Low CTR

[frank_wow]

Hi,

I one of my websites I have different ads: 250x250, 728x90 and 125x125

the strange thing is that with the 728x90 I have a 1,2% CTR, with the 125x125 I have a 4% CTR and with the 250x250 ads I have only 0,8% CTR...

The 250x250 ads are above the content of the site and embebed with the design (border, background and color of links same of the site) but I donīt know how to increase this CTR... What should I do?

Yours,
Frank

[timwestla]

I think you're not supposed to reveal your CTR, but anyway, it's a good question. I guess the only thing you can do is to experiment and go with what works best for your site. For me, I get the best performance from text links in a 120x240 box.

[BillyS]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

And yes, quoting your CTR is not allowed (Adsense Policy).

Examine heat maps and how they apply to your site. Sometimes you just have to experiment.

[palain]

It seems that bad targetting is to blame for my low CTR.

A large FORD campaign is appearing completely off target and seems to be a cpm add not cpc add.

It is taking a half banner space and a leaderboard space. I was able to counter cpm adds by changing add format but not the case this time.

[Eazygoin]

You could try 'section targetting' which you can find information about on AdSense help page.

[palain]

no help with section targetting for me. I don't talk about cars or ford or have anything related to cars on my web site.

The preview tool doesn't show those adds. How do I know which adds are being displayed outside of my country due to geotargetting. I am in Canada.

[Eazygoin]

If you go to 'choose options' on the preview tool, you can choose from a list of geo-targeted countries.

[palain]

it's not it... the cpm ads don't show on the preview tool at all, not geo, nothing.

[timwestla]

I just did a quick review of my site and observed that the text ads were all right on target, while the image ads are all over the placce. There are image ads for real estate agents, a chat room, an air filter, and something about dolls. All this on a travel-related website. No wonder the text ads perform so much better.

It could be a lack of image ad inventory. Maybe most advertisers are using text ads, so there's a better selection and more likely to be on target.

[timwestla]

Further to my last post... I have known for a long time that text ads perform better than image ads on my site. But I never really bothered to figure out why. I always considered those ads to be "throw-away" ads that the website viewer can ignore, and thus might be more likely to notice the text ads. I am imagining that the viewer sees the image ad and subconciously equates ads on my website with pictures. That way they are less likely to be "ad blind" to the text ads. Maybe I'm reading more into this than what's really going on, but I'm happy with the overall performance and that's the main thing.

So, tying this back to the thread, maybe it's best to not micro-manage individual ads and instead focus on the overallperformance of the page.