreciate the time. 8)

[Pedent]

Could you describe what you were doing before, and what changes you made that helped so much?

[Poozer]

Sent you a PM/email too, thanks for any help you can provide! :)

[exodus]

I would love to get some tips on my site if anyone is willing to give me a hand :)

[guoqi]

Well, can you post the tips you got or at least PM me as well.

Thanks a lot!

[Mikey85]

For the ones that asked for "general tips", I can't give many general tips, if you show me your site (info at telinco dot be) I can tell you how to optimize the ads ad your site :)

[moneyraker]

[WOW, I made the changes that Mikey85 told me to make and since I made those changes, less than 2 hours ago, I have made the same amount of money I made for the entire month of May! Wow, I can't believe it. My CTR is 10 times what it was only 2 hours ago.]

Tcoop25, with comments like these, it's not fair for us not to know what you were doing wrong. C'mon, share it with your brothers here. We all could benefit from your good fortune. :)

[georaza]

Hi,

Its really very nice to hear such a fast result after Mikey85 tips. I would also like to know. I am running a site to provide Adsense users free rich high cpc keywords (<snip>). But I am also facing low clickthough...

Thanks

[edited by: Jenstar at 3:03 pm (utc) on June 13, 2005]
[edit reason] No URLS as per TOS, please! [/edit]

[bbcarter]

Listen,

Mikey gave me some suggestions to my site, but mostly said I was on the right track- so check out pulsemed.org if you like for ad placement, etc.

The only other tip he suggested was matching ad text colors to my layout scheme.

B

[incrediBILL]

Blending did wonders for me too....

So did including AdLinks - HUGE boost!

I note a couple of you have left hand columns on your site but no skyscrapers, have you tried those instead of the big box ads?

[tcoop25]

Like I said before, I am a newbie. Most of the advice he gave me, I had read on these forums before. The only thing that changed was that he showed me how to implement the things I read. The changes he made was to take the text banner ads I had above, and below my article and integrate text ads into my articles. I also moved a text skyscraper in my left frame up. Thats about it. The main difference was integrating the text ads into my article. If you would like to see my site, my sites address is mygadgetbag dot com. I am not trying to get traffic, and hope I am not breaking any rules. I just got so many pms asking what it is, and I think it is a good learning site. In case you are wondering, I am still maintaining that high CTR. Thanks again Mikey85.

tcoop25

[bbcarter]

incrediBILL,

I'll try those out- I haven't really optimized my adsense stuff for a couple months- been writing an ebook :-)

AdSense added a bunch of stuff at one time, same time I was frustrated with them... now I'm ready to optimize.

Thanks
B