OKO Digital

The ad optimisation people

  • Home
  • Publisher Solutions
    • Website Monetization
    • Header Bidding
    • AdX – Google Ad Exchange
    • App Ad Monetization
    • WordPress Monetization
  • About us
    • OKO & the OKO team
    • Careers
  • Blog
    • Latest blog posts
    • Ad Blocking
    • Ad Exchange (AdX)
    • Ad Optimisation
    • Ad Performance & Page Speed
    • Ad Publishing Landscape
    • AdSense
    • DoubleClick For Publishers (DFP)
    • Exchange Bidding
    • Google Ad Manager
    • Google Certified Publishing Partners
    • Header Bidding
    • Privacy & GDPR
    • Program Policy
    • Open Bidding
    • Traffic
  • Contact

Ad Optimisation, Google AdSense . 31st March 2014

The anatomy of a successful AdSense website

As part of the AdSense 10th anniversary celebrations, Google published 16 AdSense success stories on their website.  Each of these stories represented one website that has succeeded with the benefit of AdSense.

Whilst these may not be the world’s top earning AdSense sites, they are all sites that have done well. Most are also run by the sort of individuals and small teams who we most frequently encounter, meaning that there is the opportunity of other publishers to learn from their success.

To see if there were any patterns to be learned from, we analysed ad position, ad unit choice, ad implementation and number of ads. We’ve presented some of the findings in this handy infographic.

successful AdSense website
Click above to open the full-size infographic in a new window

Some of the findings were surprising; here are a few key take-aways

Recommended ad unit sizes

The success story publishers mostly stuck with Google’s advice to use the recommended ad unit sizes.  728*90 leaderboards were the most popular overall, but this is partly because they lend themselves well to having multiple units of the same size on a page.

The recommended ad units don’t just work well because they attract good CTRs. Advertisers also use them more heavily, which means that there is more ads to choose from – which can lead to higher CPC.

Ads Following “F Patterns”

Users tend to scan web pages in an F pattern. Placing ads within that pattern can improve their visibility and therefore increase click through rates.  The heatmaps show that the AdSense success story publishers are following that pattern without being slaves to it.

You don’t always need to show ads!

25% of the featured websites had no AdSense on their home page at all and only 6 out of 16 showed three or more ad units.  That might seem counterproductive to some, but there are multiple scenarios where reducing or removing ads from the home page can make sense.

  • Is a high bounce rate home page hurting the site overall?
  • Are those users who explore more deeply more likely to return?
  • Are clicks on your deeper pages more valuable?

4 or more units

Most publishers are limited to 4 AdSense units per page. Larger publishers, who are under direct account management with Google, and those working with Google AdSense Certified Partners can apply to be whitelisted for additional units.  Where publishers have a proven track record of quality, they can be approved for this, providing a means to improve performance , particularly on long pages. It’s worth noting that those publishers have been approved for this because they are successful and have a proven quality record, rather than being successful because of additional ad units.

The big pattern

The most obvious pattern is one that we fully expected: There is no definitive pattern (well, not in ad implementation).  AdSense success isn’t a secret formula to be discovered and replicated.  What works for one website might fail miserably on another.

How ads are technically implemented doesn’t dictate the success of a website.

The common theme though is sites that add value and give their users a reason to visit and come back again. By creating great sites these publishers consistently attract visitors to their sites generating ad impressions.  Once you have that, the rest is just good-practice and common sense.

If you found this study interesting, why not sign up for our newsletter? Once per month we’ll share news from AdSense plus tips and analysis aimed exclusively at AdSense publishers.  It’s free, we treat your details with respect and you can unsubscribe instantly at any time.

Ad Optimisation, Google AdSense . Tips

About Abbey Colville

SEARCH

TOPICS

  • Ad Blocking
  • Ad Exchange (AdX)
  • Ad Optimisation
  • Ad Performance & Page Speed
  • Ad Publishing Landscape
  • AdSense
  • DoubleClick For Publishers (DFP)
  • Exchange Bidding
  • Google Ad Manager
  • Google Certified Publishing Partners
  • Header Bidding
  • Open Bidding
  • Privacy & GDPR
  • Program Policy
  • Traffic

Could the ads on your site be earning more?

Find out how OKO help publishers earn more from their ads.

LEARN MORE
Insticator

OKO Digital, The Cake Shed, Manor Farm, Manor Road, Hayling Island, Hampshire, PO11 0QW

Google Certified Publisher Partner Logo

OKO is a registered trademark and trading style of OKO Digital Limited. Registered in England company number 03867231. © OKO Digital Limited 1996-2018. All Rights Reserved.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}