Archive for March, 2009
Best AdSense Colors
Talking about the different AdSense units it’s now time to teach you how to properly design your AdSense units. The colors are extremely important as they decide whether your visitor will click on your ads or not. Within this post we will discuss the best AdSense colors with the solely purpose to boost your CTR. This post is part of our complete AdSense guide.
Warning: If you want a long explanation with some information how we work then watch the video. Else, skip the video and continue with our direct to the point text explanation below.
Sorry for being offtopic sometimes, we tried not to make it a standard guide, but a little more entertaining (basically we just recorded what we were doing that evening).
Which AdSense colors not to use
We have shown some examples in the video, including one of ProBlogger’s posts. The idea is to make your ads look like content. Are you watching advertisements on television? Nobody likes to do so. Whereas if the ads would actually look like if they were part of the show you would probably continue watching them and eventually check them out later. Same applies to AdSense, making our ads look obviously like ads makes your visitor not click them. If we are however able to make our ads look like actual content then our visitor reads through them and in some cases clicks them, simply because he is interested in the topics. That’s why relevant ads are so important, your visitor is interested in your content and consequently also into the relevant ads.
So, don’t make your ads look like ads. Don’t use colors which don’t match your website, don’t use borders. Don’t use bright colors. Ask yourself, do you enjoy watching the ads, or is the layout annoying? Make background and border of your AdSense units the same color as your website’s background. This is very important since you want to blend your ads into the content, resulting in a higher CTR. The worst AdSense colors are those that make your ads look like ads.
- Don’t use bright, unnatural colors. Act like you were the visitor, do the colors annoy you?
- Don’t use borders.
- Color your AdSense’s units background the same as your website’s background.
Focusing all attention to the title
We want our visitors to have a look on the AdSense unit’s title and nothing else. Most of the people don’t even read through the text, they just see the title and then subconsciously decide whether they will click on the title or not. Make your title look like a link is one thing you have to ensure. To do so you will have to resort to the standard link color used on the internet. People got used to blue links, so you will have to use blue as title color of your AdSense units. There is room for customization as long as the color still is somewhat blueish. The best AdSense title color is the one that makes your visitor subconsciously think that the link is part of your content.
We see a lot of people using bright URL colors which draw the attention to the URL instead of the title. That’s a big problem, especially because the URL reveals that it’s an ad. Everyone knows instantly when seeing the URL that it’s an ad, simply because every advertising program does so. It would be best of course if we could completely remove the URL, but that’s not allowed by AdSense’s TOS. There is however one thing we can do, we can blend the URL with the text of your AdSense unit. To do so, color the URL the same color as your AdSense unit’s text color which in most cases is black. Several people also reported that grey seems to perform as good as black, so test whether #CCCCCC or your AdSense unit’s text color performs better for you. The best AdSense URL color is either your AdSense unit’s text color or grey. Test it for one week.
- Avoid other title colors than blue.
- Navy-blue seems to work best.
- Color the unit’s link the same as your website’s font.
- Grey is an alternative URL color.
Blending AdSense with your content
The ideal AdSense ad
Because we want to make our Ads look like content, we have to blend it with the content. We’ve shown some bad examples in the video, which attract the visitor’s attention but reveal that they are dealing with an ad. Result is that they won’t click. So to make our ad look like the content, we have to adopt our website’s design. Color your AdSense unit’s text the same as your website’s default font-color. That will make your AdSense unit look like it was part of the content. Black is the color used for most websites, we can only recommend you to stick. So when redesigning your website go for a black font color and either Arial, Times, or Verdana as font. Black is known to be the best performing AdSense text color.
Adjust the fonts of your website to Arial. By using the same font the AdSense units have we can make our ads look even better like if they were part of the content. The default AdSense font is Arial 12px, using that on your website should improve your CTR even further. AdSense now allows customizing your font to either Arial, Times, or Verdana. So, if you don’t want to use Arial then you should go for the other two alternatives. The best AdSense fonts are those that match your website’s font.
- Changing the font’s color and layout will blend your ads.
- AdSense text color should be your website’s default font color
- Black seems to perform best, so make your website’s font color black.
