The amazing thing about the Adsense advertising system is how one simple change in positioning of your ads can have a profound impact upon the earnings you receive from it. I still remember a fateful night about 8 months ago when I learnt this lesson and doubled my income overnight (no this isn’t one of those posts where I’m selling something – relax).
It was 10.30pm and I was about to head to bed when on a whim I decided to shift my Adsense ads from the position that I’d always had them at the top (banner position) of the blog I was working on at the time. I shifted the ad to a new position and then got distracted with something else and forgot about it.
A few hours later (I got very distracted) I again was thinking of bed but decided to check my Adsense stats for one last time before shutting down my powerbook – imagine my surprise when I found that my click through rate was 40% higher than normal (and so was the earnings for that time of night)!? At first I thought I was dreaming, then I considered that maybe Google had made a mistake, then I panicked that someone had been randomly clicking all my ads – and then I remembered the repositioning of ads that I’d done a few hours before.
Needless to say I didn’t sleep much that night. I lay awake excited by the potential that I’d just unlocked in my blogs, inspired by the fact that I could make the same changes to all my other blogs tomorrow, kicking myself that I hadn’t done it earlier (what a missed opportunity) and wondering if there might be an even better spot to try putting my ads.
The following morning I lept out of bed and checked my Adsense stats again to find that my click through rate was even higher than the night before and that I’d stumbled upon a way of doubling my income – literally over night.
Yes. I experienced this, too. I moved from the 728×90 at the top of the page, to the square adsense at the bottom of the article and tripled my income.
So I take it the best place to put google ads is at the BOTTOM of articles so that people can first read the article, digest it, and then are free to click on the ad…
Small changes in colors can make a big difference too. I began adsense using a color scheme that matched my site perfectly. What that produced were advertisements that disappeared into the clutter of my page.
ProBlogger is a good example of a high-contrast ad theme.
don’t leave us hanging Darren – what is the secret position you moved it to?
Google’s Golden Triangle
Did-it, Enquiro, and Eyetools Uncover Google’s Golden Triangle: “New EyeTracking Study verifies the importance of page position and rank in both Organic and PPC search results for visibility and click through in Google.”
Take a look at this image…
Trying Out Different Positions
For ADS of course (and shame on you!).
Darren over at Problogger doubled his income overnight by changing the position of his Google Adsense ads. Apparently he isn’t alone.
Adsense Ad Placement
There is much discussion about ad placement and how to optimize revenues by positioning ads correctly.
Darren, in his blog recounts a “fateful night about 8 months ago when I learnt this lesson and doubled my income overnight” referring to a small…
I am trying an experiment today on my Digital Photography blog to see how I do at a little tinkering with placement. I had better double my income or else! ;-)
This is highly interesting, that’s the kind of thing I want to hear more and more often about.
Darren, is it our last chat that reminded you of what happened 8 months ago ?
I see that you moved up the ad in the left column.
I think that I’m gonna add a third ad format at the end of my permalink pages.
Adsense richtig positionieren
Daren Rowse besch�ftigt sich mit der Frage, an welcher Position im Weblog man am besten Adsense einblendet. F�r sein Weblog hat er offenbar die optimale Position gefunden. Zun�chst hatte er ein Banner auf dem Seitenkopf. Jetzt befindet sich die Google-…
10 Strategies for Online Ad Placement
… provides detailed and full-color illustrations of ten proven concepts for ad placement. When I saw this article, I went “Wow!”. …
[…] le, ist zu diesem Thema auch ein interessanter Artikel im Blog von Darren Rowse zu finden: Positioning your Adsense Ads I Positioning your Adsen […]
Also ich fnde den Artikel sehr gelungen. Die Seitensuch ist auch sehr gut intregiert ;)
[…] le, ist zu diesem Thema auch ein interessanter Artikel im Blog von Darren Rowse zu finden: Positioning your Adsense Ads I Positioning your Adsen […]
AdSense Links
Der ProBlogger Darren Rowse ist der lebende Beweis dafür, das sich von AdSense gut leben lässt.
