Top 5 Performing Adsense Layouts

There is no one right layout for maximizing ad performance. So much depends on the overall design of the website. Colors, font size, link color, imagery, other ads and banners all play big roles. But as you look around and review different layouts you’ll find some consistent approaches that seem to work well. We’ve done some research and found five template layouts that consistently perform well.

In this article we’ll review the five designs and explain which ad locations work best and why. We hope that the information we provide here will help you make better ad placement choices and give you a better idea of how people see your pages and ads. We’ll also cover ways to defeating ad blindness and how to take advantage of it.

All the layouts are fairly wide. When we started in the industry we had a lot of users with resolutions of 640×480 and 800×600 was the norm. Today we see many people with very high resolutions hitting our websites so designing pages that fit those screens better is fairly safe to do. Also note that the ‘text link’ at the top of the page is not a suggested Adsense ad location. It is a great place for a single text ad that rotates with each page refresh. You’ll also notice we use the maximum number of ads possible, 3 link units and 3 ad units in each design. The ad with the #1 is the most clicked ad and ideally should load first.

Layout One

This layout provides three ads above the fold. The fold is old newspaper term for anything on the front page visible when the newspaper is folded. You hear it used in the online world all the time for everything visible on a web page before a user scrolls. Few bounce visitors (people who hit and leave) every scroll.

Ideally the first ad that loads (first ad in the html) should be your most clicked ad because Google places the top paying advertisers in order from top to bottom. This way you put the top payers in the hottest spots. In this design we’ve found that the large 336×280 ad unit to the right gets the most clicks followed closely by the 160×90 link unit in the upper left. If you tweak your code so that the best ad loads first you’ll make more money, theoretically.

Eye tracking studies (not ours) show that people will look at ads placed to the right of content. It makes a lot of sense because people read English from left to right. (Sorry we can’t comment on websites with other languages since we have no experience there.) Ads adjacent to high traffic navigation areas will also get more clicks simply due to proximity and wandering eyes.

The next most clicked ad is directly below the article. In this design we’ve placed a 468×60 half banner. Half banners tend to suffer from ad blindness a little more than link units in this location. Ad blindness is simply the reality that people avoid looking at ads in general and have learned to avoid anything that looks like ads, like image banner ads.

In the beginning Google Adsense ads didn’t look like ads to people. They looked like content. We’re finding that people are catching on and are developing ad blindness to certain ad formats and locations. For example you’ll notice we don’t suggest using 728×90 leaderboards. This is simply because we have had a lot of bad luck with those over time. But if you love them feel free to jam one in at the top of your pages. The only disadvantage is they push your content and other ads 90 pixels below the fold farther.

The other ads on the page are placed below of to the right of the content. The 160×600 wide skyscraper is placed between the main content column and the right sidebar content because the users’ eyes will have to jump over it to get to the content links they want to read. We’ve found that 160×600 wide skyscrapers are becoming more subject to ad blindness and this layout technique tends to help, forcing the users’ eyes to jump from one valuable piece of content to another.

Layout Two

This layout also has three Adsense ads above the fold but it uses a video in the upper right corner. Good video content can keep people on pages a long time and their eyes will wander onto nearby ads. So we’ve placed a 300×325 directly below the video and a 180×90 link unit to the left. Links placed below images are often scanned by users so below images (or videos) is a prime spot to place ads. Be careful thought, Google’s policies do not allow placement tricks that make the images look like part of the advertising. Be sure to maintain some kind of clear visual difference.

You’ll also notice that we’ve forced the users’ eyes to jump from the top article to the video. We chose not to use a 160×600 wide skyscraper (or similar larger ad) because of the ad blindness issues associated with the larger ads.

The other ads on the page are placed with the content to increase ad effectiveness. It’s also worth pointing out that the wider right column to the right of the 160×600 skyscraper seems to work better than having a narrower far right column. We think this is because it’s easier to read a wider column so users’ eyes will jump there more naturally.

Layout Three

This design places a full size video right in the article. This is useful if you post a lot of videos. Just like in the first design the top right and left ads will draw the most content. You’ll also notice we’ve placed a large 336×280 between posts. We’re finding that the small 90 pixel high link units and the largest 336×280 ad units work best between articles.

This design also uses a 728×15 link until under the tab navigation. You’ll often see sub-navigation below tabs so it is a natural place for users to expect to see links. Just try not to mislead your users by making them think it is sub-navigation.

The other important piece of this design to note is that we’ve tried to place another 300×250 ad unit to the right of the second video on the page. This is to create a similar effect as the ad placement at the top of the page. This is a little trickier since it is not always possible to guess the length of a post and you may need to adjust the number of items in the lists on the right so that the ad appears to the right of the second video.

Layout Four

This is a tried and true design you’ll see on many websites. Nesting a large ad, like a 336×280 or a 300×250 inside the content is very effective. Placing the two ad units at the top of the right and left column will also get you a lot of success. Placing a horizontal link unit like a 468×15 at the bottom of a column is popular to do but use this with caution because it invites someone who just read the whole page to leave the website. Instead try placing related article links there and earn a user.

Layout Five

In this design we’re using ad blindness to our advantage. We’ve placed a banner ad on the page because we know the users’ eyes will jump over it and we’ve placed good link content to the right with a link until on above and below the links. The users’ eyes will recognize that the worst part of the page is that awful banner and jump right onto the text ads. If you suft some of the biggest blogs you’ll see this technique used a lot, but you’ll see few people talking about it. It’s not really a trick just a reality. People hate banners.

The other ads on the page, the 160×90 link unit and the 336×280 ad unit at the top right and left corners are in their normal effective locations.

Conclusion

We hope this helps you optimize you website or blog and increase your ad performance. Layout is important; just don’t forget all the other aspects like font color, font size, backgrounds, etc. We’d also love to heard what you think and see links to your website after optimizing with these ideas. Good Luck!

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