Adsense Secrets: Getting More Clicks on Your Ads

More CTR (Click Thru Ratio) means more clicks on your Google Ads. But, is CTR all about position and colors of your ads? No! It's a lot more than that. CTR also depends upon the quality of traffic, relevancy of ads, and even the subject of your website. Let's get in detail:

Do you own a High CTR website?

Yes! CTR varies from Industry to industry too. It depends upon the keywords you are using to make your web page. It has been observed that more technical the topic is (but not necessarily) less CTR it will give you (for example Search Engine Optimization, Affiliate Network - exceptions are always there), but still works if the Ad content is well written.

However, this is only one condition; there are many undiscovered conditions that affect the CTR of keywords. At times, a particular season also has an effect on the performance of keywords. For example family of 'Turkey recipe' keyword is more active around November and December only and a quite sluggish rest of the year. It becomes really necessary to study the behavior of keywords before starting a massive website of Adsense around a topic.

Your Ad Position and Color: Old, but very effective

Google heat map helps improve the CTR (Clicks Thru Ratio) of your website by suggesting you the most converting areas for your Adsense Ads. You can have a glance at the Google's Survey that illustrates the ideal placements of ads on your web page.
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html#17954

https://www.google.com/support/adsense
/bin/static.py?page=tips.html#17954

Darker the area, better will be the performance of your ads. Your visitor tends to click on these darker areas more often than the other areas of the web page. Ads placed near rich content usually do well because users are focused on those areas of your web page. For example, on pages where users are typically focused on reading an article, ads placed directly below the concluding part of high quality content tend to perform well, as the visitors are left with no other choice except clicking the Ad block.

Get Targeted Traffic - The Most Essential Part

Traffic that is interested in your content (also called targeted traffic) is interested in your ads too. Thus, there is every likelihood that your ads will be clicked more frequently. Targeted traffic means more CTR, more earnings, and enhanced ad convertibility. On the other hand, the untargeted visitors are not interested either in your content or your ads, so keep your website's traffic targeted.

You can gather highly targeted traffic for your website by web promotion strategy and effective optimization of your web page structure. Effective web promotion strategy requires an appropriate Anchor text and more back links from relevant websites. And, to develop an effective web page structure, you have to optimize your Title Text, internal linking of your website, and most importantly your web content, in the best possible manner.

Choose the Right Anchor Text for Back Link Campaigns

Choosing the right anchor text for back links promotes your website to the traffic you exactly need from the search engines. Choose the Anchor text that directly speaks to your visitors and pulls the traffic that your web page requires. Targeted traffic results in increased CTR of ads. It helps promote your website to that segment of traffic, which is precisely searching for your content (or you can say the traffic that is most profitable to you). Targeting irrelevant keyword reduces your CTR by gathering the traffic which is not interested in your content or ads.

Wisely Choose the Title Text of Your Web Page

Title text of your webpage appears in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) as the Title link to your web page. Therefore, it is the title Text that directly speaks to the surfer on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) about your content's theme. It acts like a Free Advertisement Link to your website. If your title text does not interest the surfer, you lose considerable amount of much-needed traffic. Figure out a Title text that directly communicates with your potential visitors, brings targeted traffic, and enhances the CTR of your AdSense Ads. Don't overdo your title text, and use less than ten keywords in your title text.

Help Google Detect the Theme of Your Web Page

There are many on-page and off-page elements that affect your ad relevancy. Better targeted ads increase both your CTR and EPC. Here is how to optimize your ads:

Meta Tags

If there is NO CONTENT on your web page, the Google Mediabot will consider the Meta Tags while displaying ads. Meta tags have a considerable affect on the relevancy of your ads. It is advised never to leave this space empty. Also, try to make it as easy as possible for Mediabot to understand the theme of your web page.

