Ads between Post and Comments - the Next Big Thing?
Wisdump reader Gerard commented on the dummy design screenshot of the next version of Wisdump, wondering about the 125×125 pixel ad blocks that are so common on blogs these days.
However, the 125px ad blocks - aren’t we all becoming blind to these within the niche these days? I for one barely notice them anymore. Maybe there’s a challenge - to break that ad unit cliche?
Spot on, at least almost. While these 125×125 pixel ads certainly are very common, personally I at least give them a glance, and occasionally click them (which goes for all ads, I don’t shy away as a principle). To me, they haven’t degraded to the way one shies traditional banners on regular, ad-crammed sites, but maybe that’s just me.
Personally, I think a good solution is to place ads between post and comments. That’s a great spot, very user friendly as well. In theory, there are several advantages with this positioning:
- The reader is done reading, so now what? Either comment, or move along someplace else. A curious reader is more likely to look at the ads, and perhaps even click them.
- Ads between post and comments aren’t very obtrusive. Sure, the reader will have to scroll a bit to get to the comments, but as long as the ads aren’t huge this shouldn’t be such a problem.
- Readers are more likely to tune out the sidebar, the traditional place for 125×125 pixel ad blocks, than the content area. Actually, this goes for the sidebar-content relationship overall.
I don’t think it’s very likely that ads between post and comment will be the new de facto standard. Advertisers are way to focused on the above the fold rule, which means that they want ads to be shown without scrolling. While that might be true for some sites, depending on niche and what kind of readers it attracts, I sincerely doubt that it’s a general rule for all. Think about it, when you arrive at a site from your bookmarks, then you want to see what’s new, read up on it, and so on. That usually involves scrolling. Same goes for links to posts, for instance - you usually arrive at these because you want to read them, so that means you’ll scroll down, hence not seeing the ads above the fold.
What do you guys think? What’s the ideal ad solution in your minds?
You’re right in that square ads are less invasive to the eye but the growing number of bloggers trying to make a quick dollar off of affiliate programs – John Chow, ProBlogger and EntreCard users to name a few - use these types of ads. Thus, I’m growing numb to the square ads adorning sites.
What is the solution? I’m not quite sure yet but the placement of AdSense as they currently stand on this site is good location in my opinion.
By CP on January 18, 2008 3:11 am
I disagree, that Ads between post and comments would be the next big thing.
For me ads, just break my flow of reading the articles, simply put “just read me what i am here to read and don’t force me to look at other stuff”. Users will look at ads and even click on them if they have enough time to look around on the best.
Wasn’t Content supposed to be the “king”??
By SS on January 18, 2008 8:14 pm
I don’t mind ads in the content area, but I don’t mind them in the sidebar either.
By Sandra on January 18, 2008 11:05 pm
Thanks for the mention Thord.
I can say from my experience that the after-post advert (I use a 300×300 square) is the second best performing on my sites. That’s behind a 728×90 banner at the top of each page.
The logic is that on-page, people’s eyes work from left to right and from the top down, so the banner ad at the top is really quite effective!
Similarly, when the reader reaches the end of a post, they’re faced with the decision - what next? Do I stay on the site, leave a comment or do I go elsewhere? After my posts, I like to offer the reader a relevant ad block and a list of related posts.
So, moving on from what I said yesterday, the 125px ad blocks on the right are possibly not the best performing for your advertisers. On a personal note, I’d also avoid them because they reek of jumping on a design bandwagon - Mike Arrington popularised the trend on Techcrunch and then every other niche site copied it.
By Gerard on January 18, 2008 11:49 pm
Certainly. I would rather play with different solutions, but that’s not my call to make I’m afraid. I’m required to have a set of four 125×125 pixel ads above (or at least around) the fold. Being the de facto standard works two ways - that also makes them the ad format wanted by advertisers.
Thanks for the input!
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on January 19, 2008 2:38 am
[...] is, the readers might get saturated, screening out these ads. I recently did a post on this over at Wisdump, and there are some interesting comments there to give strength to this line of [...]
By When Your Ads Aren’t Noticed Anymore : The Blog Herald on January 19, 2008 3:05 am