The 3 minute Adsense optimization guide

The Adsense team has recently posted their 5 minute Adsense Optimization Demo. For those of you on slow connections, or those who are too impatient for the Flash presentation to load here’s a quick condensed version:

Ad positions:

• Ads above the fold (visible immediately when page loads) perform the best.
• Place ads near rich content and navigational areas, where visitors are more likely to focus their attention.
• Place ads according to your visitor’s behavior. Anticipate where they will focus attention and how they will navigate through your site. Place your ads accordingly.

Ad Formats:

• Wider ad formats perform best, since they allow users to read more ad text without having to skip to the next line.
• Most effective formats are: 300x250, 336x280 and 160x600 skyscraper
• Pick formats that complement your site design.

Ad colors:

• Well blended ads that match the colors of your page provide the best click-through rates (CTR).
• Rotating colors adds variety and freshens the ads.

Ad placement:

• Maximize revenue by placing ads on all your pages.

Use Adsense features:

• Channels – Channels allow you to track the performance of specific ad units and adjust placement accordingly.
• Image ads – Allow image ads to be shown. Many advertisers choose to use the CPM (cost per thousand impressions). Sites with low click-through rates can increase revenue by allow CPM based image ads to be served.
• Link units – Link units take up less space and can be used in areas where you wouldn’t be able to place normal ad units.
• Adsense for Search – Allow visitors to search your site or the Web using Adsense for search. You’ll earn additional revenue if a visitor clicks on ads displayed on the result pages.

Experimentation is key. You need to experiment with various ad placements and colors to see what works best for your site. Allow a decent testing period for any changes you make (one week at the least). Change only one thing at a time so you can track which change had the desired effect.