Title Text

Google Mediabot gives good weightage to the keywords used in the Title text, which in turn gets reflected in your ads. Choose effective keywords for your Title text. Even the order of words in a keyword can affect the ads that are appearing on your web page. So, choose your keywords wisely.

Headings

Google Mediabot gives importance to the Heading text enclosed in

Boost Relevancy Artificially - Use Google's Section Targeting

Now, you can enhance Ad relevancy by using Google's Section targeting. Using this technique you can advise Google mediabot about the areas of your content which should be considered or ignored while matching the Ads with your content.

For more information on the same topic, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=23168&topic=371

For more information on the same topic, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense
/bin/answer.py?answer=23168&topic=371

Use Channels for Analyzing Your Ads' Performance

Try to relate your traffic logs with your CTR stats. You will get to know which Traffic source is giving you what CTR. This will help you recognize the traffic segment which is most converting for your website. Channels allow you to analyze your ads' performance, so that you can pin point the changes that your website needs to boost your AdSense income. There are two types of channels available - URL Channels and Custom Channels. You can use the URL channel to track your performance, without modifying your Ad code. Through URL channels, you can analyze the performance of individual page or a group of pages, based on the directory system of your website.

Custom channels can help you measure the performance of different Ad formats presented in your web pages. And, by pasting channel-specific ad code into your pages, you can track CTR, Impressions, number of clicks each individual ad format is generating, and compare its performance with other web pages.

Block Junk Websites and Competitor Websites from Showing Ads

There are many junk websites that might be displaying ads on your website. These websites steal the traffic from your website and recycle it on their own Adsense ad blocks. Recognize such websites and stick them in Adsense Competitive Ad filter. Also, you can block your competitor websites using this competitive filter.

This trick can sometimes double or triple your Adsense income, augment user experience, and makes look your Google ads more genuine. For more information about this tool, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=21593&ctx=sibling

This trick can sometimes double or triple your Adsense income, augment user experience, and makes look your Google ads more genuine. For more information about this tool, visit:

https://www.google.com/support/adsense
/bin/answer.py?answer=21593&ctx=sibling

Improving Your Conversion Reduces the Need to Constantly Promote Your Sites

I just got off the phone with Michael Fortin, one of the top copywriters and conversion experts on the web.

We were doing a teleseminar for our members on conversion and testing for website owners wanting more out of the traffic they already enjoy, rather than constantly having to promote their sites to support low conversion rates. Specifically, we were talking about all the things you can do to test different "calls to action."

A call to action is anything you are trying to get people to do on any particular site or page of a site. It could be buying a product or service, getting people on an announcement list or newsletter, or getting people to click on your advertising links.

Most web publishers are so happy when they finally have a site up that they consider their work done and get right to marketing it. Once the traffic rolls in, they enjoy whatever sales or clicks they get and try to make more money by driving MORE traffic to the site.

Then they start building another site. And another. And another.

This is a disturbing trend that is creating a massive amount of waste. Both in resources and time. Especially when it comes to niche publishers who are building massive networks of sites on different topics in order to capture emails, generate advertising revenue, sell affiliated products and services, or to build their lists to generate backend sales to their subscribers.

The waste is generated when people are in too big a hurry to build more sites, add more products, and get more traffic to sites that can convert sometimes 1000% BETTER than they do now.

They are moving at a hectic pace, in this scenario, to build build build, when their income goals can most often easily be met without so much waste.

One example of waste is when someone builds a content-dry site that has nothing but Adsense and some links on it. People hit that kind of site and can't wait to find a reason to leave. The thinking is, "Great! My 'click thru ratio' is sky high! I am getting almost everyone to click on my ads!"

But here's what's happening in reality: you are working VERY hard to get traffic to such a site, only to "burn" it on a 35 cent click! No email capture, no followup, and most importantly no desire on the part of the visitor to EVER see your site again!

Would you rather have someone come through your site and click immediately on an advertiser's link, never to return? Or would you rather have someone come to your site, read some great content, sign up for your list and not click on ANY links that first time?