- Adjust your website’s font to the AdSense font. Arial 12px.
- Customize the font during the set up process if you don’t want Arial.
If you need further assistance then drop a comment or open a thread in our AdSense forum.
Further resources
AdSense section targeting for vBulletin
Another vBulletin tutorial, this time to explain how you can add section targeting to your vBulletin forums. Jmw asked for help on our forums and so here is the tutorial.
Why use section targeting?
Advertising is all about content relevancy. If your ads aren’t relevant then you won’t get any clicks plus low CPC. That’s why AdSense is so successful, they have relevant ads, something only a few other advertising networks have. Same applies to your vBulletin forum of course. VBulletin has a lot of static texts which you want to ignore to make sure that the AdSense crawler only uses your good content which is relevant. Furthermore you can tell the AdSense crawler to use your posts, or the title, as that’s your good content. You can’t completely control the crawler, but you can influence it. Make sure to use section targeting.
How to implement section targeting
It’s pretty easy, you only have to use 3 tags and wrap them around your content or to be ignored content.
- <!– google_ad_section_start –> – Tell the AdSense crawler that the content below should be used for applying section targeting.
- <!– google_ad_section_end –> – Tell the AdSense crawler that the content-zone ends.
- <!– google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) –> – Tell the crawler to ignore the content below. Close tag with the end tag above.
So an example for content you want to use for generating the ads would be the following:
<!– google_ad_section_start –>Good content<!– google_ad_section_end –>
Or an example for bad content which you want to exclude (static stuff):
<!– google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) –>Bad content<!– google_ad_section_end –>
To read more about section targeting please see this link.
Section targeting for vBulletin
I added an <h1> tag which consists of the title which I then used for section targeting. That’s because the title usually contains what the thread is about. The <h1> tag is also pretty good for on-page SEO, so another reason to use it. The code for doing so is: <h1>$navbits[lastelement]</h1>. Paste that at the bottom of your navbar. But now let’s get to the actual video:
Hope you enjoyed watching the video and that I was able to help you a little. If you still have questions please just drop a comment or open a post in <a href=”http://www.duoblogger.com/forum/”>our forum</a>.
AdSense inside post for vBulletin
JMW asked for help with adding AdSense inside a post for vBulletin. He wants the ads above the signature but below the post content. Several people already asked that question and so I thought, hey, let’s make a tutorial for that.
Why placing ads inside the post is good
That’s actually a relatively good placement, especially because that’s a placement in a so called hot-zone (see heat map). Your users are reading your post, scrolling down and then see the ad because it’s right in the content they are interested in. If the ads are relevant then you should get a decent amount of clicks, which is the case with vBulletin.
Placing ads inside the post
He is using the postbit legacy template and didn’t find any guide for that. It’s almost the same for both templates as they use the same variables. I made a quick video guide which I am attaching below. I didn’t really notice it while making the video tutorial, but the easiest way is to put your Ad code into the Ad location templates and then into the ad_showthread_firstpost_sig. Just put it in there and you are good to go.
Alternatively search for $template_hook[postbit_signature_start] and above put your AdSense code. If you don’t have that in your templates because you are using pre 3.8 vBulletin versions, search for: and paste your AdSense code above. Same applies to both postbit_legacy and postbit templates.
Template Conditionals
If you really want to make it a placement you will have to use template conditionals. Else your ads don’t show properly. The template conditional I use to display the ads only in the first post is the following:
<if condition=”$show['guest'] AND ($post[postcount] % $vboptions[maxposts] == 1)”>AdSense code </if>
For more conditionals please see this post.
Hope you enjoyed the quick tutorial, if you are having problems, please either drop a comment here, or post in the related thread about AdSense in the postbit_legacy
AdSense Ad formats reviewed
AdSense offers different ad formats of which each should be used for a different purpose. Each ad unit performs different and to completely monetize your traffic you need to know which formats you must use. This post is part of our complete AdSense guide. We made a quick introduction video teaching you the basics, please see below. Also make sure to read each format’s review below.
