As an AdSense publisher, it is wise to constantly test your ad units to see which one performs best. Optimization can be done through testing, which in turn will get the most revenue out of your existing content and traffic.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am going to say it again. Optimizing your AdSense ad units is the best thing a publisher can do. Without working hard on generating more traffic, you can earn more from your existing resources.

When it comes to return on investment (ROI), testing often gives the highest return for your time compared to writing content, search engine optimization, and any other traffic generation tactics.

Of course, you must know when to stop optimizing and move to something else, because there is only so much money to be made from a single ad unit unless you keep building traffic and add content.

That brings us to this question.

What should you do after you have the highest click-through rate (CTR) ad unit?

To answer that question, you should realize that AdSense ads come from AdWords advertisers who decided to put their ads on Google content network. As with the search network, Google content network utilizes auction model to determine whose ads are going to be shown first, second, etc.

Yes, there are other algorithms involved that affect ad ranks, but to keep things simple, let’s assume that the highest bidder win the top spot.

Where do the first ad appear on the web page? In the first ad unit. If the ad unit displays multiple ads, then it displays at the very first place.

Google determine the first ad unit based on its location in the HTML — or PHP, ASP, etc. — file. If you use Custom Style Sheet (CSS) to design your web site, you know that you can place the code at the end of the page and still have the element displayed at the top of the page.

This is why you need to make sure that the first ad unit really appears first in your HTML code.

It is this simple and easy modification that could possibly increase your AdSense revenue, so please add it to your schedule to check for the highest CTR and make sure the code appears where it should be.

If you haven’t tracked your ad units, consider doing so by using custom channels.

Click-through rate (CTR) is an interesting topic to bring up on discussion boards, blogs and on industrial events where web publishers gather together to talk about website publishing revenue.

As you might have read, CTR depends upon too many factors it may be acceptable for one site, great for others and lousy for other half.

There is no such thing as a good or healthy CTR. In previous blog post, I have also outlined how you should approach CTR numbers published by others.

That said, here are a few suggestions to help you improve and maximize your CTR:

1. Start by optimizing your ads
2. It is wise to concentrate on content first then place ad units as an exit points for readers to proceed with. Low CTR is not always bad. People may stay on your site to read pages and pages of content before leaving by clicking on ads. If you want them to click on ads, place ad units where they are most likely to be seen after reading content.
3. Use AdSense (or any of the ad network you participate in) features to the max. Some of them include site targeting, tracking, preview tools, competitive ad blocking, etc.
4. Maximize traffic by reusing and recycling existing visitors. If people are interested with what you have to offer, then let them in for more. Allow them to subscribe to RSS feeds or email newsletters easily. You can direct them back to your site or blog for fresh and new updates, which could result in more clicks on your ads.

Set a point where enough is enough. You don’t want to be caught in the loop of over-optimizing ad units. You may better spend your time on producing more content that translates into more pages to display ads on, or develop other traffic strategies to continually add new traffic stream that you can monetize.

Google AdSense has made a makeover to the AdSense units, just in time for spring. The team say that the new formats are not only visually appealing to users, but they also perform even better for publishers and advertisers.

They decided to switch to the new format after extensive testing and research.

There is no way a publisher can opt-out to the new design, but the font and color scheme that the publisher chose will remain unchanged.

If you look at the screenshots, the difference mainly reside in “Ads by Google” placement and design. I think it is more dynamic than the older version.

Google also notifies us through the blog that new format options will be available in the future.

Often we read in forums, blogs or articles about stunning click-through rates claimed by some AdSense publishers by using some techniques or others.

Assuming the claims are true, we rush to adapt this method hoping to achieve more or less as high CTR as the original poster claimed. Much to our dismay, often the techniques result in a drop in CTR, let alone boost it to the roof.

In previous post, I have shown some of the factors that could possibly impact CTR. There are too many factors to consider, that one can not be too sure if a single change in how the ad looks like will move CTR higher or otherwise.

There are right and wrong ways to use published numbers from such sources.

Wrong ways to approach CTR

• Entirely shift your ad formats, colors, or anything else to what the source suggests and claims to get higher CTR.
• Think an optimization or change is of no good if it doesn’t give good results without looking further on the main causes.
• Consider a change on your ads to be a failure if it doesn’t generate as high CTR as the original author reported.

Right ways to approach CTR

• Use it as an initial projection conservatively until you have your own numbers.
• Use reported numbers as a relative measure of increment while taking other factors into account.
• Identify which small changes may reap large change in CTR and overall revenue.
• Use numbers from the same niches to account for goals and expectations.

Some Examples

1. If a forum user reported that s/he received very high CTR from banner ads format, you should not shift your ad units entirely to that format unless you have taken into account different layout, colors, content type, and others.
2. For optimization. If a report reveals that certain optimization might result in better CTR, it may pinpoint areas where you may be able to improve things and drive visitors to click on ads. This data is important to improve different aspects of your ad units.
3. For sanity check. A certain change results in a jump from 10 percent CTR to 12 percent. If your current CTR is at 5 percent, it may be more realistic to aim at 6 percent first.

There is no single formula that will skyrocket CTR from anything to 30, 40 or 50 percent. Some optimization will be more effective than others. As a publisher, you have to know which is possible and which is a pure waste of time. Knowing other people’s numbers is nice, but unless you know how to interpret them, they will only mislead and cause repeat dismay.

Google has enabled publishers to create Custom Search Engine using Google’s core search technology. The search engine, which is built on the Google Co-op platform, is tailored to the need of the publishers which prioritizes or restricts search results based on websites and pages that they specify.

With this product, anyone can create specialized search engine in a topic of interests of their audience.

How do you create a Custom Search Engine?

Simply submit websites or pages you’d like to include in your search engine index. You can choose either to restrict your search results to include only these pages and sites, or simply to give these pages and sites higher priority and ranking in the larger Google index. Once you’ve defined your search engine index, Google will give you a simple piece of code for a search box to place on your site or blog. You’ll then have the option to choose various customization options to make the look and feel and functionality of your search engine your own.

It means that now you also can customize user search experience with your brand, while at the same time make money with the search engine using Google AdSense revenue sharing program.

To connect your Co-op account with Google AdSense, go to the “Make money” tab in your search engine’s control panel, fill in the form with the email address that you use with your AdSense account, your zip code, and the last 5 digits of your phone number.

For more information about Google Co-op’s Custom Search Engine, start with the overview page.