Ad placement can make a significant difference to your sites revenues. Here are some key points to bear in mind:
1. Ads placed above the fold usually perform better than those below.
2. Placement of ads close to content usually works well as users tend to focus their attention on these areas.
3. Use a stats program like Google Analytics which monitors navigational behaviour on your site. This may provide helpful information about where you should consider placing your ads.
4. Ads placed at the bottom of articles tend to perform well as they provide a natural progression for the user and exit if need be.
5. Google’s heat map below, can be a useful guide with prime locations marked in the darker shades of orange.
6. Experimentation is key. What works for one site may not work on another, so try different positions.
Posted by Peter Brady on Fri 20th July 2007 at 06:00 AM, Filed in Key Articles
In light of moves towards Ajax and streaming, Nielsen//NetRatings have conceded that their rating service is to lose page view metrics rankings for a move towards total number of minutes spent on site.
I have to admit a little bafflement at this move. Of course there are plenty of other important metrics to monitor, but why not just maintain them all instead of dropping one in favour of another?
I’m convinced advertisers would like to see a variety of data when making their inventory decisions - that includes dwell time, uniques, page views, RSS subs etc.
Nielsen say:
“Based on everything that’s going on with the influx of Ajax and streaming, we feel total minutes is the best gauge for site traffic,” said Scott Ross, director of product marketing at Nielsen. “We’re changing our stance on how the data should be” used.
As mentioned over on Blogspotting all this confusion is likely to benefit those who sell ads based on clicks although Google is obviously retaining an interest in metrics based inventory with it’s purchase of banner advertiser DoubleClick.
Quite simply put - yes YouTube ads are most definitely the future. But where do the expertise lie to produce the necessary viral credentials?
The answer is that the expertise don’t exist. That is to say that there are no specialists in this field that I know of. Yes there are various disciplines such as marketing, PR and advert producers slowly moving in - but none of them seems to fully understand the requirements and or the implications of this new medium.
What are the key points to consider for a YouTube ad:
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If you’re going to win the hearts and mind of advertisers it helps to have the right blog design. Here are some ideas and thoughts to cogitate on:
1. Credit where credit is due. Darren Rowse the Problogger.net genius has hit on an excellent layout with his 3 blocks of key posts and categories at the top of his blog. It works for him and I think it works here.
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There is not a silver bullet that works for every blog. However, if there is one thing I have learnt it’s that, the quicker you can tap into direct advertising the better chance you have of making a living out of blogging. Here are some thoughts and tips to chew on.
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