Having thought about doing a single post on ad placement and design I thought it might be better to split this up into a series. It will be a sort of work in progress if you like. Each tip will be strictly given on a "this is what works for some people but may not work for you basis - with a strong emphasis on personal experimentation."
When talking about ads it will be mostly in a generic sense, with some emphasis on the principal programs that are out there. AdSense will probably receive more air time than most because of it's popularity. This topic is an ongoing learning process for everybody, so if you have personal experience of some little tweak that works for you, please let me know.
Ad Unit Formatting
Most contextual ad programs that I’m aware of allow some form of ad unit manipulation. AdSense make this very easy by giving you the ability to choose from a colour palette the various elements of your ad unit. For example the border, background, title link and text can all be formatted as you wish. It’s then a simple process of copying and pasting the code into your blog.
In selecting the colour scheme format of your ad units, the temptation can be to go big and bold so that the reader’s eye is immediately drawn to them. However, subtlety can often be a more productive line to follow. Selecting colours that match the formatting of your blog can be a great way of letting a reader focus on your content, but at the same time making your ads almost appear as a natural component of your page.
Many blogs match the linked title element (the ad unit text highlighted in blue on the image above) of an ad unit precisely to their content links, whilst the main body text matches normal content. This is a well worn method that works well for me and the likes of Weblogs Inc amongst others. I recently experimented in actually making the link element in my AdSense Units a couple of shades darker than my content links (as per the image above) and this proved 10% more effective. Could be a blip, time will tell.
Another way of formatting your ad units is to remove the border. I did this a long time ago with my AdSense and have done the same with Chitika eMiniMalls although they are operated on a non contextual basis on my blogs. Running another contextual program along side AdSense is not permitted by Google. Again this makes ads appear more a part of the content than a separate entity.
Health Warning
There is one important health warning in experimenting with these principles, check your terms and conditions of use thoroughly. In most ad programs – modification of ad unit code is a cardinal sin, use only the tools provided to achieve the subtlety your looking for. Even then, fire off an email to support if you have any doubts that you might be doing something your not supposed to.
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