Left Side - Right Side: Which one?

position of adsense ads affects response

[thvi]

We have top, right and left locations available. It seems most of the testimonials on the adsense site show right side integration. However, we could also put single button or two button at the left, atop the nav. links, and integrate them cleanly. (From the eye tracking report, left and top would seem most compelling.)

But, what about the REAL world: left, right or center? Which do you use/have you used?

Many thanks,

thvi

[Webwork]

Is this issue something that could be tracked and validated by using channels?

[Jenstar]

Skyscrapers on the left, placed where one would normally expect to see a navigation menu, work better than skyscrapers placed on the right side, where people traditionally expect to see ads.

Center, with the placement with the content, also works well.

[Richie0x]

People read from left to right, so they are more likely to see the ads first if you place them to the left of your main content. I use a three column layout, and since moving the ads from the right column to the left, the click through rate has improved greatly.

Apparently ads wrapped by text in the central content column work well too.

[david_uk]

What works best for me is to have a large rectangle central on the page. The navigation bar is on the left, where people expect to see it. I have a couple of lines of text below the header image, and the adsense block has the first complete paragraph wrapped round the right/bottom of it.

The problem of left banners where people expect navigation to be is that they probably click out of the site and don't come back. This is fine if you have loads of one hit traffic. Personally I want the visitors to browse around the site, and there are other ad blocks on various pages of the site.

Having a nav bar that is clearly a nav bar, and ads that are clearly ads works well. I have a lot of return visitors, people clearly use the site for the purpose it was intended for (information on a particular topic) *AND* I have a consistently high CTR/CPC.

[petra]

Also, if those visitors (who click on the left hand ads thinking they were navigation) and don't convert, you will soon be hit by smart pricing and start losing customers for $0.05.

[KiShOrE]

What do u mean by "hit by smart pricing"?

[petra]

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Palehorse]

Dont forget screen resolution. Some folks with bad eyesight might have their screen real estate small. (everything big) like 640x480. If you put it on the right chances are good it will be invisible to a percentage of people.

[walrus]

I think 3 blocks with maybe 12 ads above the fold
so its pretty well all the visible content on arrival might work well. Just kidding, Seems to for some. Ad placement is important and i think left is definetly best for CTR and right looks better and is more pro but still the availability of good ads is my main crunch and from what ive gathered, the after effect of multiple ad units, 2 would have been okay , allowing 3 is too many.

[david_uk]

I think left is definetly best for CTR

Personally I think it's most effective if you are talking about one time visitors being your target. If you care about visitors looking at other pages on your site, then it's not a good idea. Each click represents a click out of the site - probably for good.

I wonder if anyone has done any research into what is most effective financially - high one time visitors clickthrough (clickout?), or good clickthrough AND visitors browsing the site/repeat visitors?

We aren't allowed to quote cpc/ctr here, but I would say that both of these are high on my site, and I'm not using a left banner that is intended to look like site navigation.

I'd guess that you do better out of adsense if you are referring people genuinely interested in the advertisers product/service who knowingly click the ad, as opposed to people who are tricked into clicking thinking it's a link to somewhere else on the site.

You've probably guessed that as a visitor I personally *hate* left aligned adverts :)

[annej]

I put left aligned ad towers on index and content pages for major sections of my websites. Since the main part of the page is a list of descriptions with links to articles and such in that section people still have ample opportunity to move on through the site. Basically the navigation is in main section not on the left.

On article pages I float a rectangle to the right. The left might get a few more clicks but it affects the flow of the article. I want the reader to start reading the article first after all that is what the site is about. You are right, we want people to bookmark our site and come back. More important they might link to the site if they like it or tell about it on mail lists or just email friends.

It is a balancing act. We want people to notice the ads so if they see something that interests them they will click. OTOH we don't want to lose them before they even see that our site is something they will want to return to.

[walrus]

Actually i shoudnt have said definitely higher as i bet it still varies depending on other aspects of layout and design.

[birdstuff]

Also, if those visitors (who click on the left hand ads thinking they were navigation) and don't convert, you will soon be hit by smart pricing and start losing customers for $0.05.

I have sites with ads in the left-hand column and others with the ads on the right. There are also numerous other links on the page as well. I have seen no indication that "smart pricing" affects EPC on the sites with the ads on the left in any way. "Smart pricing" appears to affect sites randomly which one would expect given the poor way its implemented.

One of my clients has three sites where the only links on the pages at all are three navigation buttons across the top and an AdSense skyscraper in the left-hand column. That's it. She applied for acceptance to the AdSense program with one of these sites over a year ago and she was quickly accepted, and her EPC is very healthy.

[endomorph1]

Top left for me (recent move to that spot has just double my revenue)