Optimizing AdSense Ads – Design and Layout

If you’re a blogger or a webmaster, you can monetize your website by either seeking out sponsors or putting up contextual advertisements. And Google AdSense is the most commonly used and probably the easiest to install on one’s site. It’s just a matter of applying for an account, getting the javascript code, and pasting it onto your website or blog’s layout (this does require some HTML knowledge).

Granted that it’s supposed to be that easy, just pasting ads anywhere on your site is a sure fire way to waste resources in terms of effort and space. You cannot just post your ads anywhere and expect people to click and get you those hundreds or thousands of dollars in monthly revenue. Do note that, primarily, success of AdSense ads is a function of your website or blog’s traffic, and the clickthrough rate would normally be in the 0.5% to 2% range compared to your total traffic.

Moreover, this clickthrough rate is a function of your ad’s positioning, layout, and color. Here are a few tips on optimizing your ads for better clickthroughs.

1. Follow the Google AdSense heatmap (pictured below). The AdSense heatmap was developed from studies of the behavior of human web users. It’s been found out that it’s best to keep your ads above the fold, or within the point that users don’t have to scroll down or to the right to see your ads. It’s also best to put your ad on the top-left portion of your site, where a company logo would usually be. This is the first thing people look at in a website.
2. Use images. Using images in conjunction with your ads (such as right beside the ads or right above) would attract your viewer’s eyes toward that area, and would also attract clicks.
3. Design appropriately. Some people, notably techies, are already “blind” to AdSense ads. They know that these are sponsored links and not part of your navigation or your website’s content, and therefore not likely to click out of curiosity, but because they are truly interested in the information offered. If your website is aimed at this audience, it’s probably best to retain the default layout. But if your website is aimed at people not so experienced with the web and the concept of AdSense ads, it would be good to design your color scheme and layout such that the ads would blend in perfectly, almost mimicking your website’s navigation and main content.

Remember, your main goal with AdSense is to help people look for things they’re interested in. Designing your site such that people will be easily drawn to clicking your ads helps everyone–you earn your share of the ad revenue, the advertiser gets the traffic its business needs, and the user gets to find information he or she is looking for.

However, design and layout are only a part of that. Next, we look into optimizing for AdSense using content.