Einige Tipps gibt er auch zum Besten
Offizielles AdSense Blog von Google (Englisch)
Ein freies AdSense Blog (Englisch)
AdSense Foren sind Adse…
Wow, there is no information in part 1. How evil. :-P
Good point, Thomas.
[…] update: For even more reading on positioning your Adsense ads see a mini series of three posts that I wrote on the topic here. Filed under Adsense | Get the Free ProBlogger Newsletter […]
[…] For more on Ad positioning you might like to read a short series of posts that I’ve previously written on the topic of Adsense Ad Positioning that mentions some of these principles. […]
I have had the biggest pain in the rear time on finding out how to setup adsense in the comments and the best way to position ads on a blogspot blog. I am almost convinced that adsense in blogger comments is not possible. Perhaps someone could enlighten me on this. Or perhaps….a future problogger.net topic?? :^)
-Santoro
monopolion
Nicky, you mean like what I did on my blogspot blog?
no i meant on the actual comment page. I didn’t see any ads in your comment pages.
-Santoro
monopolion
I am going to try changing postion of ads, especially on my articles’ pages. and I hope it works.. after the last update my sites have gone from top to god knows where… nevertheless… I have to make the best of visitors who are still clicking on my site. thanks for the priceless tips and motivation-value in them…
[…] Positioning your Adsense Ads I Positioning your Adsense Ads II Positioning your Adsense Ads III […]
[…] Positioning your Adsense Ads […]
Darren, I always enjoy reading Problogger. I have recently changed my add formats and placement and have had a significant increase in revenue. Thanks for all the tips and great ideas.
Very good tips, thanks!
First time here guys . . . . and what an interesting topic.
I’m very interested in this subject, and have often wondered why I wasn’t getting too many Adsense clicks.
I too thought that blending the ads was the “nicest” way to insert into my site and blog, now it’ kind of makes sense – they’re not being noticed!
Maybe someone out there could enlighten us as to what positioning/colouring they’ve tried and how it affected their stats.
[…] Part I […]
The best position is in the middle of your article … a middle square box …
Regards
Thanks. I’ve read all 3 parts, and looked at the example links. I;ve just started an article directory, with adsense of course, and I’m looking at ways to increase my CT rate. I will now go back, armed with your tips.
So thanks for sharing them ( and not charging!)….I’ll let you know how it goes.
[…] is backed up further by Darren Rowse over at Pro Blogger. He comes to the same conclusion on positioning AdSense ads. Darren also mentions how placing too many ads on your site can actually lead to worse results. […]
[…] a slight modification to my page layouts today. I’ve read on John Chow’s blog and on Problogger’s blog that positioning your advertisement within the body of a post can result in a dramatic increase in […]
[…] Resources:Images and Adsense – From the Horse’s MouthPositioning Your Adsense Ads – From ProBloggerBest Adsense Placement for Highest CTR – Adsense Master […]
I’m fairly new to adsense and I think that it is a great way to supplement your income. I will take note of ad placement and try to improve my earnings.
[…] Problogger: Positioning Your Adsense Ads […]
Great article. I don’t know if I have commented already, but I love your work. So I have been around your site.
Anyway, I have figured out that link units seem to be clicked the most on left navigation vertical and top navigation horizontal navigation. While ad units (the skyscraper) seems to be rarely clicked on unless it’s in the content itself.
I doubled my earnings in one day also. From like 60 cents to 3 dollars. It’s not consistent yet so that’s why I say doubled. How did I double? Simply by changing some ad placements.
Hi Darren ,
you are absolutely right & really share precious experience.
Correct positioning ,format & proper color combination of Google adsense ads can be main key of success with the Google adsense program. Some studies suggest that eye positioning on website gravitate to particular sections of web pages. And if you don’t have the necessary ads in these positions you will not get the clicks.
One should keep on experimenting the placing of ads. The best way to monitor is through channels in adsense. The placing which you perform well stick to that.
Wow – I did this last night, having had just a sidebar add on my blog and making pretty much nothing over months and months, and overnight have made not quite the cup of coffee, but 1/3 of what I’d made since August 2008!