What column work best for you?

Right or left, vertical skycrapers

[silverbytes]

What column work best for you? Right or Left, when using vertical skycrapers?

[netmeg]

Left. No question.

[europeforvisitors]

You've got to look at the bigger picture. Consider:

- Will an AdSense skyscraper in the left column reduce navigation from page to page (since most users expect to find navigation links in the left column, not the right)?

- Will an AdSense skyscraper in the left column increase the likelihood of inadvertent clicks (potentially leading to smart pricing)?

- Will an AdSense skyscraper in the left column send the wrong message to Webmasters who might link to your site, to journalists who might plug your site, and to users?

Unless AdSense is the main reason why your site exists, you need to ask yourself if you want it to look like the main reason why your site exists.

[greatstart]

What column work best for you?
Right or left, vertical skyscrapers

Neither. I've never had luck using skyscrapers. I do better with large rectangle ads, just one per page.

[netmeg]

Most users only see one page on my site; the main navigation is one of two dropdown searches, and the results of the search display in the same page. So there's no question of navigation or that my ads are seen as anything other than ads.

[europeforvisitors]

I've never had luck using skyscrapers.

Interesting. When I switched from leaderboards to skyscrapers on many of my pages, I expected a decline in CTR, and that didn't happen. That probably just goes to show that rules about "hot spots" need to be taken with a grain of salt, and that testing is the only way to know what works or doesn't work.

[celgins]

Since my site was built before Adsense, I don't have room on the left for skyscrapers and I didn't think it was feasible to change my layout (in order to use Adsense skyscrapers).

However, I do use skyscrapers on the right and they perform fairly well.

[netmeg]

Hmm, maybe I'll test that next year. Create an alternate page with the skyscraper on the right, and serve them up randomly via PHP and see which does better.

I still think left to right. That's naturally the way people look at a page (at least in this country)

[malachite]

On the right.

Have tried skyscrapers on the left several times, but CTR just tanks to almost 0, as it does whenever I try leaderboards.

[europeforvisitors]

>>I still think left to right. That's naturally the way people look at a page (at least in this country)<<

Yes, and when they get to the right, they may be ready to click on an ad.

I think a lot depends on the nature of the page and what's on the page. I offered my display-ad firm a choice between leaderboards and wide skyscrapers, and they opted for skyscrapers because that format works well with my editorial content. (The ads are placed alongside articles that people are reading, as opposed to disappearing from the reader's field of view almost immediately the way an ad across the upper part of the page would do.)

[londrum]

i find it's best if you stick them slap bang in the middle. i don't use a full skyscraper though - just one of those short ones with 2 ads in.
my page has two columns, and i float it to the left of the first column, a bit like this

000000 XX 000
000000 XX 000
000000 XX 000
000000000 000
000000000 000
000000000 000
000000000 000
000000000 000

[netmeg]

See, now, ads in the middle didn't work well for me. They didn't pull very well, plus I really didn't like the way they looked. It was a little too 'in your face' for my tastes.