The Goal of AdSense Optimization

AdSense optimization — the practice of maximizing AdSense clicks and
revenues — has a golden rule:
Don’t let your AdSense units look like ads!
People don't visit your website for ads. They want good content.
If you make the ads stick out with eye-popping colors, images or borders,
they’ll be easy to recognize as ads — and people will work extra hard to
avoid them.
Today's visitors are blind to banners, block pop-ups, weary of ads and
skeptical of contests and giveaways. They know what an ad looks like, and
they know how to look away.
If you want to win clicks, the ads that Google delivers have to look like
an integral part of your content.
It’s a straightforward policy but it’s not as easy as it sounds. If it were, there
wouldn't be so many grumpy people on AdSense forums complaining about
their low earnings.
It's not that they aren't doing anything about it. They simply aren't doing the
right things.
Let me assure you that in the time that I have been using AdSense, my
earnings have only gone up — and so will yours, if you apply the right
techniques seriously।
Changing the Look of Your Ads
Tweaking your ads so that they blend into the page and look like content
begins with altering their appearance. While you can’t hack into the code
itself, Google does provide AdSense publishers with a range of options to
change the way an ad unit appears.
In addition to the format, you can change the colors used in the ad; the fonts
chosen for the text; and the corner styles of the AdSense unit.
The general principle is always to match the characteristics of the ad unit
with the characteristics of the Web page on which the ad unit will appear.Using Colors To Increase Your Clicks
Log in to your AdSense account, click the AdSense Setup tab, select Get Ads
from the menu, and you’ll be offered a page load of options. You can choose
to see each of these options one at a time using the “Wizard” or you can go
through them all on a single page. I find that a single page lets me see
everything at once but it makes little practical difference. If you’re using the
new interface, which is Google is currently rolling out, you just have to click
the My Ads tab, followed by New Unit.
To create an AdSense for Content unit, you’ll first have to choose between an
ad unit and a link unit, and — if you choose an ad unit — whether you want
both text and image ads, just text ads or just image/rich media ads. Once
you’ve made your choice (just text ads is a good place to begin) you’ll have
to pick a format. This is a whole issue in itself which I’ll discuss in Chapter 5,
but it will depends on where you’re planning to put the ad. In general
though, big is good.
You’ll then choose your color palette.
An AdSense unit has five elements whose colors can be changed: the border;
the title; the background; the text; and the URL.
When it comes to the border, the basic principle is simple:Make the border disappear!
I’ve found that this one simple tweak can more than double clickthroughs!
Even before the Internet, ads in newspapers and magazines were marked off
with a thick, heavy border. No wonder borders and boxes have come to
symbolize advertising messages.
Ads with prominent borders make your pages look cluttered. They distract
the eye from the ad text, while marking off the ad blocks from the rest of the
content.
Match the color of your ad unit’s border with the background color of your
web page.
When the border matches the background, it disappears. The page instantly
looks neater and the ads appear more inviting.