How I doubled CTR

in one of my channels

[Hobbs]

Goes to show you that small tricks can make a big difference:

On a section on my site the CTR was dismal, it looked like like this

Logo
Section details
Site navigation
LEADERBOARD
Section content

The Leaderboard was just too entwined with the rest of the page, looked as part of the content, and was well "blended" and in the perfect heat map zone too.

All I did was insert a <br> above the Leaderboard, creating an empty space, nothing more and the CTR doubled, here's how it looks now:

Logo
Section details
Site navigation
<br>
LEADERBOARD
Section content

Earnings doubled for that channel too.
N.B. Same move on other channels lowered CTR.
Keep testing, no where else can a simple idea turn to immediate cash.

[plasma]

Thx Hobbs.
Here's another one:

logo
navi..LEADERBOARD
VERT.content...........
........LEADERBOARD

very low CTR
Then I changed each block to be just 125x125 (X here):

logo
navi....X.......
.X.....content
..........X.......

People are clicking like mad now, and CPC is also much higher, probably due to the higher competition for the rare places.

edit: fixed ascii art, <pre> doesn't work :(

[Khensu]

I think the logo and the white space are important operators in the formula, I might add the logo back in myself.

n---space---n
a--content--a
v--content--v
i---space---i
g----336----g
a-----by----a
t----280----t
i---space---i
o--content--o
n--content--n
1---space---2
>>>>>fold<<<<

In this position they cannot avoid reading the ads. The content is actually links to the graphical samples and free download files.

[edited by: Khensu at 1:00 pm (utc) on Aug. 25, 2006]

[sauron0512]

I usually use a lot of LeaderBoards, but its very vulnerable in 800 X 600 resolution. So I have shifted to the rectangular....
Its an evergreen format......

[Fuzzyfish1000]

Oddly, I find the 125x125 ads really work well on my site... No idea why!

[greatstart]

I always use a spacer <p> between the 336x280 adblock and the content.

[I Will Make It]

Nice thread as always Hobbs!

I didn't exactly double my CTR with this, but I at least noticed that my earnings increased.

This is how it looked before:

H - E - A - D - E - R

N A V I G A T I O N
A - CONTENT - A (120X600)
V - CONTENT - D
I - CONTENT - S
G - CONTENT - E
A - CONTENT - N
T - CONTENT - S
I - CONTENT - E
O - CONTENT
N - CONTENT

This is how it looks now

H - E - A - D - E - R

N A V I G A T I O N
A - CONTENT - A (120X600)
V - CONTENT - D
I - LINK UNIT - S (4 link units)
G - CONTENT - E
A - CONTENT - N
T - CONTENT - S
I - CONTENT - E
O - CONTENT
N - CONTENT

I know my ad placement is really bad.. really really bad for the 120X600

But I actually have no other option, as this example is taken from my webshop.

Anyway, when I implemented the link unit, I sold the same amount of products as always, my CTR for the 120X600 skyscraper remained the same, but I also gained clicks from people that didn't click the skyscraper and didn't buy my products, so I'm happy.

[youfoundjake]

Im sure there is a market out there on how to display website layouts using ascii text, if not, theres a couple members here years ahead of the game. :)
Have one site where my ad block is in the perfect heat spot, but no traffic so its hard to tell how well it performs, but currently looking for more css that will have the same postition for my main site.

[andrewshim]

Logo
Section details
Site navigation
LEADERBOARD
Section content

my homepage is EXACTLY the same. i'll give it a whack and see if the <br> will do the same.

edited later here :

actually, my

Logo
Section details

appear about 4 to 5 seconds before the rest of the page because the dynamic content is contained in tables. I remember someone once saying that he put the ads above such a section and the ads appeared before the rest of the page. Do you think this would be against TOS? grey area me thinks....

[youfoundjake]

Don't want to start a new topic, since I've seen it here so many times, but I just have to say, that I had one page impression, with 2 clicks for a total of almost 2 dollars, ctr is 200%, seeing that makes me nervous, but I will wait until the end of the day to see if impressions catch up.