Apr
13
WebProNews recently had a very short but informative video about ads. In the video, there was talk about how many ads should you place on your page, and how well you should blend the ads into your sites design.  As expected, the video stated that you should balance the ad to content ratio, and don’t have 20 ads for a two paragraph article. As people try to make money off of sites, this may seem like a strange practice, where newspapers and magazines have a lot of ads per content. There are some things that are bad about having to many ads on your site. The two that come to mind are slower page load times, and annoying customers. When you have a lot of ads on your page, naturally the page will take longer to load since the user’s computer has to retrieve more data. This can lead the the next issue – annoyed customers. The web is mostly used for two reasons, one is entertainment, the other is research. In either situation, the visitors to your site doesn’t want to take forever for your site to load.  Also, if the customer doesn’t think the ad to content ratio is low, they may see the site and either loose confidence in the site, or even worse think the site is there just for the ads. Either way, it isn’t the repetition you want your site to have.
Another point they do bring up in the video is ad blending. Jennifer Slegg (the interviewee) stated that ad blending is a good idea, but it seems that the practice has become too well done.  Stating that ads are blending into sites very well, Jennifer informs the viewer that your ads start loosing their effect at that point. She suggests that web designers find a balance between making your ads stand out enough to know that it is an ad, and blending them into your site design.
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I agree. Blending ads are worthless because people will hardly notice them.
Amazing quality of the video and the content is very good too.
It’s good information, but I don’t like World Pro News. They spam my email.
Informative for me, Also video quality is good
Many of these media sites go overboard with videos and general ads, I think largely because they are struggling with revenues.
If video ads become popular visitors will likely learn to start ignoring them like other ad formats.
I think if you are wanting to have visitors return to your website, it is definitely important to worry about the ratio of ads to content, and how that content is displayed to the users. I think its important to put an emphasis on the content, rather than the ads, if you want your users to return. However… if you’re website is mainly for just one time visitors… I think you shouldn’t worry.
Till then,
John
I looked at the good news in this video. Thank you for this.
Yea, and make sure that ad blending doesn’t become a manipulative technique for people to click on something without realizing its an ad..
fresh idea..
fresh idea
This is a real pertinent issue. Ads just don’t get clicked if there are too many (and too obvious) ads, and it really makes the user experience unpleasant when you’re confronted with all the ads and zero content. This challenge is best sorted out by scaling down on the amount of ads on a given page. Rather go for quality rather than quantity!
Marketing….. It just depends on the niche though because some niches are naturally always ad blind, so in the end it really is about testing and seeing which ads convert better.
Till then,
Jean
true, users in the tech niche seem to be more notably ad blind than others, users in the IM/SEO niche don’t even have eyes when it comes to ads.
-Bill
This is a great article exploring the subject of the Ad Balancing Act. Quiet useful and an interesting subject. However I agree with the comment of UsedTires wherein he says that you must put on an equal ratio the contents of your blog and the ads that it has.
Helpful information for a starter as well as for a pro.
How often do we disregard a site if it is loaded with advertising. I mostly search for information. Only when I find the information that I am looking for will I click on the ads. I find too many people jump on the monetization band wagon with out providing solid content. I also hate wasting time sorting through ad sites trying to get a piece of useful information
I’m not a great fan of banner ads on websites – savvy visitors learn to filter them out so you use a lot of your site’s real estate to place banners that rarely get clicked.
Far better is to use text links for ads, with some text to entice people to click. They get far more clicks.
I’m not 100% against banner ads, if they’re really, really relevant and don’t drown out the site then the odd one’s ok. But they’re often not that effective.
These are very useful tips and I thank you for posting this.
Nice Post. Keep it Up.
In certain industries people are more accepting of ads. In other industries, ads totally turn off potential buyers. So it is important to analyze the ad usage within your particular niche. Try not to look more ad-heavy than your top competitors. You don’t want to give them the advantage is any way.
It’s not easy to balance the desire to make money (and post lots of ads) with a desire to have readers (too many ads = no visitors). I think everyone needs to find their own balance in that matter.
Pages with too many ads are a huge turn off to readers. Some readers might get confused and click on some ads but never return. I am doing far better with fewer ads and more readers returning.
After your blog matures and has many pages, you do not have to make as much of each page. Also the more your audience likes or dislikes the post, the more comments, the more visitors, the more exposure, the more revenue. It’s a vicious cycle!
The mantra of “create more unique content” always works, sooner or later.
Thanks for the useful information! Hope to see your new updates soon.
nice post. thanks.
This a nice post with a great idea of Ad Balancing Act showing in this article and video….
Hey Chad,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful video.
I also believe that balancing of the ads on your page is the influencing factor that marks the first impression on your reader’s mind.
Too much ads will surely annoy your readers, and it happens a lot, this results in high bounce rates, which distresses you.
However a properly managed page with appropriate ad spaces makes the page attractive and user friendly too.
in my opinion banners may be very distracting or even irritating. so you shall not for sure overload your blog pages with them. but there are also the ads we’re used to, for example, Google AdSense. i frequently do not even pay attention on them.