AdSense Tip #2: Different Ad Formats
AdSense has many different ad formats to select from. See Google’s list of ad formats for a current selection.
Different ad formats work better than others. Some people may report getting high click through rates with leaderboards, while others may report getting good results with skyscrapers. Which one is best for your site? Unfortunately, the answer is: it depends. There is no way to determine which one will perform best on your site unless you try out different ad formats. You have to experiment to find out which is best for you (there will be a separate tip on experimentation later in this series).
There are some general rules that may help though. When it comes to ad formats, the old adage “bigger is better” seems to be true. People seem to consistently report that the larger ad formats work better than smaller ones. The 336×280 Large Rectangle generally outperforms the 300×250 Medium Rectangle. The 160×600 Wide Skyscraper generally outperforms the 120×600 Skyscraper.
Balance Ads with Design
Of course, when choosing ad formats it is also important to remember to choose ads that fit in well with your site. If you compromise the design of your site, the user experience will be worse and you may lose visitors. When going to a site, nobody likes to be confronted with a barrage of large ads at the top of the page with content that can only be seen by scrolling down. Keeping a balance between ads and content is important.
Figuring out which ad formats are best takes a lot of experimintation, but finding the right combination of ads on you site will pay off with higher earnings from the AdSense program.
