Sudden jump in CTR after changing ad position/ color

... will google block my account?

[NibbleGuru]

My avg. CTR was 0.9-1.2%. I changed the position and color of the ads and now I am getting CTR of 3.2%-3.5% since last 2 days.
My concern is: will google consider this sudden jump normally or will they think that I have used some illegal means (which i havent) and block me.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I cannot see how they would be annoyed at this. After all they encourage us to experiment with settings and provide the technology that allows us to do so.

[Broadway]

I had this exact type of experience just a few days ago.

Late on Thursday, per the information in the Adsense "little green book" they sent containing Adsense tips, I placed my Adsense ads in the center of one of my pages whose focus is a pretty high paying keyword.

When checking my stats on Saturday I notice that the stats for Friday (the first day of the ad placement change) showed that my site's income was almost double what you would expect. The click through rate for my entire site was up about 20% (but still fell within the extreme of normal for my site).

(It just so happens that the page on which I had made the change constitutes it's own channel but at this point in time it was too early to get channel stats from Adsense.)

I wrote Adsense immediately (Saturday) and told them I had noticed an income spike for Friday. I told them my theory about how my ad placement change might have been the cause of this event. Today is Monday morning and I have yet to hear from them. There has been no change in my stats for the day in question. The income spike on Friday still stands.

Today I have been able to check my channel stats. The change in ad placement from a wide skyscraper on the side of the page to a leader board in the center (no borders, same background as the page's) created about a 3X improvement in click throughs. (Although this page has spiked near this CTR before.) For whatever reason this elevated click throughs rate dropped to only 2X on Saturday.

[Born_User]

I've seen CTR increase and decrease dramatically. The numbers you're describing is well within the normal ebb and flow of user behavior. I've made layout changes that have affected CTR by as much as 4% overnight.

Sleep well.

[Broadway]

I've now heard from Adsense. They said thank you for bringing this to our attention. Evidently they looked into things somewhat. They said they did not see any "suspicious activity" related to my account. They congradulated me on the sucess of my efforts related to my change in ad placement.

[Vec_One]

If you haven't already fiddled with the size, color and position of your ads, you should ASAP (right now). I did and I now wish that I had done it much sooner.

With a few simple changes, my CTR almost doubled overnight. Most importantly, as Google suggested, I put AdSense smack in the middle of the page.

The little green book from Google might not contain any earth-shattering revelations, but it should be taken seriously. Just one of those little tips can be worth lots.

[lorenzinho2]

whoops, double post

[edited by: lorenzinho2 at 12:18 am (utc) on Sep. 1, 2004]

[lorenzinho2]

here's some ctr relative stats from adsense tweaking on a site that does 40-50K daily adsense impressions:

right column, skyscraper: x
left column, skyscraper: 2x
leaderboard: 3x

the odd thing is that as my ctr has risen, so has my epc. i'm wondering if there is some sweet spot for ctr that tells g that this is 'good' traffic (i know they track conversions as well, so this would seem unlikely)

anyone have similar data for colors (matching vs. standout) border (boxed vs. none) etc.?

[newbies]

My avg. CTR was 0.9-1.2%. I changed the position and color of the ads and now I am getting CTR of 3.2%-3.5% since last 2 days.

the next thing you will see is EPC cut by G. in this CTR (under your control) and EPC (under G's control) game, you will never win.

[alika]

That's not necessarily true newbies. We've also changed our ad position and our CTR as well as EPC improved. Sure, there are normal variances -- but not like the doomsday scenario ("you will never win") that you painted.

[Never_again]

the next thing you will see is EPC cut by G.

Not likely. We did the same change as NibbleGuru some time ago and saw the same jump in CTR. Not only did our EPC not decrease, it has increased over the last six months. EPC has little to do with CTR.