Very Low CTR (under 1%)

[Tambo85]

My newest website is getting a very bad click-through rate with Google Adsense. It's averaging at about .78% over an entire month. That's terrible! I can't help but thinking that if I was able to improve that to like 3%, I'd be making 4x as much money. I have 2 ad units with the default colors. One is after each article and the other is in a banner in the right side of the header... Any suggestions?

[Andrew]

Read this thread: http://zzzprofits.com/threads/12-Mak...-Ad-Placements it has a bunch of suggestions.

First, I would use the heatmap in that thread to find the best placements (left sidebar and within the content).

Second, use the PHP code provided in a link from that thread to split test your ad colors and see which one preforms best.

Finally, keep testing and testing. Try new combinations and record your results. That, alone, should imrpove your results by as much as 100%

***

I also want to mention that the quality of 1) your content and 2) the traffic play a HUGE role. Don't focus on #'s of visitors but on quality of visitors. Make sense? A high-quality visitor will be much more likely to stick around and eventually click on an ad than someone who doesn't care.

[tundramd]

What about asking your visitors to help your site out and click on the sponsors ads?

[VGG]

What about asking your visitors to help your site out and click on the sponsors ads?

I believe that goes against Google AdSense Terms and Conditions. I'm pretty sure that will get your account banned.

[tundramd]

Roger that!

What about this?

"We know that you have found the free articles on www.hotdogbible.com to be helpful and your continued support is appreciated. I hope you found the sponsors products and services useful for your needs." I put this at the end of the home page and the about this site page. Hope google doesnt mind

Thoughts?

legal or illegal?

[Moe]

What about this?

"We know that you have found the free articles on www.hotdogbible.com to be helpful and your continued support is appreciated. I hope you found the sponsors products and services useful for your needs." I put this at the end of the home page and the about this site page. Hope google doesnt mind

That probably wont cause you any problems with Google, sponsor can mean many things and you are not directly asking for clicks, but at the same time i don't think putting that there will increase your click-trough rate either. People will click on an add because it catches their interest and is relevant to what they are looking for. As andrew stated constant testing is the best way to increase click-through. It also takes a hundred or more clicks before you can get enough stats on a test.

[tundramd]

That word "probably" doesn't inspire confidence
maybe not mention the taboo word "sponsors"???

[Koaboy]

Once you get banned. its pretty much for life.

[Blue]

Yeah... Whatever you do, don't ask people to click your ads. Don't even imply it! People get banned for saying stuff like "click the ads if you are truly interested in these sponsors."

From what I've noticed on my sites, the highest click through rates I get are from the horizontal banners on the top of my pages. It's the first thing people generally see when they visit a site, and if it's something they're interested in - it won't go unnoticed.

[evancho123]

maybe it will increase..