I will take scenario #2 any day of the week. And I won't have made a single penny off of that person with that initial action. But I will in the future!

If you have a site that you constantly test and tweak for performance (beyond its ability to repulse your visitors into clicking on an advertisement just to get to a QUALITY site) then you have a real business.

You can test and track SO MANY variables to make a site more profitable than it is now. Every site on the web can perform better than it does right now. Every single one!

The people who understand this never stop testing their calls to action to get their visitors to do more than something that results in a one-time action.

Traffic is the most expensive thing on the web both in the time it takes to get it and the resources you have to use up for each and every hit.

The traffic you have now might be all the traffic you EVER need on a daily basis to make a killing with your site. You will never know until you test and track everything about your site.

The headlines, the offers, the opt-in forms, the guarantees, testimonials, bullets, adsense placement, followup... In short, every webmaster on the net has a lot of work to do on every site they own if they really want to reap the kinds of profits their sites are actually capable of pulling in.

Most people get a site up and are happy with the sales or clicks they get and move on. NO! You are leaving so much money on the table thinking you are done with a site right after you put it up.

That site is the worst it should ever be! Wasting another domain fee, hosting fee, bandwidth and the costs associated with getting traffic to a brand new site before you have optimized your current site for the very best conversion it can pull is NOT good business practice.

I know people who have literally thousands of domains. And one thing I can guarantee you is this: They are making a pittance, even if they are making $60,000 a DAY, in comparison to what they COULD be making with far fewer sites and more testing and tweaking of that smaller group!

And Fortin seems to agree. He is going to be at my seminar in New Orleans September 9th - 11th, 2005 to expose everyone who attends to just how much money they have left on the table over the years because they have never tested different aspects of their calls to action.

It is enlightening, as well as depressing to find out how much money you COULD have made all this time had you tested from the beginning!

But the point is, you cannot go back to get all those lost subscribers, sales, or clicks. You can only start testing today to capture more money from each site you own. Thereby alleviating the need to have a massive network of sites all performing at half their potential or much less!


About the author:
Jack Humphrey is Managing Partner at Content Desk. He is also the author of Power Linking 2005, now in its 4th edition. http://www.power-linking-profits.comTo learn more about the profitable niche publishing industry, check out http://contentdesk.com/mardigras

Article Marketing 101: A Cost-Effective Method of Business Advertising

Most of what you know about a business, a brand, a service or a product will come to you via a method called article marketing. Although it is currently one of buzzwords in the online business industry, it's actually been used for a long time. In fact, its use goes as far back as the advent of mass printing. So what is it exactly and how does it impact a business?

What is article marketing? At its core, article marketing is actually advertising, a means to promote something related to a business or brand. It comes in the form of a short article, which can contain news, an explanation, directions, clarifications or any relevant information about the product or service being promoted. Articles can appear in all types of media, more commonly in print and online.

Materials used in article marketing are distributed and published for free.

How is it used? Article marketing is often used in conjunction with an advertising campaign. Notice how write-ups in related subjects often appear in newspapers or on websites each time a company or brand is launching something?

A company producing cocoa powder, for example, will come up with articles discussing the different types of cocoa and how best to use them for cooking or baking. A car company can publish or post write-ups about road safety and vehicle maintenance prior to a promotional blitz for a new model.

Online article marketing Traditional article marketing is similar in many ways to its online counterpart. However, there are also several differences, many of which are considered beneficial by business owners. Some of these are:

Keyword relevance People who use the Internet look for information in a different way. In traditional media, promotional materials have to catch the viewer's eyes. In online marketing, an article can appear solo on a web page and have all the attention of the visitor.

In online article marketing, a write-up has to be search engine optimized, containing the necessary keywords that will help it appear high on search engine listings. As such, articles become highly targeted promotional materials, able to hone in on the relevant market – the kind that will be interested enough to buy, subscribe or participate.