1. AdSense for Content
The AdSense for content is the most commonly used form of ad. To use the ad you have to place a snippet of code somewhere in your content and the ad will show. The content ad is recommended for people who have a content-rich website. Means, if you are a blogger, have a forum, or simply a website with text then this ad will monetize your traffic nicely. You can customize the layouts of the ads greatly. You can change the color of the title, text, background, border and link. Please see the attached picture on the right for a specification of what the title, url etc. is.
The design is of great importance, as it decides whether the user will click on your ad or not, please see this post for the best AdSense colors. The placements are very important as well but that’s part of our upcoming post about the best AdSense placements.
2. AdSense for Search
Search ads are less frequently used but they are another perfect way of monetizing your website. Google allows you to set up custom search engines which you can modify depending on your needs. You could for example add website’s of your choice to the search engine which are then used for collecting search results once the user enters a search string. You could also let the search engine search the web and emphasize website’s of your choice. It’s actually a perfect site search as well. Google has the best search algorithms, so why not use them? We here on DuoBlogger prefer the CSE because it’s a lot more efficient than wordpress’ included search engine. Whenever someone searches something and then clicks an ad you will be paid.
The search engine ads have an high CTR of around 4-5 percent because of perfectly targeted ads and should consequently not be underestimated in terms of potential revenue. Please don’t start putting Google searches everywhere on your site, as that looks just crappy and would make me leave the site instantly. I have seen a lot of website’s doing so, trying to squeeze every possible penny out of the traffic. Don’t do that as it will make your visitor’s feel uncomfortable. Placing one google site search placed carefully at a good location is what you should try to work on.
3. AdSense for feeds
Google realized the importance of RSS feeds. People don’t necessarily want to visit their favorite website every time for new content. They want to be informed instantly in case there is any new content available for reading. Thus more and more people started reading RSS feeds to always stay informed about new content. The problem is that the readers don’t access your website anymore because feeds are usually hosted on sites like feedburner. A consequence is that whenever your reader reads your new content he won’t see your ads and thus not generate any revenue for you. Think of 120000 readers who read your blog but can’t be monetized by you, that would be a pity and a serious hole in your pocket.
That’s why Google introduced AdSense for feeds. The feed ads are displayed inside the feed, surrounded by your content usually. Feed ads have an extremely high CTR because of their placement right next to the content or even in the content. The reader is forced to have a look on the ad and then in some cases clicks it, resulting in money for you. The CTR you can expect is somewhere between 3 and 10 percent. If you have a lot of people reading your blog, then you surely shouldn’t miss the feed ads.
4. AdSense for domains
AdSense now introduced ads for parked domains. So in case you have a lot of parked domains you might be interested in using AdSense for domains. They can’t use the domain name or analyze the content to display relevant ads. There is no content and what does the domain name reveal? Usually not much. That’s why google is analyzing the search string and depending on what the user searched displays relevant ads to that. Because of the extremely relevant ads parked domains usually have high CPC niche ads. Same applies to the CTR: Because of relevant ads and the layout of the parked domains the visitors tend to click more often on the ads, resulting in nice CPC. In fact the CPC of parked-domain sites is somewhere around 5-15 percent.
Interest-based ads could make the parked domains even better. Because Google knows which website’s the user was previously on they can generate ads relevant to the user’s interests. Interesting ads are clicked more often. Not many of us have parked domains but in case you have one, seriously consider displaying adsense for domains. The only bottleneck is the traffic. Parked domains usually don’t have that high traffic.
5. AdSense video units
More and more people asked for video ads instead of image ads. Google introduced them in 2006, made then however available to all publishers in 2008. To activate the video ads you have to use a supported format: 336*280, 300*250 or 250*250. Afterwards make sure that image ads are enabled. There is no guarantee that video ads are shown as Google overtakes that job completely. To disable video ads you have to disable image ads or switch to another ad format. You don’t earn money from the plays, only from clicks on the ad unit once the video finished playing or whilst it is playing. The video ad does not start playing automatically. For a live example please see the previous link to the Google blog.
