Ad Sense Foul Ups - Where Did I Go Wrong
November 24th, 2008Putting Ad Sense on your site is not as easy as it seems. There is a common myth out there that it is. Chances are you have put the code on your site and didn’t make a dime. Alright, maybe you made fifty cents. The problem is, many people create the ads and don’t put any thought into the appearance or position.
How should you customize your ads to maximize your profits? Let’s talk about location first. Where should your ads be place for best performance? The center of the page is the best location followed by the upper left hand side bar, just below the header and directly below your text at the bottom of the page. Places you should avoid are the right hand side bar, above the header, and lower left hand sidebar.
Next you need to think about style. One of the last things you want is a border. This separates the ad from your text and makes a visual stopping point when reading your page. When creating the ad, always make the background and border the same color, this eliminates it. Speaking of backgrounds, where ever you are placing the ad, make sure it’s background color is the same as the background color you are using. If you have different areas with different background colors, change it for each ad.
Your title color should be the same as the links in your site, which ever area you are working with. This will allow the reader to know that the text is an active link. The text and URL color in the ad should be the same as the text in your site. Make sure you match the color exactly, if you don’t, users will be able to tell and it is unprofessional.
Here’s another trick, don’t treat your ads as ads and your customers won’t either. Pretend your ads are links to relevant content, which they are, and give them the same look and feel of your site. Web Surfer’s have developed something called banner blindness, which means they don’t even see ads anymore, particularly image ads. Their brain simply blacks out that area of your site.
Here are a few more tips that may help you along the way. Avoid image ads, opt for the text only version. Make sure that you maximize your ads. At the time this article was written you are allowed 3 text ads, and 3 ad link units, these are the two I use. Be sure that you use them all on your pages.
Ad links can be placed in navigational areas. Make the background and border the same as your site/area that you are putting the ad in. Make the link color the same as the links in the area. You can place a horizontal unit just below the header of your page. A vertical unit can be placed in any vertical navigational area you have, either above, below or within it.
Try to get the same size of font as you are using. There are only two sizes, which are determined by the amount of link units. If you have 4 links in the unit, the font will be larger, if you choose 5 links, the font will be smaller. Also consider underlining your links so that they match Google’s.