What are the optimal placements for adsense on vbulletin?

I realize that many different answers will come of this, but what has been your optimal placements?

With the latest vb update, 3.5.4, rather than going back in and manually setting up adsense in the archive, I took the easy way out amd used amy's hack from vb.org. I have yet to see what it does in terms of CTR, but it is a very easy way to implement a leaderboard in the header, a leaderboard in the footer, a search bar below the header, and a 160.x600 skyscraper on the righth hand side.

On my forumhome I use a leaderboard below the navbar and below the last forum.

forumdisplay - I have adsense as my last thread (guests only), and an adlink after the last thread. In place of adsense between the header and navbar, I am running a CPM ad.

showthread - adsense is displayed after the first post (leaderboard), and an adlink above quick reply.

Share your techniques.

I have been told by some that they have better luck with the smaller 468x60 ad rather than the larger leaderboard, but then others state the opposite. Which works best for you?

I beta tested a 'random' adsense placement system for Google. This randomly rotated the ads among a variety of placements on the forum.

My belief is that its all dependant on the forum.

I generally start with a 468x60 below the navbar and below the H1 Tags (See Adding H1 Tags to your Forum and Threads (http://www.vbulletin-faq.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8)) and then above the quick reply box.

I then play with it from there, trying different combinations and sizes.

Some of the more common placements are:

Top Right of the page, in the header
Below the navbar
Below the First Post
Below the Last post
Right or Left Column SidebarThe reason many prefer a 468x60 is that the first ad pays the most, then the second, then the third, etc. If you have 2 leaderboards it means people have 8 ads to choose from, and might very well choose an ad that pays .10 a click instead of $1.00 a click.

However, some forums dont really do well with adsense ads and need some extra help, so the extra 2 ads gets you a click because of the number of choices presented increases the liklihood that the user will click an ad.

One thing to point out... Dont forget to place adsense the archive. This can be quite profitable.

definately in the archive - as mentioned in the first post, I am trying amy's hack. It is for 3.5.4 only since vbulletin changed the archives setup in this lastest update.

before using this hack, I had 336x250 blocks side by side at the top of the archive, and ran a cpm leaderboard in the footer (non adsense)

Oh - yes. I like her hack for the archive.

agreed - I am a firm believer in using things that make my job easier. That hack makes things very easy.

You can see my placement on my site:

Ford Mustang (http://www.mustangevolution.com)
Ford Mustang Forums (http://www.mustangevolution.com/forum)
Ford Mustang Archive (http://www.mustangevolution.com/forum/archive/)

The navbar is the greatest income followed by the leaderboard on the mainpage and the archive close behind it.

You might do a little better on your archive if you only show one ad on top Bama -

If you give the reader less choices, he has to pick a higher paying choice.

You might do a little better on your archive if you only show one ad on top Bama -

If you give the reader less choices, he has to pick a higher paying choice.

I will give that a try. I do have a extremely high CTR on the archive as it is now though.

I will give that a try. I do have a extremely high CTR on the archive as it is now though.


Can never be too high :)


Just to explain - Google adsense places the highest paying ad on top, then the payments per click decrease down the list. So the last ad may pay much much less.

So if you have 2 ad units, each showing 4 ads, thats 8 ads the user has to choose from, and he may very well choose the last (8th) and lowest paying. If you have only 1 ad unit, the user only has the top 4 paying ads to choose from.

There is a way around this drop in ad rates, for those that we un aware.

Server your google ads through the software you use to display the rest of your ads. I assume this works with phpadsnew, but I use adpeeps, and there is no drop off in ad rates for the next lowest ad. you will have duplicate ads showing up and it will then become your responsibility to adheare to the 3 banner 1 adlink rule, but it eliminates the drop in revenue.

I beta tested a 'random' adsense placement system for Google. This randomly rotated the ads among a variety of placements on the forum.

My belief is that its all dependant on the forum.

I generally start with a 468x60 below the navbar and below the H1 Tags (See Adding H1 Tags to your Forum and Threads (http://www.vbulletin-faq.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8)) and then above the quick reply box.

I then play with it from there, trying different combinations and sizes.

Some of the more common placements are:

Top Right of the page, in the header
Below the navbar
Below the First Post
Below the Last post
Right or Left Column SidebarThe reason many prefer a 468x60 is that the first ad pays the most, then the second, then the third, etc. If you have 2 leaderboards it means people have 8 ads to choose from, and might very well choose an ad that pays .10 a click instead of $1.00 a click.

However, some forums dont really do well with adsense ads and need some extra help, so the extra 2 ads gets you a click because of the number of choices presented increases the liklihood that the user will click an ad.

One thing to point out... Dont forget to place adsense the archive. This can be quite profitable.

Great suggestions, but how do you place adsense above the Quick Reply box in vB 3.5.4 ?

I have read elsewhere to place it above the $quickreply variable in the SHOWTHREAD template, but vB 3.5.4 doesnt have this variable???

I just tried placing it below the next_thread but nothing shows, and it aint because there isn't enough ad inventory to show?

I managed to integrate if after the last post, so it's all good...

If anyone wants to know how, I'll gladly post it here.