Recent study shows: SMALLER ADS work better than bigger ads
 

Advertising research firm Dynamic Logic recently released its study on online advertising: http://www.dynamiclogic.com/na/press...leases/?id=712

Some key points:

Bigger isn't always better. In fact, the standard leaderboards and 468+ banner sizes used as industry standards were outperformed by smaller ad units (180 x150, in particular).

Why do smaller ads convert better?

Their smaller size allows for better page integration and ?driving online ad awareness and purchase intent.?

Has this been your experience?

Really? 300x250 have always done the best for me. The skyscraper idea I might try. I dont get many clicks on the 120x600s. Good read. I might switch up some ads tonight and give it a try.

the 480x60 has never been good for me. I like using a square 250x250 myself. Will do some switching today though to test this out. For SCIENCE! ;)

Dropping Science -- Beastie Boys (Paul's Boutique Album)

Dude, got a click from me. Highly effective! :1orglaugh:thumbsup

Cool, you'd probably want to run multiple tests at once and see which gets the best results with the same traffic blend. I do that when testing out blog themes.

Good stuff. 480x60 has never performed well for me either.

I noticed that more and more Wordpress themes are being designed with spaces specifically for the smaller ads, and I definitely notice a better click through rate on them. Maybe it's because the consumer's eyes have been trained now to ignore the big banner ads, and the smaller ad blocks are more likely to catch their attention, since they do seamlessly integrate better into the design...

This brings up an interesting thought--is there a plugin that ROTATES ad blocks' page placement whenever a reader loads a page? I've noticed this in a few vbulletin forum hacks but I haven't really seen it for WP. In one particular webmaster forum, the ad block switches between left and right placement. Effective solution against Ad burnout?

true.

.....

interesting!

Interesting thread, thanks.

Thanks, DaddyHalbucks.

It isn't the size of the banner it is how it is place on the page and how it blends into the content. "ads that are integrated into the content of the page, such as half banners and rectangles, are the most effective in driving online ad awareness and purchase intent."

Look at how google has the top 3 paid results on top of the natural search in a very slight off color. That's a perfect example of blending advertising into content.

Do we really need research to tell us this? All of us are trained to ignore advertising we see so much of it.

Research converts hunches into actual numbers. Once we have numbers, we have something more solid to go on and plug into differing strategies and models. As for all of us being trained to ignore advertising, this thread hopefully inspires some ideas on how to counteract this while plugging it into the findings of the study.

So true.

I was surprised that the thread got boiled down to "smaller ads work better". While that is what the article said the reason was not because they were small but rather the way in which they were presented and integrated. I would hate to see anyone walk away with the message "small ads work better"