It can go viral. Online article marketing allows limitless access and use of articles. Visitors can flag them, share them, vote for them or interact by leaving comments. If the article impresses a visitor, he or she can even promote it to others, thus spreading the word about the business without the owner having to pay extra.

Articles also get spread online a lot faster and can reach more people than traditional methods. It's quite possible, for example, that a write-up posted today can reach thousands within 24 hours and millions within two to three days.

Online article marketing is free. There's no need to pay for a half-page ad or a 15-second spot on TV. Articles may be sent to an article database or directory, a website that serves as a repository of write-ups.

Directory or database owners offset the cost of providing the site for free by charging advertisers instead. Articles are categorized so visitors easily find them.

Authors and business owners have more control. With online article marketing, the author can pretty much do what he wants to do with the write-up and how it appears on his website. He can, for example, post the article with just one single ad or post only the kind of ads that will be relevant to the article.

Article marketing continues to be a popular method for business promotions. The only disadvantage is that the method becomes overused and abused – hence, the appearance of low quality write-ups. Hopefully, with more discerning readers, article marketing will regain its respectability as a very effective means of promoting a business.

If you're looking for the best articles to populate your site with, Article Shark is where you can find articles that will suit your niche.

Make Money off Google

In less than 10 years Google has become the dominant power of the internet. If someone needs to search the web for something, Google is who they trust to direct them in the right direction. Being such a powerful and innovative company, Google is also very trusted in general. They are extremely reliable and have constantly found new ways to make money in intelligent ways.

One of Google’s primary sources of income is their advertising programs. They have a program called Google AdWords that has become a necessary part of generating traffic for just about any site on the web selling a product. The way it works is that people who want to drive traffic to their webpage will bid on specific relevant keywords. When someone runs a Google search on these specific keywords, the bidder’s page will show up in the sponsored links on the results page. It is a fast way to make your webpage available to the public. The interesting thing about Google AdWords is the bidder pays-per-click, or in other words, the bidder pays only when someone click on the link leading to their page.

Another advertising program is Google AdSense. This program allows people to place ads on their webpage for other people’s services. It is a way to maximize you site’s potential income. The way it works is Google looks through a given webpage, and finds its relevant topics. It then says, “This page talks a lot about flowers (just an example). This would be a good place to put ads for site that sell flowers. ” Google AdSense then places the ads on your page and every time someone clicks on an ad on your page, you get a commission of what they pay to have the advertising there.

Now here’s the point. Google makes a ton of money off of these programs which means they can pay tons to have people promote the same programs. They want more people to use them. So here’s the little known big secret. Google Advertising has affiliate programs! Google will actually pay you to get other people to sign up for their advertising programs. This is an overlooked but powerful way to make money in the affiliate world.

Entrepreneur Kimball Roundy has developed a system that teaches you how to make money off of Google Advertising via video lessons. This system is called The SpiderWeb Marketing System and not only does it teach you how to promote Google Advertising, it does it for you through the system itself. Kimball gives this system away for free for this reason: by signing up for this Google advertising through The SpiderWeb Marketing System, he gets a commission from Google. You, the user, get to use the system for free, and then the system allows you to get other people to sign up for Google advertising under you! That means that you will start making passive income by successfully generating a downline and it’s all free! The SpiderWeb Marketing System will do everything for you. So to recap, you can make money off of Google, and now, you can do it better than everyone else.

Is Google in Trouble & Facing Bankruptcy?

[NEW YORK - Wednesday] - by Devon Melk. Rumors are now running amok that the 2nd most powerful website on the entire Worldwide-Web may file BANKRUPTCY, with the deadline set for this December; being the date of both discharge and dissolution in a Federal Court of Law.

This would come as a SHOCK to investors and "Googlers" alike who both profit and benefit from the use of the World's largest and most powerful search engine which receives far in excess of 100 MILLION unique daily visitors and well over 300 million individual searches daily - making it perhaps the single most valuable public data resource as an "information bank" online the world over.

