Ads without borders performing better?

Colour border or "no border"?

[silverbytes]

Hello! Ads contained in rectangles uses to cathc viewer's attention. What means if you put a text on a white paper hanging on the wall and then you put same text but you draw a rectangle around people will look more at this second option.

However many people here says putting "no border" to adsense ads results in better CTR.

Have you personally tested this? Are your no border ads performing better than those with a colour border?

[Atomic]

I received a higher CTR without borders. The trouble with this, in my experience, is that the increase in CTR resulted in a lower income. A lot lower. Which would you prefer, more clicks or a higher income?

[ken_b]

There has been no significant difference in performance between ads with borders or ads without borders on most of my site, with ads on about 1,500 pages.

[frakilk]

It depends on the design of your page. For me they work better without borders because with borders it clutters/confuses the area a lot more.

[silverbytes]

I received a higher CTR without borders. The trouble with this, in my experience, is that the increase in CTR resulted in a lower income. A lot lower. Which would you prefer, more clicks or a higher income?

How's that possible? Of course I prefer higher income.

[netmeg]

I haven't tested it. I just don't like the borders; prefer to create my own.

[Atomic]

How's that possible? Of course I prefer higher income.

Smart pricing

[potentialgeek]

What I don't fully comprehend is if ads without borders are so bad they trick people into clicking and cause smart pricing, why doesn't Google simply ban them? "Smart pricing" is a "bandaid" to the lower conversion problem. And Google loses money off it just like most publishers.

p/g

[dibbern2]

Changed from borderless to very obvious borders on about 500 pages. Result: +25% EPC, slight decrease in CTR.

At least in my market, I would always go with borders.

[Atomic]

What I don't fully comprehend is if ads without borders are so bad they trick people into clicking and cause smart pricing, why doesn't Google simply ban them? "Smart pricing" is a "bandaid" to the lower conversion problem. And Google loses money off it just like most publishers.

Sometimes it makes sense not to have borders. If you decide not to use them that should be fine. However, Google wants to protect advertisers against layouts attempting to gather accidental clicks. It makes sense to at least reduce the income earned from these clicks. I don't think it's fair to say that Google "loses" money when their financial statements indicate otherwise.