Smart way of experimenting with ads performance

Everyone knows that one needs to experiment on the ads position in the layout so as to optimize their earnings as there is no hard and fast rule here. Certain statistics data do help but still considering the nature & origin of traffic and the behavior is unique for each and every blog and one needs to experiment with different layout ad positions so as to learn which one works best.

I have never used any plugin to insert ads on my blog and never will. I will always do it manually as it gives me more handling options. I don’t know how well plugins do their job but they certainly can’t come close to what we need to do while experimenting with different layouts.

What you have been doing till now?

You will get the code from the advertising company, paste it in your template or theme file and then monitor its performance.

Now you will try it at some different position or may be substitute it with a different ad format and then monitor its performance.

Based on your experimentation you might have to try many options (different ad formats of different networks) and it will become a pain to manage code for all ad formats from different ad networks such as adsense, tribalfusion etc

What you can do?

You can do what I do to experiment with different ad formats of different networks on my blog by the following method. If you have a better approach, feel free to share. I would love to hear you out.

I create php functions of each ad code that I use. Put all of this code in functions.php file and then call the respective functions inside theme file or template.

For example –

function adsense_468x60()
{ ?>
	<script type="text/javascript"><!--
	google_ad_client = "pub-8391674908460720";
	/* ashfameblog_header_banner */
	google_ad_slot = "6905051029";
	google_ad_width = 468;
	google_ad_height = 60;
	//-->
	</script>
	<script type="text/javascript"
	src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
	</script>
<?php
}

function adsense_120x600()
{ ?>
	<script type="text/javascript"><!--
	google_ad_client = "pub-8391674908460720";
	/* ashfameblog_sidebar_120x600 */
	google_ad_slot = "0178301640";
	google_ad_width = 120;
	google_ad_height = 600;
	//-->
	</script>
	<script type="text/javascript"
	src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
	</script>
<?php
}

function burstmedia_120x600()
{ ?>
	<!-- BEGIN RICH-MEDIA Burst Network CODE -->
	<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">
	rnum=Math.round(Math.random() * 100000);
	ts=String.fromCharCode(60);
	if (window.self != window.top) {nf=''} else {nf='NF/'};
	document.write(ts+'script src="http://www.burstnet.com/cgi-bin/ads/ad20986a.cgi/v=2.3S/sz=120x600A/'+rnum+'/'+nf+'RETURN-CODE/JS/">'+ts+'/script>');
	</script><noscript><a href="http://www.burstnet.com/ads/ad20986a-map.cgi/ns/v=2.3S/sz=120x600A/" target="_top">
	<img src="http://www.burstnet.com/cgi-bin/ads/ad20986a.cgi/ns/v=2.3S/sz=120x600A/" border="0" alt="Click Here" /></a>
	</noscript>
	<!-- END Burst Network CODE -->
<?php
}

From 3^rd line to 13^th line, its the actual code taken from my Adsense account. Similarly from lines 19-29 and 35-44 are code for other ad formats I use.

Now whenever I need to change the ad being served, I will just remove its function call and replaced by the one desired.

For example –
Switching from BurstMedia skyscraper to Adsense skyscraper, I will just replace

<?php adsense_120x600(); ?>

with

<?php burstmedia_120x600(); ?>

Pretty easy. Isn’t it? How did you find the trick?