Tips For Increasing CTRs

Many ways exist for increasing CTRs (short for Click Through Ratio) on certain advertisements placed on a web page. The most important is where the ad is placed. An ad placed near the top of the page is more likely to be seen than an ad placed at the bottom of the page.

Research shows that the best area of placement is just above the center of the page or below the navigation bar. This doesn’t imply that ads placed near the top left hand side of the page will not show enough visitor interest. They will however, especially if they are placed next to information that is more useful to the visitors.

Actually, ads placed between blocks of high quality content will attract the maximum number of click throughs. As interesting as it may sound, some ads placed at the bottom of a story or article too can also generate a high CTR. This can happen even more when the ads are connected to the content that the user is browsing.

Since we read English left to right, an ad that is short and wide will receive more clicks than a narrow and tall ad. A good method towards getting more clicks is in changing the colours of the ad frequently in order to provide variety to the visitors, and in order to make them less monotonous.

Animated banner ads is another way to improve the site’s CTR. These banners attract more attention than static ads. Nevertheless, the danger with animated ads is that they can irritate the visitor’s eyes if they are not used moderately.

Rotation can also be a useful strategy. Instead of using one ad it will make sense to use a series of ads on a rotation basis. The user will get a fresh message every time he looks at the ad.

Targeting also contributes to help CTRs due to the fact that the ad is only being viewed by those visitors who are interested in the subject. For example, a scholarship ad for Washington students will probably have a higher CTR if it is viewed only by students living in Washington.

Besides placement and targeting, CTRs will also depend on the way the ad has been designed. An eye-catcher will get a more efficient response than a dead ad. In a similar way, ads that take too long to download might not interest users.

It will also be important to track the ad’s performance. An ad might perform very well for the first few days and then lose the interest of the visitors. If the CTR falls below 0.5%, you should move, change or replace the ad.

You must also remember that a higher CTR will signify a higher revenue for website owners and a higher RoI for the advertisers.


J. M. Stevens is contributing editor at WebDesignArticles.net. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.

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