But is the rumor true or false?

The origin of the rumor occurred when some savvy Internet marketers began making statements that they had heard "insiders' talk" that the company (now publicly traded since April 30, 2004, just over 3 years ago) may face financial disaster with the release of a "new system" that would allow advertisers to get their otherwise pay-per-click (PPC) advertising completely free.

This, of course, would naturally lead directly (like a domino- effect) to the collapse of Google's sibling program AdSense; as its only revenue comes from the direct sales of AdWords "clicks."

The "new system" in question and responsible for the controversy over getting AdWords pay-per-clicks free is that developed by Dr Jon Cohen of New York City, New York (now retired) who discovered a simple, yet effective means, for getting Google PPC ads without having to suffer the costs involved.

The retired New York doctor and native has a publicly disclosed net worth now in excess of $70 million [US], having generated well over $377 million in product sales from sixteen (16) separate online businesses within just nine

(9) years since first venturing online in 1998 (about the same time as Google was founded).

It is estimated by company insiders and leading financial analysts that the

"good doctor" (as he's called by "all who know him") has purportedly saved well over $93 million (some estimates suggest closer to $136 million) in otherwise paid advertising at Google and the other major players in the PPC targeted-search arena online - including Yahoo, MSN, AskJeeves, AllTheWeb.com, HotBot, AltaVista, Lycos and Netscape, just to name a few.

The "secret" became available to the general masses last April, and its very release caused such a major sweeping stir among the community of Internet-marketers, affiliate-marketers, webmasters, ecommerce company owners and surfers alike that the site quickly rose to break the top most visited 1,000 websites on the entire planet briefly; and as can be seen here:

http://tinyurl.com/39lnjn (Alexa data on this!)

When asked if the "secret" would somehow ruin Google, Dr Cohen revealed almost cryptically that it actually would bring about just the opposite effect, and "stimulate" even more business volume for the virtual giant.

Many people were dismayed to find that Google itself is deliberately allowing the purchase of 100,000's of PPC ads offering the secret system to the general public -- which indicates to most observers that either they [Google] haven't caught it, or they simply feel that it somehow is not a threat to their continued operation.

For anyone's inspection factual and hard evidence supporting this can be seen by simply looking to the right-hand column when doing a search for

"get google ads free" (specifically in quotation marks) at Google.com under the "Sponsored Links" section.

Or take this direct and instant SHORTCUT:

http://tinyurl.com/2ctu6j

You can also see nearly 100,000 specific results in the "organic" fields index located in the center and which occupies the bulk of the results pages.

One would think that if Google felt threatened by such a release as this earth-shaking "secret" is, they would hardly allow for either paid-ads or organic content to make the top searches regarding it.

However, evidence supports to the contrary - and this being the case now for a full six (6) months.

Mysteriously, within just two (2) hours of its initial release last April, Google itself actually did in fact 'pause' the parent firm's attempts at advertising the new system using PPCs on their search engine - only, however, to release the hold after a Review Team consisting of some of Google's top executives completed performing an in-depth investigation and made the determination to ALLOW the ads to run.

The secret system was recently revised however to include "major new content" and "more exhaustive instructions," and is now available at its Home Site:

http://www.DigitalProductSearch.com/freegoogle

The most important addition is that of a so-called "string of code"

(tech-talk for some HTML) that can be added to any webpage(s) that instantly causes the elimination of the page owner's AdWords costs right away.

Even a "live" woman spokes-representative ("Rachel") has been added to the site, and who appears to literally walk out onto the webpage and talk to visitors and explain a bit more how the mysterious new breakthrough system works.

Since the addition of this new "live" spokes-woman has now appeared at the site, company Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Mr Todd Coutrin states that "sales for the system have skyrocketed above 2,430 percent suddenly and

with no limit in sight."

