Banners (468 x 60) and half-banners (234 x 60) are practically a lot flexible.

Banners (468 x 60) and half-banners (234 x 60) are practically a lot flexible.

Like leaderboards you are able to surely put these sorts of ads at the top of the page, and lots of sites do it. Again, that is something worth trying on. You are able to put up a leaderboard for a week or so, switch it for a banner for different week or so, and compare the results.

But at the top of the page, I’d expect the leaderboard to do more effective.

A banner or a half-banner would leave too much space on one side and make the ad stick out. It would look like you have set aside an area of the page for ad instead of for content. That would alert the reader that that section of the page is one that they can just ignore.

When you are looking an ad to put in the middle of the page though, a half-banner can be just the ticket.

While a leaderboard will stretch along over the sidebars of your site, just like the navigation bar, a 234 x 60 half-banner will fit neatly into the text space on most sites.

This sort of ad had better be your default option for the end of articles and the bottom of blog entries.

But mostly, stay away from the 468 x 60 banner ad block!

One of the first things people do when they sign up for AdSense is to catch a 468 x 60 ad block. That is a BIG mistake.

I’ve a theory about why they act this. It is the same theory that explains why the 468 x 60 block doesn’t entice clicks.

Most web site owners have the mindset that when they put Google ads on their site, they must place the code that adjusts most to traditional web advertising. And that would be…? Yup, the 468 x 60, the present banner format that we have all come to know and love and… Neglect.

Everybody is familiar with the 468 x 60. And that is exactly why the CTR on this size is very low, even among advertisers who use images on their banners.

The 468 x 60 blocks screams, “Hey! I am an advertisement! Whatever you do, do not click me. In fact, you should run from me as fast as you can!”

Altogether but a few special cases, I’ve found the 468 x 60 ad block to be completely ineffective, and recommend ignoring it the same way your visitors do.

Now, that does not mean you can never apply it. You just have to know what you are doing and do it smartly. You’ve to do everything you’ll be able to to make sure that that ad block looks absolutely nothing like a traditional banner ad.
At my site, WorldVillage.com, I have done that by surrounding the ad with text. Because there is no border around the unit, the ads blend into the text and look almost as they are a piece of the content.

If I had allowed that unit in the middle of some empty blank space — at the top of the pageboy for instance — it would have looked exactly like the sort of banner that users have trained themselves to avoid. It would not have picked up some clicks at all.

(Note, I could probably have applied a half-banner here too but generally, I like to give way my users as wide a choice of ads to click as possible.)

While this use of a 468 x 60 works for me — and it can work for you as well if you mix it into the page properly — I would follow other formats, like the, half- banner if you are not a hundred percent sure that you can pull it off.