We've moved.
Visit our new home for news and updates from AdSense
Inside AdSense
Google's official blog for news, tips and information on AdSense.
Set your site on fire!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
On the AdSense team we're always talking about "hot" (good) and "cold" (bad) ad placement. I love this approach and I find myself analyzing my everyday life in the same way.
Just the other day, I had some friends over for dinner and placed the appetizer in a very "cold" place, in particular, a coffee table that my puppy Tori could reach. Needless to say, she wasted no time teaching me a lesson by eating the salmon in one gigantic bite. She was satisfied, and I was down about $20.
The lesson for AdSense is that "cold" ad placement on your pages can cost you, so if you're looking to maximize your earnings, try to place your ads in "hot" places on your site. (This can be hard to figure out because often you're juggling your users' experience and the existing layout of your site.)
The most general tip I can give is that an ad placed above the fold is "hot," and one placed below the fold is "cold." I'm not sure if that rhyme at the end will help you remember this, but I sure hope that it does. Beyond that, you need to start thinking about your site design in order to create the "hottest" ad placement. The first thing you should consider is whether your site is vertically or horizontally organized. If your site is vertically based, you might consider trying to integrate a "blazing" skyscraper on the left hand side of your pages. On the other hand, for more horizontally laid out sites I love seeing a "smoking" leaderboard placed right below the title or the first section of content. Both of these placements fit within our traditional
heatmap
and should work well on your sites.
The next thing you should consider is placing your ad in the "hottest" spot of them all -- the middle of the page above the fold. Let me qualify this by saying that placing a one of our button or half-banner ad formats in this location just for the sake of having an ad in this middle of the page is not a good idea. In keeping with the vertical vs. horizontal theme, you should look to see if leaderboard, banner or rectangle will fit for you and your users in this location. Other considerations are whether or not the ad itself can be wrapped by your content or if it will function as a divider between two sections of content or navigation.
I hope that the story about Tori the puppy and these examples help you create the hottest site possible. One last note: you'll never know what type of results you can get without experimenting. So start seeing what hot spots your site holds for you.
P.S. No animals were harmed in the writing of this post!
Posted by Geoff Vitt - AdSense Optimization Team
Labels
#GlobalSpotlight
2
#SuccessStack
9
Active View
9
Ad formats
22
Ad layout
6
Ad Placement
2
AdSense
5
AdSense Anniversary
15
AdSense features
231
adsense guide
14
AdSense In Your City
22
AdSense Interface
61
AdSense Team
31
AdSense101
13
AMP
3
AskAdSense
4
Audience Engagement
4
Beginner's
1
Best Practice
22
Beta
1
Case studies
99
Certified Partners
4
Content strategy
23
DoubleClick
17
download
3
Earnings/Reports
70
eBook
3
Education
4
engagement
1
Facts and Fiction
11
FAQs
1
Feedback
10
Google Analytics
7
Google's Certified Publishing Partner
3
googlenew
13
Guest Blogger
4
Help
2
How to avoid policy violations
1
India
1
infographic
3
International
118
Learn with Google for Publishers
17
Matched content
6
micro-moments
5
Mobile
67
Mobile optimization
3
Multi-Screen
32
Native
1
native ads
4
Newbie
32
Optimal ad placement
1
Optimization
165
Other
245
Other Google products
106
Page-Level
1
PageSpeed
10
Pakistan
1
Passion into profit
8
Payments
62
Policy
2
Pop-Unders
1
Pop-Ups
1
Product update
11
Program Policies
79
Programmatic
1
Social
19
Support
10
Tips
37
Urdu
1
User Generated Content
1
Video
41
Viewability
13
Webinars
15
YouTube
3
Archive
2019
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
May
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Aug
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Feed
Subscribe to receive posts via email:
Visit this group
Follow @adsense
Useful links
Get started with AdSense
Sign in to your account
AdSense Help Center
AdSense Help Forum
Related Google products
AdMob: Monetize your app
DoubleClick for Publishers Small Business
Google AdWords
Google Analytics
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