Coutrin continues: "With the newest revision now in place, plus all the additions added, affiliates for the new system can expect to earn even more than ever before!" (Note: Affiliates make up the bulk of the firm's sales generation.)

The refund rate for the new revised version of the secret (named V5.1) has dropped to less than half of what it was before the newer version's release; meaning it's now even more readily-received and put to use than ever before

(perhaps in large part to the newer simplicity of application) - now making it the safest and one of the best resellers for the networks of affiliate marketers who earn their revenues from the reselling of other electronic publishers' stock and digital product lines.

When asked, Google company representatives stated matter-of-factly that the rumors of bankruptcy for the ecommerce giant are simply not true, and that the rumor millings are in fact simply the result of "panics" brought on by the usual hysteria associated with anything large, new or revolutionary - or in this case, all three.

Attempts to contact both Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the former Stanford University students who founded Google in 1998, to request comment were unsuccessful.

Again, Google itself seems to be the biggest supporter of the "new system" as it's allowing more and more advertisers to promote the new system on its search engine before over 100 million daily searches and surfers.

10 Tips To Improve Google Adsense Earnings

As predicted in last months MyBlogEarnings, my Adsense income has taken a bit of a hit this month as advertisers start to reduce their spend. So far this month my CTR has remained fairly constant, but my CPM has dipped by a few dollars.

I haven’t really worked on my adsense optimisation for a while, as after growing my adsense income from a few hundred dollars to over $4k in 8 months, I’d assumed that I pretty much had it cracked.

However, after this months CPM reduction I’ve added adsense optimisation to the list of things I’m going to focus on this month. Here are 10 Tips To Improve Google Adsense Earnings that have worked for me in the past, that I’m going to focus on this month to get my CPM back up for the rest of the month.

Make The Most Of Google Love

One of the common reasons bloggers don’t make a lot of money from Google Adsense is because they don’t write about topics that people are searching for answers on i.e. using Google. Just writing interesting articles isn’t going to get you a lot of clicks on ads as your readers won’t be searching for answers or certain products.

If you take a look at my top posts in the sidebar you will see that most of the posts are giving tips, or useful links for services, or are product reviews i.e. posts that get lots of Google love which sends lots of click happy people through to my site. If you post more articles of this ilk your adsense earnings will increase. These articles are also timeless and will continue to get Google traffic long after my regular readers have moved onto newer material.

To maximise your Google traffic don’t forget the basics like making sure your post titles are clear and that your first paragraph clearly explains what the post is about, so that even if you are not the top result you have increased your chances of being clicked on. Take a look at my top posts - every one of the post titles makes it clear what the post is about, which is why they do well on Google.

Smart Pricing - Less Is Better

I’m stunned by how many blogs haven’t factored in Google Adsense Smart pricing into their site design. If you haven’t come across Adsense Smart Pricing before, then in one sentence this is where Google looks at your site’s overall CTR and if it’s low then it will display lower value ads and if it’s high it will display higher value ads.

So, for many sites a quick way to improve earnings is to actually display fewer ads i.e. to remove poorly performing ad units like sidebar ads, or ads that are below the fold etc. This will increase your site’s average CTR, which will make Google display higher value ads in your better performing spaces which will raise your overall earnings.

Smart Pricing works across your Adsense account, not just on a site by site basis. So, if you are displaying a significant number of Adsense ads on other sites that have a poor CTR then you should remove them as your main sites will benefit.

If You’re Going To Place Ads Put In Best Spots - Don’t Kop Out

In my view, if you are going to run ads on your site then it doesn’t make sense to do it half-heartedly i.e not put your ads in the best slots. If you do you’ll never get to see the full benefits - if you’re going to do something in my view, then do it right!

This heatmap shows where the best positions for Google Adsense Ads are.

Blend Your Adsense Units

Following on from the previous tip, again if you are going to add Adsense ads to your site then again I think you should make sure that they are fully optimised. The best way of doing this is to blend the ads into your site by making sure that the text and link colours match.

