Link Unit vs AD Unit – Google Adsense

As PPC from Google Adsense is one of my revenue sources, I’ve been exploring on Link units vs. Ad units. I’ve played around with both formats and have really tried to see which would be a better performer. It was very tough to tell at first as it was still short term and I believe that I’m still not seeing the whole picture. So what I did is I based it on the whole month of January…

… What has always been interesting for me is to know what really works for majority of my visitors to all my sites. So I went with one simple approach, 3 link units and 3 ad units, which most of them are positioned mostly on the top part of the page which you see straight away upon loading.

– Link Units vs AD Units on revenues –

My link units are on top and bottom of the content while ad units were placed in the header, mid content and sidebar. As I checked my Google adsense reports, I noticed that link units had its own CTR which ranged from 8% – 13% while ad units were getting a lot 3% – 5%. So at first I assumed that it was Link units that were doing great, as I looked at the earnings, I realized that Ad units were getting higher revenues. The Cost Per Click (CPC) for Ad units are far better than Link units, but its just that Link units can get more clicks than Ad units do.

I’ve been pleased with how well Adsense is doing, but I’m starting to see the limitations to it. Affiliate marketing is definitely the real money maker in the business, especially if you assess its earning potential, as well as, conversion rates.