Getting people to click ads

[Temporaryuser]

How does everyone manage it? I have quite a busy site, but no one seems to click the adsense ads. I've had them up for a while, and they are related, but no one bothers. How do you all do it?

[Bernard]

Write boring, uninteresting copy? :D

(Just kidding... I'm not using AdSense)

[Temporaryuser]

Personally, I cant see why anyone would click an ad, but others seem to manage. There must be some secret. You cant even ask people to help the site by clicking, as it says in the TOS you cant do that either

[Dave Barnett]

Thanks Bernard, you've let my secret out ;)

[Webmaster T]

IMO, certain kinds of content draws buyers and other content draws researchers and Looky Lous. If you use free in your titles your going to get more of the later than former coming to the site.

Just an educated guess, no hard facts to back it up!

[Temporaryuser]

So you put people off visiting your site buy having some free things available?

[Articus]

The ads themselves cant be changed by you the webmaster. My only guess is the ads arent compelling enough, they may not be positioned in the right location on your page. Adsense has several locations to run the ads. You might change the locations and see if you get better results. The colors can be changed as well. I would tinker with the color, font, placment of the ads on your site before throwing in the towel. Your content and layout is unique, so should the adsense ads themselves.

[Temporaryuser]

I have tried all that, I have a lot of visitors, but everyone just seems to ignore ads

[Webmaster T]

Originally posted by Temporaryuser
So you put people off visiting your site buy having some free things available?No, not neccessarily, I've just found it is harder to sell things when people are expecting something for free. Free IMO, targets an audience less likely to buy. So if I have "free search engine submission" in my title I don't expect to sell anything from that page. If I was doing PPC I'd use wording that would discourage that audience from clicking because they are less likely to convert.

[Temporaryuser]

But say it was a sound collection website. And they used 'Free sound collections' in their title. But they also offered pay for sounds as well, of better quality and could be used for commercial purposes. What would be the best audience to attract?

[Articus]

I guess when people expectations are FREE, then they dont see value. Maybe they are skeptical of the word FREE. Most people know there is a catch somewhere.

[Steve Sardell]

Originally posted by Bernard
Write boring, uninteresting copy? :D

(Just kidding... I'm not using AdSense)

Just saw this thread and I am ROFLMAO :uplaugh: Good wit Bernard. Good to have a break from the serious stuff--thanx.

getting folks to click ads has always been tuff--their perception of ads is: just another commercial. They need an eye catcher, but the adsence ads are fairly bland. Just consider it a bonus if they do click.

[Quadrille]

It just so happens that text ads are kewl at the moment - probably a reaction to the strobe-gifs and slow flash animation that were clogging things up a while back.

Won't last, however, as more and more get broadband, crappads will get quicker, and Adsense will offer an image option.

But text ads is currently the place to be. And the best way to get clicks is too ignore your stats for a few days!

[Webmaster T]

Originally posted by Temporaryuser
But say it was a sound collection website. And they used 'Free sound collections' in their title. But they also offered pay for sounds as well, of better quality and could be used for commercial purposes. What would be the best audience to attract?Personally I'd optimize for them on separate pages and let the user know the other option exists. IMO, when you say "free" anything it just pi**es off the user when they get there if it isn't free. Anyone using free in a query isn't looking to buy they only want free because they don't have the cash or aren't willing to pay for the product even if they are able.

[JohnScott777]

A friend owns www.pregnancylounge.com and the old ads used to stand out as obvious advertisements. Since then we changed the bg color and the border to look more integrated. If the ads look less like ads and more integrated, then visitors may confuse the ads with site navigation and click. The CTR there took off after the changes were made.

I know of another site that makes the Adsense look exactly like site navigation. It's almost 100% CTR.

[Dan0]

Originally posted by JohnScott777
I know of another site that makes the Adsense look exactly like site navigation. It's almost 100% CTR.
Hate to be skeptical, John, but "almost 100%?" :rolleyes:
If Adsense gets almost all of the clicks, their page views must have fallen like a rock, eh?

[Steve Sardell]

Originally posted by Dan0
Hate to be skeptical, John, but "almost 100%?" :rolleyes:
If Adsense gets almost all of the clicks, their page views must have fallen like a rock, eh?

DanO, You always make such great comments :hi:

[JohnScott777]

Originally posted by Dan0
Hate to be skeptical, John, but "almost 100%?" :rolleyes:
If Adsense gets almost all of the clicks, their page views must have fallen like a rock, eh?

Dan0
No pageviews. It's just a webpage with Adsense positioned to look like site navigation.

But let me guess, here on IHY making money would be thought of spamming and/or unethical?

[Dan0]

No pageviews. It's just a webpage with Adsense positioned to look like site navigation.
I assume there's some content on this page. Where do they get their traffic?
But let me guess, here on IHY making money would be thought of (as) spamming and/or unethical?
:confused: No, John. Making money is the American way.

False advertising and deception is unethical. I don't see how that would apply here, unless you've come up with some clever way to hide the words "Ads by Google."

[andyh]

False advertising and deception is unethical. I don't see how that would apply here, unless you've come up with some clever way to hide the words "Ads by Google."

I agree,

It might make a quick bit of cash, but it's hardly sending out good messages about your business if 1/2 (or more) of your visitors are getting sent away to ad sites.

Maybe that's what they want, but I hope they've got a plan for when Google changes one day and they've adsense'd away their proper business.

Or am I alone in this thought?

Andy

[Quadrille]

It might make a quick bit of cash, but it's hardly sending out good messages about your business if 1/2 (or more) of your visitors are getting sent away to ad sites.
Good point. There's a balance; you want a proportion of folk to click, as that's effortless cash in hand. But you also want them to do whatever your site is there for.

The trick, I suppose, is to optimize your site for return visitors - it's OK for them to go (and they are paying to do that) so long as they come back. Sounds obvious - but how many people try every trick in the book to get visitors, then have no idea what to do with them? Even if they get an exit fee (=adsense) it'll be just the once.

If your site does what it said on the packet, they'll pay to go. And come back.

Hopefully :)

[JanetW]

well, we manage pretty well with strong contrasting colours that attract attention, and are different to the main page colours.

Most ads, and pages in general, are very tasteful and bland, if not downright drear.

Put some colour and pzazz in!


JW

[altyfc]

Originally posted by Articus
The ads themselves cant be changed by you the webmaster.

That's not strictly true.

You can change the ads by blocking ones you specify.

More importantly, as John alludes to, you can change the background color.

If your ads blend in far better, this will surely make them look far less like ads and therefore be more likely to be clicked upon?

Aaron

[ROB12]

Make a cashback/reward site and pay people to click on adverts like www.ecashback.co.uk

[Quadrille]

Hi, Rob12

You cannot do that with Adsense - against the rules.

But does that actually make a profit? I've seen a few sites that do it, but it always looked a bit fishy to me ... can people really get paid to click, when they obviously don't care what they're clicking on?
I can't imagine, as an advertiser, that it would be worth the cash ... and as a visitor, I'd be frightened of repetitive strain injury!! ;)

But you may know different?

[Dan0]

No advertiser who wants to remain in business would want to pay for clicks like that. Even with Adwords, if you open up your campaign to content syndication (Adsense) you're bound to get some clicks from idiots who are just trying to line their own pockets.

[rasputinj]

For me Google Adsense helps me recover some of my hosting each month, the click are not massive, but enough to make a few bucks, for me it has been worth it to use it. I try to not have mine stick out to much since it can take away my affiliate business.

[ihelpyou]

Welcome to the forums JanetW! :hi: