Forums (discussion boards, discussion groups, bulletin boards, etc) are a natural fit for AdSense since both heavily rely on text to convey information, but are punctuated judiciously by images (display) and videos. Although an automated solution like YieldBuild will consistently give you the best ad performance, if you want to try optimizing AdSense on your own, you should consider taking the following advice.

Read our primers

Start off by familiarizing yourself with the basics, to get a proper grounding in AdSense format and layout basics:

• AdSense Formats & Formatting – selection of colors, border styles and ad unit sizes
• AdSense Placement – selection of optimum layout and positions for your ad units
• AdSense Optimization – selection of a testing protocol and optimization methodology

The fundamentals for forums

Formats: Most vBulletin (to use one of the most popular forum platforms) AdSense implementations shows a 728×90 leaderboard being installed at the top and bottom of the thread list. We’ve found the following tends to perform better:

Either:

• a text link unit (468×15) in the navbar
• a leaderboard (728×90) or banner (468×60) below the navbar, before the threads
• a medium rectangle (300×250) embedded in the top thread (or top post)

Or:

• two medium rectangles (300×250) set side-by-side below the navbar, before the threads
• a medium rectangle (300×250) embedded in the top thread (or top post)

A/B testing should tell you which variant performs better for your forum.

Be sure to enable display (image) and video ads for the ad unit sizes that support them, to give AdSense the opportunity to identify which formats will perform best.

Colors: Review our suggestions on how to choose colors – which is largely dependent on your forum’s color palette and the ad units’ layout (i.e. whether they are above or below the fold).

Embedding Code

Here is how to embedding of four AdSense unit: two in the navbar (navbar_1 – 468×15 text link unit, navbar_2 – 728×90), and two in the forum display (at the start & end of the threads, both 468×60) [hat tip: NeutralizeR]

1. Open your navbar template: vBulletin AdminCP > Styles & Templates > Edit Templates > Navigation / Breadcrumb Templates > navbar
2. Find:
<div class=”navbar” style=”font-size:10pt”><a href=”$vboptions[forumhome].php$session[sessionurl_q]” accesskey=”1″><img class=”inlineimg” src=”$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/navbits_start.gif” alt=”" border=”0″ /></a> <strong>$vboptions[bbtitle]</strong></div>
</if>
3. Insert your AdSense code (navbar_1) right below that
4. Find:
<!– / PAGENAV POPUP –>
</if>
5. Insert the following right below that:
<table class=”tborder” cellpadding=”0″ cellspacing=”0″ border=”0″ width=”100%” align=”center”>
<tr>
<td class=”alt1″ align=”center”>
[Your AdSense code – navbar_2]
</td>
</tr>
</table><br />
6. Save.
7. Open your FORUMDISPLAY template: vBulletin AdminCP > Styles & Templates > Edit Templates > Forum Display Templates > FORUMDISPLAY
8. Find:
<if condition=”$show['threads']“>
9. Insert the following right below that:
<tr>
<td align=”center” class=”alt1″>-</td>
<td align=”center” class=”alt2″>-</td>
<td class=”alt1″>
<div>
[Your AdSense code – start_thread]
</div>
</td>
<td class=”alt2 smallfont” align=”center”>Sponsored Links</td>
<td class=”alt1″ align=”center”>-</td>
<td class=”alt2″ align=”center”>-</td>
<if condition=”$show['inlinemod']“><td class=”alt1″ align=”center”>-</td></if>
</tr>
10. Find:
<!– end show threads –>
11. Insert the following right below that:
<tr>
<td align=”center” class=”alt1″>-</td>
<td align=”center” class=”alt2″>-</td>
<td class=”alt1″>
<div>
[Your AdSense code – end_thread]
</div>
</td>
<td class=”alt2 smallfont” align=”center”>Sponsored Links</td>
<td class=”alt1″ align=”center”>-</td>
<td class=”alt2″ align=”center”>-</td>
<if condition=”$show['inlinemod']“><td class=”alt1″ align=”center”>-</td></if>
</tr>
12. Save.

Thanks to Chris Gathright for contributing to this article.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 10:54 pm and is filed under Online Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.