As web publishers, or more specifically, bloggers, we always try to balance advertising and our visitors’ visual (and overall) experience. Too little advertising and you’re not monetizing your blog to the fullest, too much advertising and you’re alienating your visitors. But how much advertising is a lot, and what factors would you use to determine whether advertising is over-the-top? I’m sure everyone has their own idea of this, with a publisher’s anti-ad sentiments and publishing goals being critical influences in perceiving over-the-top advertising.

If your goal is to make money through advertising rather than blog for the sake of blogging, you’re likely to be more tolerant to adverts. If you are generally banner blind, massive skyscrapers and large rectangles will probably be the norm for you. If you believe that contextual adverts help make your blog a better resource for your readers, you will probably not mind above the fold adverts. But these are subjective factors that vary tremendously from person to person. Today, I’m more interested in the objective (and quantifiable) aspect of this discussion. And for this, I personally judge how much advertising is a lot by looking at five factors: Quantity, Size, Placement, Relevance and Blending.

1. Quantity
      I would say that in most cases, the more ads you have, the more your adverts irritate the reader. This concept is very similar to the next factor on size as both quantity and size are easily measured by your reader, subconsciously or consciously. If you have too many adverts, readers might perceive that you have more ads than content (whether or not that is true). One example of this can be seen in a comment at ProBlogger:

   Lord knows you already have 10 spots on your website with ads. I feel like I’m reading IGN a lot of the time. If they don’t perform, yank them. I realize there’s a fine line between just enough ads and too many, and it feels like you’ve crossed that invisible line, wherever it is. This happened somewhere around the time you added the Chitika ads. Ads are great, don’t get me wrong, but it feels like you’re trying to cram too much into too small a space.

   I admit that ProBlogger has quite a large amount of ads, especially affiliate links (with a few recent additions like AdBrite and Text Link Ads referral buttons). But that doesn’t mean ProBlogger has gone over the top in terms of advertising. Personally, I believe ProBlogger has harnessed all the five factors I’ve listed here (esp. blending, relevance and size) to ensure that the reader’s overall experience is good. It just goes to show how one factor (quantity, in this case) doesn’t exclusively influence a reader’s overall experience.
      In any case, more adverts generally mean greater clickthrough potential as there are more opportunities to attract your reader’s mouse-clicking tendencies. Whether or not more ads mean greater earnings is another story though, and there is still heavy discussion over this. You can follow one such discussion at the Digital Point Forums.

2. Size
      I’m sure most will agree that the larger the advert, the more the advert degrades your readers’ visual experience because large adverts tend to attract attention better and they allow you to stuff more ads using a single ad unit.
      At the same time, this means that large adverts provide greater clickthrough potential though. So, this is one factor where you will have to balance with visual experience.
3. Placement
      Above the fold (the part of the blog you can see without scrolling downwards) adverts tend to be more irritating to readers compared to those below the fold. Why? They are the first things your visitor sees when they enter your blog and thus, contribute towards the first impression. Being above the fold also means that the ads are seen more often than those below the fold as not everybody scrolls down all the way.
      However, this also means that above the fold ads should garner you far more clicks that those below the fold. Again, balancing with visual experience is required.
4. Relevance
      The more relevant your ads are, the less irritating it is to readers. In my opinion, this is because readers can perceive it as bonus resources that they can tap into when required. An advert on an iPod placed in an iPod review is surely more useful to your reader than an advert on pro-blogging placed on a celebrity blog. I’d be willing to tolerate useful adverts since the adverts would then fulfill their original purpose: Helping consumers find what they want.
      Again ProBlogger or rather the b5media blog network is my example. Look at the AdBrite text ads on every b5media blog’s sidebar. Given that the ads are shown on a network-wide basis, you have “income stream” ads on celebrity blogs, and “blog on handmade things” ads on ProBlogger. Relevance is impacted negatively, but that is really quite unavoidable for network-wide advertising. Each text ad brings in hundreds of dollars a month after all.
      Unlike the previous two factors, you would gain on the monetary side as well as the visual experience side if you ensure the maximum relevance of your adverts. It’s been declared a truism that the more relevant your ads are, the more likely they will be clicked.
5. Blending
      Blended ads seem less disturbing compared to contrasting ads because blended ads won’t clash with your blog’s template/theme. Strikingly contrasted adverts tend to attract heavy attention and I believe many people dislike being drawn to adverts instead of content.
      Among all the factors I’ve listed, this is probably the most subjective in terms of money-making potential. Some publishers find it better to blend, and others find it better to contrast. Testing is the only way to find out which one works for your blog. (Note: A good article I’ve read recently on ad testing is Chris Garrett’s post on Split Testing Adsense over at Performancing) But you will find that most blogs prefer to blend as contrasting ads tend to break the style of your blog.

So what do you guys think? Are there any other factors that you could use to (somewhat) objectively measure how much advertising is a lot?

monetization, advertising

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