Ad positioning

After working with AdSense for a while, you've probably wondered if there's anything you can do to boost your AdSense earnings. But before you start experimenting with different setups, there are a few things you should know about positioning.

First, you should understand that there’s no universal job that guarantees you a higher salary. However, the section above about experimenting is to be taken literally. To find the best option, you need to try out as many different arrangements as possible. But of course, certain placements work better than others. Google is naturally aware of this and publishes a „heatmap“ that shows how much revenue ads can generate in specific areas of the page. Experimenting is generally the best method to work out what resonates with your audience’s subconscious.

The most profitable adverts are generally found within the main content, usually directly above it. However, this is not a hard and fast rule and there are certain exceptions. A recognised example is a news website or a site that is in close proximity to a new page. In that instance, you will often find that positioning your advert at the bottom of the content, just before the comments, will yield higher revenue. This is because consumers will have a short window of time after finishing a story where they are looking for something else to engage with. And your AdSense advertising can provide them with that something.

Furthermore, the placement of advertisements on the left-hand side of your page seems to work almost always better. This naturally makes sense, as text is often written from left to right (except in a few countries where the writing is the exact opposite). People finish a statement and then look back to the left, which increases the likelihood that they will see your ads.

It's also about more than just placing ads in the right locations. If you have more than one advert, you also need to consider where they are placed in the code. And there's a very good reason to think about this. AdSense displays the adverts in the order they appear in the source code. So if the first advert you put in the code isn't the one that makes the most money, you can quickly end up losing money rather than making more. This is because if AdSense runs out of ads, it fills the gap with public service announcements or leaves it blank. If you're unlucky, you might find that your most profitable pages don't display any good ads at all to boost your earnings.

There are further considerations when deciding how many ads to show on your website. The difficulty is that too many ads would not lead to more revenue, but rather to a lower click-through rate, as users are less likely to follow advertising in places where it is excessively present.

You must constantly monitor how users interact with your website. Pay attention to the areas of your website where visitors spend most of their time. That's where you should generally place your first adverts.

Furthermore, avoid placing advertisements in distracting locations, as this will lead to a lower click-through rate. Of course, you should always make sure your ads are in harmony with your content and do not make the visitor's experience on your website unpleasant.

The goal is to offer your visitors a pleasant experience while simultaneously generating revenue from their exploration. And again here, the best revenue is achieved through lots of experimentation. Use AdSense's channel feature and observe how different ads perform on your pages, and adjust their placement to increase your profits.