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For several years now website owners and companies have relied on heatmaps to optimize their websites in terms of navigational pathways and usability. Why shouldn’t we use this info to optimize our ad placements?

By knowing where a user focuses his or her attention ads can be better placed, ultimately increasing your revenue!

First off; what are Heatmaps?

Heatmaps are visual representation of a visitors mouse or eye movements when visiting a page. There are several scripts or web analytics systems out there that can collect this data for mouse movements. For eye movements it is a little bit more complex and this is generally done in high tech website analytics labs, where a user is asked to browse through a website with a special headset tracking their eyes movements. Alternatively this can be done by specialised software that analyzes a video recording of the users eyes whilst browsing the website.

This data is then translated to show the length of time a user stares or holds its mouse over a certain position on the page.  In some cases also mouse clicks are recorded but in this case that data is less important because click behaviour very much depends on the positioning of site navigation and other links. A user will simply not click on an empty space.

So how can this help my ad placement?

By studying heatmaps we can get better insights in the areas a user focuses on when visiting a website. This of course aids us in positioning our ads in positions that attract the most attention and are natural for users too look at.Getting heatmaps for your own website can be done for free, but for very extensive studies money will have to be paid. Also, for eye tracking one will have to consult a special company or studio and if done solely for the pupose of better ad placements may not be worth the money.

Here we have selected several publicly available heatmaps from various websites to get insights in the general user movement and focus on an average website page.  And because, when a user visits a website that is new for him or her a general idea of where certain elements should be on a page (learned by years of web browsing) eyes and mouse will usually be aimed at the same spots. Also scanning and general movement across a page is similar for most websites. The selection of heatmaps are shown here on the right.

On all websites a user starts in the top left, quite similar to reading a book in non Arabic countries.  Eye movement will then be focused along the menu either horizontal or vertically, but focus quickly shift towards the beginning of the main content. The main content is then scanned in a zigzag pattern from left to right and from top to bottom, also similar to a book.  Towards the right and bottom of a page focus is lost and the bottom right area receives far less attention. Most movement is thus within a triangle running from the top left to the top right and to the bottom left. This area is usually called the ‘golden triangle’.

Thus if you want an ad to be noticed it should ideally be placed within this area.  Also because a users scans the menu first ads directly below or next to it will also get immediate attention. Then when the user moves on to the main content, and ad where the user expects the article to begin might be a good idea. Alternatively ads could be placed in the top right or right next to each outer limit of the zigzag pattern a users uses to scan a page.
This zigzag pattern is usually governed by headers with the main content and other areas of focus within the main text. An ad to the right of a eye catching subheader thus might be a good idea.

This info should give you a general idea of spots that a users will most probably look at, but this can vary quite a lot for different layouts. Especially if other attention grabers like animations and extravagant graphics are present on a webpage.

But good ad Placement is not all!

Placement is one thing getting users to click is another. Although a user may quickly notice an add by good positioning the immediate  action may be to move on and actually read the pages content. Ads should thus not always be placed on the spots of maximum user focus. Sometimes it may be better to move ads to positions where users will have to decide what their next action is. This is usually at ends of the main content, as this is where the user will end up after reading and will be forced to move on. Also near or bellow site navigation is a good spot as users quite often move back to this area to see what other resources they can visit on the website. Ultimately, when your content is not very good and readers have decided to abandon the page ad placements en route to the back button (top left) or  towards the window-close button (top right) may be a good spot.

It is good practice to have at least one ad in the golden traingle as you can be sure the user has noticed this ad and may actually decide to click on it directly or return to it after reading the main content.

I realize this article provides some insights that are rather intuative, but at least your ideas are now backed up by proof and maybe you have learned something new!

Are you getting good CTR from ads placed outside the golden triangle and on spots not mentioned here? Do you have any ideas on how this data should be used differently? If so, please le us know!