CTR Optimization · Ad Formats

Google provides several different types of ads with different formats. You generally are able to select from text and image ads or combine both. On this page I show you the different ad formats that are currently available and you get some hints when to use which one.

Note

Some images have been reduced. If you move the mouse pointer over these ads they will be displayed with their original size. Some of the ads are marked with an asterisk (*). By clicking on these titles a useful example is displayed.

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Text and Image Ads

Leaderboard (728 × 90) *

Because of its width this format is mostly used on the header or footer of a page. Because of its size this type of ad is not suited for screens with 800 × 600 pixel or less.

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Banner (468 × 60) *

Banners are the most used types of ad formats. They mostly get used on the header or footer of a page. They may be used anywhere on a page if text flows above and below them. In the latter case you should take care that the page's width is not wider than the available area on the screen.

A banner is most effective if it is used to separate one textual paragraph from another.

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Skyscraper (120 × 600) * and Wide Skyscraper (160 × 600) *

These ad formats can only be used if there is enough room on the left or right border of a page. But there they attract the most attention. Most of the time skyscrapers are the most effective type of ads in Google's AdSense program.

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The following ad formats are best for the use inside textual parts of a page. The can separate textual paragraphs or text may flow around them. You always should take care that there is some space between text and ad because your readers may get too much diverted from your page's content.

The half banner may be used to complement a regular banner, too. In some cases this may use the page's width more completely.

Button (125 × 125)

Half Banner (234 × 60)

Small Rectangle (180 × 150)

Vertical Banner (120 × 240)

Medium Rectangle (300 × 250) *

Square (250 × 250)

Large Rectangle (336 × 280) *

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Link Blocks

Link blocks are very suitable to extend a navigation menu.

(120 × 90) Displays up to 5 link blocks.	(120 × 90_4) Displays up to 4 link blocks.
(160 × 90) Displays up to 5 link blocks.	(160 × 90_4) Displays up to 4 link blocks.
(180 × 90) Displays up to 5 link blocks.	(180 × 90_4) Displays up to 4 link blocks.
(200 × 90) Displays up to 5 link blocks.	(200 × 90_4) Displays up to 4 link blocks.

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Wide link blocks are very suitable to separate on paragraph from another. They become very attractive if used with high-contrast colors.

(468 × 15) – Displays up to 5 link blocks.

(468 × 15_4) – Displays up to 4 link blocks.

(728 × 15) – Displays up to 5 link blocks.

(728 × 15_4) – Displays up to 4 link blocks.

AdSense Secrets

There are lots of publications available that promise you the most confidential AdSense secrets for a lot of money. There is only one secret about Google AdSense: There is no secret!

"Why not?" you are probably going to ask. The answer is very easy: Google itself is most interested that as many users as possible use their advertising programs because that's what makes them successful, too. It would be absurd to hide some special properties just to let only a few users profit by these secrets.

To be able to optimize you must know that your profit is calculated from two main factors:

Profit = Clicks × CPC

CPC (Cost Per Click) is the amount that Google pays you if someone clicks on one of the ads.

The amount of clicks may be calculated this way:

Clicks = Impressions × CTR

CTR (Click Thru Rate) is the percentage of clicks in relation to the impressions of the ad. You may understand this value as the probability with that a user clicks on your ad.

The number of impressions depends directly form the number of visits that your website gets. This means that you must do everything to get more visitors and to keep them on your website as long as possible.

From this we conclude that there are three items we should optimize:

CPC (Cost Per Click)
CTR (Click Thru Rate)
Number of page impressions)
You can learn more about the optimization of CTR and CPC on the the next pages. There are already lots of publications in the web available that tell you how to increase your website traffic. Therefore this theme is currently nit handled very deeply on this website.


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