Location, location, location.
Believe it or not, the realtor’s mantra applies to your ad units. You might have an awesome site with great traffic, but it won’t matter if your ads aren’t in the right place. Ad placement can make or break a site’s chance at earning good ad revenue.
The absolute best spots you can place the ads are in or as close to your site content as possible. Here are your best placement options:
1. Place the ad directly below the post, before the comment option
2. Place the ad directly in between your post’s title and the actual body of the post
3. Place the ad WITHIN the content of the post (i.e. in between paragraphs, lists, etc)
Any of these options will be much more successful than a sidebar or footer ad.
To give you a better
idea of what we’re
talking about, check
out this heat map
that shows your best
ad placement options:
The Fold
The fold is the bottom of the first screen a user sees when
they visit your page without scrolling down. Anything below this space is considered
“below the fold.” In general, ads that are above the fold have a much higher
click rate than ads below the fold.
It’s important that you have at least one ad above the page
fold repeated. The last thing you want to do is make your users work to find
your ads, and an ad's position on your page has a substantial impact on your
potential revenue. Insights metrics point to ad units above the fold performing
25-50% better than those below the fold in terms of click through rate (CTR).
It might seem like a good idea to place ALL of your ads
above the fold. However, this can actually lower the revenue potential from
your ads due to advertiser policies.