Lesson 3

Banner ad placement tips – position makes all the difference

Hello friends,

This is the 3rd Lesson of the Mocha Affiliate Academy, helping you better promote and profit as an affiliate. This time we focus on the importance of affiliate banner positioning and how this helps you get the maximum out of your ad.

What has to be kept in mind when choosing a spot for your banner is “Banner blindness”. Most users tend to ignore any sort of advertising, no matter if it is TV, Print or Web. Web users instinctively avoid banner ads when looking at a webpage, they notice and mark them as “not roadworthy” almost subconsciously.

Bellow you can see the focusing pattern on an average internet reader.

On the first example the reader was asked to quickly scan through the article and on the second she had to read it through. Notice how both times the ads on the screen got absolutely no attention from the reader. This is due to bad ad placement. Most banners are at the far right side of the page with a Leaderboard banner (728×90) placed above the header, none of the ads cross the reader’s field of interest and can easily be ignored.

If you own a blog, this is a great example how you should structure your ads. Do not place anything over the header and make sure, there is an ad between every two posts so that the sight of the reader would always cross it when scanning or reading through your material.

While each website is unique, some locations are always more successful than others. Google has made a heatmap to aid its Google AdSense program clients.

The darker orange spots mark the most successful spots on the page and they are fading to light yellow on the spots with weaker performance.

From Google’s map we can draw conclusions that:

– Banners above the page fold tend to perform better than those below the fold
– Banners right under the navigation bar get good click rates.
– Banners placed in the center of the page perform better.
– Also banners that are placed at the end of the article tend to perform better even though they are below the fold.

Studies show that the best click-through rates are achieved on a Leaderboard banner above the fold right under the navigation bar. The second most successful placement is on the right-hand margin placing skyscrapers (160×600, 120×600, etc.) next to the main body content. A third successful spot would be placing rectangular banner within the center of the content.

Ad experts agree that in general – wider formats perform better. The larger the affiliate banner, the better the chance people will notice and click it. Banners that closely mirror the look of the surrounding area your ad is placed in have much higher click-through rates than those that do not. We at Mochahost have designed a large variety of affiliate banners looks and sizes to better blend with your website feel. It is, however, a fact that strong contrast would also attract the attention of the reader.

Check out this Yahoo! Publishers research:

Make sure you pick your color carefully and by all means experiment. Constantly check the log files and measure the success of your affiliate banner ads. Compare them with the sales results. Sometimes you may get a better Click-through rate, but not necessary an increase in sales. Test each banner for 3 days a see which one gives the best result. Move it around and check the numbers again. You will eventually find the right spot and size for you.

Click rates have shrunken greatly since the dawn of the online ads, a click rate of over 1% is admirable nowadays. Size and position usually mean the world when aiming at higher conversions. At Mochahost, you have a lot of creatives to experiment with, so do not be afraid to give it a try. If you feel we are missing a size and you would like to see it included in the database, please feel free to write at [email protected].

As always, I am available for questions and feedback!

Have a highly productive month!

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