To maximise CTR you should also wrap text around your ads. Many sites have tried placing ads above text or even before articles, but in my opinion this is a bad move, as all it does is encourage readers to ‘jump’ past your ads straight to the content.

Get A Good Stats Package

One of the difficulties with Google Adsense as it’s virtually impossible to see for certain which posts have a high CTR. But, if you have a good stats package then at least you can see which of your posts are popular so that you can try and write more of the same to further grow your traffic.

How to Test Google AdSense Ads (and Improve Your Revenue)

Improve your revenue from Google AdSense ads by using this simple PHP code to test your ads and identify the ones that pay better. You could run one ad format for a week, then run the second format and compare results. Better yet, test formats simultaneously and start getting side-by-side results to compare the same day.

Lots of articles suggest trying out different types and formats for your ads. Then they say you will figure out the format, size and placement that gives you a better click-thru rate and increased revenue. That's all very nice. But, because of all the ways you can vary your ads (different sizes, shapes, locations on your page, link colors, text, border colors, etc.), this can be a long process. That is why I wrote this.

This site recommends Google AdSense for targeted ads This article is written specifically for Google AdSense ads. You might be able to modify it for other types of ads. Because ad providers and their code is always changing, this article is about Google AdSense only, but the general concepts might apply to other advertisers.

The Ad Testing Code

Google lets you vary many settings including colors of links, borders, text, backgrounds, plus ad sizes and shapes. Modify the default Google AdSense ad format and you are likely to increase your earnings.

In our example, we test an ad without a border against an ad with a border. This page has a white background, so “no border” means the color of the border is set to white. I wrote this code to test ads and found that ads without a border had better click-thru rates than ads with a border.

Take a quick look at the two ads formats we are evaluating in our coding example before we get too deep into the explanation. Only the border color is different. Everything else remains the same so we do not confuse and confound the test. (The channel ID assigned by AdSense changes, but that is not part of the appearance of the ad.) You could easily vary some other setting for your own purposes.

Building the Ad Testing Code

Log into your AdSense account and create 2 custom channels for your site. One channel is for each format you are going to test. (Adsense help explains how to set up custom channels.)

In the PHP code on your site, generate a random number of 0 or 1. We use this number to serve up one of two AdSense ads.

srand(time());
$random = (rand()%2);
?>

In your AdSense account, generate the AdSense code for the first channel. Our first channel has no (a white) border. Paste it in to your PHP code. Then, back in AdSense, generate the code for your second channel, selecting the appropriate custom channel and setting the border color. You will build something like the following:

To make it easy to see below, the border color we are varying is in bold text.

if($random == 1)
//test with white border (no border)
{
?>


}
else
//test blue border around ads
{
?>


}
?>

Let the ads run. In your reports you will see roughly equal numbers of each ad being served up. When you determine which format is better, try changing another setting to see what will give you even better click-thrus and revenue.

Download the code source (adtest.txt)

View page with both ads showing so you can see the differences.

Notes About Testing AdSense Ad Formats

Just like we tested two different border colors, we could have varied another setting. For example, if you want to see whether black link titles perform better than blue, set one color:

google_color_link = "003366";

and a second color:

google_color_link = "000000";

You can run a more complex test, with, say, three options for a single variable. Modify the random number generating portion of the code to generate a 0, 1 or 2. You should test only one variable at a time (holding all other variables constant). If you test too many variables, you do not know what is performing better.

When you get more comfortable with custom channels and with testing various ad formats, you can get more sophisticated with your tests and how you use my little PHP script.

AdSense’s Terms and Conditions require “not modifying the JavaScript or other programming provided to You by Google in any way.” The above ad test does not modify Google’s code. We are simply randomly serving up one of two scripts. When you look at the HTML source for each format that PHP generates, the scripts are exactly what AdSense generates. We have not modified Google JavaScript or programming in any way.