Users enjoy media and videos. However, it can be questioned whether your users enjoy watching ad-spots? I usually don’t when I am turning on television with some exceptions. There is however one major difference, those video ads are relevant to your content. The user wouldn’t have opened your website if he wouldn’t be interested in your content. I for example really enjoy watching the World of Warcraft ads on television – yes, those are the ads which are shown by AdSense as well. I must say that I am really unsure about the performance of this ad unit. Another very important aspect is that the user has to click the ad twice. Sounds bad on the first sight doesn’t it? Yes, you should actually get a lower CTR with the video-ad because of that. However, there is one significant advantage compared to the other ads: You don’t get any missclicks at all. Missclicks are caused by users accidentally clicking on the ads, that’s however almost impossible if the user has to click twice. The consequence is that you are solely sending quality clicks to the advertiser which convert well. Your reward is a high CPC for the ads.
6. AdSense for mobile content
The mobile niche is expanding and so do the devices plus contracts allowing you to access the internet from them. That’s a large potential source of revenue of course if the traffic from such devices keeps increasing. Was only a question of time when Google would introduce mobile ads and that was the case on September 17h 2007. At that time however mobile devices were slightly different. They neither allowed zooming into pages nor had a high resolution. That’s why Google made the ads as tiny as possible, which however seems to be no longer that useful today. If you for example look on the G1 or on the iPhone, both of them allow you to zoom into the page keeping the native resolution of the website alive. It would not make sense to replace AdSense with specific mobile ads on such websites as the design of the default ads is much better. The mobile ads are only useful for websites specifically designed for mobile phone content in a small resolution.
One problem are the previously mentioned missclicks. I experienced it myself: My fingers are relatively big and consequently I am not always able to perfectly target the links I want to click. In some cases AdSense units are placed right next to them resulting in a miss click. Miss clicks are potentially dangerous as they result in no conversions which then on the long term lower your CPC. Mobile phone ads have low CPC.
7. Expandable Ad Units
We dedicated a full post to the expandable ads previously on DuoBlogger. Once the user clicks the ad a new on-page window will open, showing more information about the ad it self. You can’t force Google to serve only expandable ads, you can only activate them passively by allowing normal image ads to show. The only way to disable them would be to disable image ads completely. It’s difficult to test them as you don’t have any data allowing you to see the performance of the expandable ads on your site.
Still, Google knows that those ads bring the advertisers cash hence they don’t pay for bad clicks. The benefits of the video units apply in this case as well. The user has to click twice, eliminating any potential missclicks. That benefits both the advertiser plus publisher and on the long term results in a higher CPC for you.
How to sign up for Google AdSense
Within this post we will teach you how to sign up for Google AdSense and talk about any obstacles you might encounter during the process of signing up. This post is part of our complete AdSense guide.
Before signing up
Before applying you need to be familiar with the TOS. There isn’t really a lot you need to know but we would like to point your attention to the following points:
- No Warez sites.
- No pornographic sites
- No Gambling sites
- No hate sites (terrorist sites won’t get approved)
- No sites with stolen content
If your website is about any of the above points then you can be sure that you won’t get accepted. Gambling sites aren’t allowed because of American law. The only state where gambling is allowed is Nevada and thus Google in generally disallowed gambling/casino sites. Many people have forums and forum members tend to link to warez sites. Make sure there are no warez in your forum before starting the process of applicating. Also make sure that your forum members didn’t and won’t post any adult material or else you won’t get approved as well.
Google is very strict with the TOS so if you don’t want to get banned from AdSense make sure to follow the rules.
Signing up is easy
Open Google AdSense and click on the “Sign up now” button. Alternatively you could go to the sign up page directly. Fill in your data accurately. You will need to open a new Google Account during the process if you don’t already own one. The Google account is of course completely free for you. Once you finished filling out tons of forms you need to wait around 48 hours to get approved.
After signing up
Signing up is in fact quick but getting your account disabled is even faster. Once you are publishing ads make sure you don’t:
- Click on your own ads. You will get banned.
- Recruit your friends to click your ads, it will just smart price you.
- Place images next to your ads (no arrows or anything).
- Place your ads on TOS violating pages (see above).
- Start publishing duplicated or even pirated content.
What I noticed is that many people start writing about additional niches once they got their first clicks. Stick to your niche. If you want to succeed online it’s very important to have a niche site. Niche sites are the sites that guarantee you a high CPC.
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