If you have done any kind of online marketing work or wave worked closely with a reputable marketing company or agency, you already know how difficult it can be to optimize ads on a page. This article really isn’t about that as much as it is how to use content to complement your ads and why the presentation of all your content (including ads) matters.
Keeping It Real
One of the more frustrating parts of using online ads is that it can be difficult to generate relevant ones for a specific article or page. Although it is possible to optimize for proper ads (we’ll get into that in a moment), the services that give the content provider that much control are usually expensive and not very user friendly.
Maximizing Engagement
If, like many businesses, you are using ads to augment your income, you want to direct more eyes to your ads without steering them away from the content. It’s a double-edged sword: You want to inform and you want to generate conversions with your content, but you need those ad clicks, too. I’m here to tell you that you can have both. I’m also here to tell you that the “how” has everything to do with content, specifically good, well-placed copy that provides a sense of balance to your page.
How Not to Present Your Ads
Here are four red flags that I’ve found many marketers who have had success with ads tend to avoid. How many of these mistakes are you making right now on your pages?
#1 – Using large ads with tiny fonts.
Just because an ad is super-visible doesn’t mean people are going to click it. In fact, if the first thing you see when you click through to a page isn’t what you clicked to see, but rather a big, annoying ad, what do you do? Exactly: You bounce. How does your bounce rate look right now? Go ahead and check it. I can wait…
Now have a look at your page and ask yourself what you would think the actual purpose of it was if you were viewing it for the first time. If your initial reaction is, “ADS ADS ADS…” it’s clear that there’s a problem.
Oftentimes, that problem is with your font sizes. Be sure that your page headlines look like headlines and that your copy is presented in a way that actually invites reading it. Any reputable copywriting service will tell you that fonts smaller than 10-point are typically too small, especially on mobile devices. That leads me to the next big mistake…
#2 – Using too many ads for a mobile audience.
The last thing you want is a page that tosses a mobile audience a few lines of copy, then a big, fat, overbearing ad, and then attempts to hold their attention alternating ads with copy for as long as they’re willing to keep scrolling.
There are two problems with that. For starters, they won’t scroll forever (or for very long). Eventually, they’ll get bored with the game. You are also constantly diverting your readers’ attention by forcing their brains to stop concentrating on the copy and focus on the ads or vice-versa. How are they supposed to make a buying decision when you’re literally competing with yourself trying to snag conversions as well as clicks?
#3 – Using the wrong ads for your predominant audience.
While mobile is rapidly taking over the Web, there are those niches and industries that still see far more desktop traffic than they do mobile. In these instances, you do not want to choose ads that take up loads of vertical space, even if your website is responsive. I’d have to say don’t do it because your site is responsive. Responsive websites have a tendency to stack content vertically as opposed to maintaining the side panels and frames that one sees on a desktop site.
If, however, your audience is more apt to view your content on a larger screen (75% or better – check your numbers), you might get more mileage out of one of those bigger vertical ads than the smaller ones. It all comes down to how well you know your audience. Knowing how they consume your content makes a difference in how you place your ads.
#4 – Using antiquated or ineffective keywords
It is worth investigating how the ad service(s) you use manage keyword matching and incorporate their methods into your copy. Of course, you also want to lend deference to what the major search engines look for, and sometimes those two can be very different things. When deciding on your keywords, you need to account for both so that you get the right balance of organic traffic and targeted ads.
The good news is that this is an easy one to get right. Make sure that when you use ad-specific keywords, you are placing the ad somewhere close by after them. Use the keyword in a paragraph, then place an ad below it. First, seed your segment heading with a keyword for your ad. Next, use another page-specific one in the body of that segment. Finally, center an appropriately sized ad right below that paragraph. It will give the entire page a sense of flow, and it will help you use your ads to reinforce the message in your copy.
A Few Parting Tips
As a final takeaway this time, I would like to leave you with a short bullet list that will help you select and place ads more effectively. If you look at some of the major blog sites, you should notice some similarities:
• Use an ad service that aligns well with your brand message.
• Always use the most popular ad sizes – they are most popular because they attract the most advertisers.
• Split test different placement strategies.
• Fine-tune your keywords until you achieve the right balance of clicks and conversions