But before I start with my tips , I would like to tell about CTR in some detail. Mathematically , CTR can be calculated as-
CTR= No. of clicks /No. of visitors * 100
So, if a blog or site has been visited 100 times and 10 ads has been clicked then CTR will be-
CTR= 10/100* 100 = 10
Most of the blogs have a CTR below 1 and on an average a CTR of 3-5 % should be regarded as decent. Although there are some reports that some site owners have got a CTR in double figures but there are no evidences in support of this.
With so much of background , I will now quickly jump over to the point , tips to increase CTR.
CTR depends on following factors-
- The ad positioning or ad placement
- Ad relevancy
- colours of the ad
- No. of links (both outgoing and incoming) on the page
- Reader type
- Season
Ad positioning or ad placement-
Ad placement is a vital factor which affects the CTR. Cleverly placed ads can increase clicks thereby adsense income.Furthermore, there are no hard and fast rule for ad placement. Better ad placement varies from blog to blog and also from page to page.It is a matter of research and you have to research to find what placement fetches you most.
In general, ads at the top ,left and near the blog content has higher CTR.
One of the things which you can do to research your ad positioning is to create a heat map of your blog.Heat map of a blog or any site can be created using Google Analytics.Note following points-
- Average time spent on your blog- If people are spending more time on your blog or your posts it means that they are really reading your whole content and in this case it is probable that ads placed at the bottom of your post will be clicked.
- What are the top entrance and top exit pages- Top Entrance pages should contain links to specially adsense optimized pages and top exit pages should have ads placed on the top and in the top of the sidebar.
- Where people are clicking-Anaytics can show you what are the areas where links has been clicked.Placing ads in the areas where links are being clicked can increase CTR of adsense.
Ad relevancy-
Relevant ads are more oftenly clicked than irrelevant ads.So, a blogger should apply some of the tricks to get relevant ads from adsense.Here I would like to talk about a point.Adsense bot (mediabot) is a sub-division of google bot and so, it crawls the pages in similar way as googlebot.
This means that if you are making your keywords bold or italic , using your keyword in the title and using your keywords time and again in your post you will get relevant ads.These are basic SEO techniques which also work to get relevant ads from adsense.
There is one more tec hnique which makes use of section targeting.In this you tell mediabot , what is important and what is not by inserting a small piece of code in your content.I will talk about this in a bit more detail when I discuss ad relevancy in detail in some other post.
Ads colour and design-
There is a long article available at google adsense help centre on coloue of ads. I recommend you to go through that article.But in short, I will discuss three points-
Blending- Here you choose the ad colour in such a way that it matches with the background and margin of your blog.
Stand out- Here you choose the ad colour which is contrasting to your background.
Complement- Here you use a colour which is already present in your blog.
You can get the details here.
You should research to find what colours are bringing higher CTR and use the same.
No. of Links-
More no. of links mean more options to click and less links mean less option to click.The adsense optimized pages should contain no or fewer links especially outgoing links.I know some of the folks who don't provide any link on their adsense optimized pages , so, visitors have the a few option of either closing the window or,hit back butoon or click some of the ads which sounds appealing to them.
Visitor type-
A blog with more number of repeat visitors experience lower CTR than a blog with new visitors. The reason is, repeat visitors or loyal readers get well acquainted with your ad position and so, there are lesser no. of clicks , a phenomenon called as ad blindness.If you have more number of repeat visitors , you should frequently change your ad positions and colours to negate the effect of ad blindness otherwise you should stick with what is working best for you.
Season-
This may sound incredible for some but it is true.I myself has experienced this on one of my travel blogs.I have seen a rise in CTR in summer season on that blog.
I have just guided you towrds the right path to get higher CTR.But higher CTR can only be get if you research and observe what is working best for you.I would once again repeat that CTR varies from blog to blog and from page to page , so, you must research yourself to see what is working for you and what is not.
Yup! I agree with those tips. The most shocking lesson I learn from Joel's book about Adsense is "Don't make an ad look like ads, blend it with the content and make it looks like part of the content."
ReplyDeletehey i have some useful tips on how to increase CTR.
ReplyDeletejus visit my blog
http://emmi-adsense.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-get-higher-ctr.html
It also depends on how long the visitors stays on the page. If there is special content that holds the visitor, like a youtube block to look at which content the visitor even cannot resist, then it leads to more or less better ctr.
ReplyDeleteIf they want to get away, use links to your other sites, hold them in your network. And I use target="_blank", new page, so your page is still there..
It also depends on how long the visitors stays on the page. If there is special content that holds the visitor, like a youtube block to look at which content the visitor even cannot resist, then it leads to more or less better ctr.
ReplyDeleteIf they want to get away, use links to your other sites, hold them in your network. And I use target="_blank", new page, so your page is still there..