Ad Colors

Contrasting or Complementary Colors

[tchallies]

It seems many people try to make the ads blend into their site, using the same border and background colors. Is this generally effective or do you find it works better to use contrasting colors that will draw they eye to the ad rather than cause it to blend in?

[annej]

I think it depends on the site. If you make the ads look too garish I think it looks like all you are there for is the money (and you may well be but making it too obvious could be like banners - people might be turned off.)

I've found that making it just a bit more noticeable helps. I have one site with an antique like color scheme and just making the border of the adsense ads a bit darker in the same brown tone color seems to work well. Another site of mine is quite colorful so ads can have livelier color schemes.

I think it makes a difference if you have good content. A good content site doesn't need to fool people into clicking so the ads can stand out a bit if it still fits the overall color scheme. Some people have had good luck with borderless ads imbedded in the text as it sort of fools people into clicking but that doesn't work for me at all even with a border. I think my readers were just annoyed at the ads being in the text and never came back to them. But with ads in a column on the left or right gets good results.

Basically you have to experiment on your own sites to find what words best for you.

[ThatAdamGuy]

I'm running a limited test right now and on one 'channel' (a major area of one of my Web sites), I've implemented an AdSense leaderboard with colors that make it seamlessly blend into the body of the page.

This has had two unfortunate results (though note it's only been a few days):

- I've gotten ZERO valid clicks! This is in stark contrast to my assumptions... in which I believed that moving the panel from the left-side to the top AND removing the garish colors would dramatically improve CTR.

- In attempting to just scroll the page, I accidentally clicked in the 'box' area of the now-blended-in AdSense panel, and -- for the first time I can recall since putting AdSense on my site -- I've now accidentally generated a click-thru. Ack. I'm assuming / hoping that one click isn't enough to jeopardize my account standing :)

(interestingly enough, the ad that I clicked on led me to a consumer product that I'm now actually considering buying as a gift! How's that for serendipity?)

[bnhall]

This has had two unfortunate results (though note it's only been a few days)

I thought that Channel Reporting doesn't update for at least 2 days.

[ThatAdamGuy]

Yes. I made the change 4 days ago, and I'd guess I'm seeing 2 days worth of channel data. Zero clicks on that channel in two days is what has concerned me. I assumed I was trading the annoyance of prominence (putting the ads at the top of the screen) in exchange for increased revenues. So far, it's looking like a lose-lose proposition.

With that said, I must admit that the ads on this channel are -- so far -- pretty untargeted AND repetitive ("Find a widget" "Find a widget" "Get widgets" for instance, are three of the four ads typically displayed... with widgets only being a small part of what this area is about!)

[howiejs]

Great question -- I read a report that showed "blended" in ads within the content area working the best

I have been using a bright color for the 1st line of the ad text . . . . and my CTR has been good in my opinion -

interested in hearing more feedback on "blend in vs. stand out"