Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I can use both so I wish to know which brings more clicks.
Thanks in advance,
Brakkar
My theory to explain the difference is this: I think the (top of page) leaderboard is far less sensitive to positioning and tuning than the skyscraper. It ocurred to me that I didn't know the layout of the sites that got better performance from the leaderboard -- and the positioning of the skyscraper varied far wider at the sites I had seen than the leaderboard.
Meanwhile, I had tuned and carefully placed (high, left, and almost up against my content) my skyscraper -- and it was working very, very well.
The bottom line: pick the one that looks best with your site, position it where it has excellent visibility to even the most casual visitor, and then make it blend in with the style and colors of your site. Then, tune it in any little ways you can think of. After you're convinced you have squeezed all the performance out of it that you can get, set it aside and switch to the other format and do the exact same thing. It's the only way you will ever know which one is best on *your* site.
[added: check out Mario's message in this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]
for another leaderboard vs. skyscraper story.]
In your own experience, what brings more clicks? The big horizontal or vertical adsense bars?
Neither. In our experience the 300 x 250 Inline rectangle has been most effectice. Imbedded in content on right hand side towards the top.
Recently, I tried the experiment again on about 3,000 of my 3,500+ pages, and my CTR more than doubled. BUT...my latest switch to leaderboards coincided with my usual post-Christmas jump in traffic and revenues, so it's hard to know how much of the change is from seasonal factors and how much is related to using leaderboards instead of skyscrapers. Still, I will say that my CTR is the highest that it's been in more than six months with AdSense, and so are daily revenues.
I guess the best thing to do is try different ad formats and see what works best for you.
The adsense ads should look like an integral part of the page. The user should not feel that they are a separate part of the page, which are a turn off mostly.
Depends on your site. If you're running an editorial site, credibility requires that they look like ads.
Also, it is a very good idea to get the vertical banner (skyscraper) AD high as you can (above fold). At 1024x768, you need to be able to see at least one of the square ad's (within the google ad) without having to scroll down the page.
I made some changes to my site (added more navigation links, which appear above my google ad) and it pushed the google ad down the page some. With the new changes, the first square ad was being cut off @ 1024x768 and my CTR dropped a lot.
We also use the square inline box type AD. We use these in articles that we write and just run some other AD in the vertical spot on those pages.
This setup has worked great for us. Like I said, you should test all formats and see what works best for you.
Also, it is a very good idea to get the vertical banner (skyscraper) AD high as you can (above fold). At 1024x768, you need to be able to see at least one of the square ad's (within the google ad) without having to scroll down the page.
One thing to keep in mind is how this could affect revenues from affiliate links (if you have such links and they're a major source of income). On my own editorial travel site, I'm currently using leaderboards for about 3,000 of my 3,500+ pages, but I'm using the skyscraper in two places:
1) A highly targeted section of my site with very productive affiliate links; and...
2) My main index.html page, where I want to have a less "commercial look" because the home page is where reviewers and PR people are likely to form their first impressions. (On an editorial site in particular, you need to think about more than clickthrough rates when deciding how and where to place ads. One of the major advantages that a mom-and-pop content site has over the big corporate-owned sites is the ability to exercise self-restraint with advertising in the interests of credibility and reader loyalty.)
If you're running an editorial site, credibility requires that they look like ads.
Exactly.
Although Adsense ads on my site don't blend with my navigation and content (on the contrary!), I have a CTR > 3, so I'm not complaining :-)
W.
