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Optimization

Why is my ad off topic?
Why do I get the same ad repeatedly?
What ad formats are available?
Customizing Ads
Tips to Optimize your advertisements
Will Q-Ads have more ads later?

Why is my ad off topic?

This has to do with two factors: your keywords and the ad inventory.

When you choose keywords, or they are drawn from the title of your article, the Q-Ads engine matches your keywords to ads in our inventory. Sometimes we don't have an ad that matches, so we provide a "default" ad. These ads might not be on topic. Other times, in our ad rotation, we need to place a default ad in temporarily as part of the rotation process.

Good news: you can preview your ad before you post to make sure it is on topic. Simply use the Custom insertion with the Banner Designer, and test your keywords. Keep testing different individual keywords or phrases until you get something perfect for your post.

Why do I get the same ad repeatedly?

The specific keyword you are using may not have a large inventory to support it. In some cases, when a keyword is not supported by any advertising partner, we will put in a placeholder of a high performing advertisement that may be off topic. If you use the banner designer preview option, we will warn you if there is no ad for that keyword, so that you may try again. 

To increase your relevancy, try similar or complimentary keywords, or a key phrase.

Customizing Ads

When you insert an advertisement, it uses the default settings. These default settings are the result of our beta testing – so, we think they are the best performing. However, you can customize the ads even more so that the background matches your site, the URL or title are different colors, and even whether or not you want a border.

Tips to Optimize your advertisements

Advertisements are particularly successful when relevant and when in context. This means that you have a good ad displayed nicely.

Key factors in ad performance are:
- Keywords
- Size & Shape
- Position
- Color

Use broad keywords. Specific keywords (like brand names) may not match ads appropriately. Experimentation in keywords will help you understand what works and what doesn’t.

Size and shape are ways you can decide what your ad will look like in the context of your blog design and your post. We suggest testing many of the options available.

Place ads within your text and wrap the text around the ad (see image positioning here for how to wrap text). Try to place your ads in different places in your post for maximum effect.

Color is a very important factor. We give you the option to modify border, text color, title color, URL color, background color, gradient, and footer color. Typically, the best option is to have no border with the text and title matching your blog, and a footer color in the same effect as your blog design. Blending is key.

To experiment with these factors, simply make one or more changes and watch your statistics to see if your CTR improves, then continue. 

To understand the effectiveness of your changes, take advantage of the Post Title field to label your ad testing. You can use any words to help you: your blog, the size, the keywords, the post name. Then, simply track your ads using Q-Ads's sophisticated per-ad statistics.

Will Q-Ads have more ads later?

Yes. Over time, we’ll increase our inventory of ads through partnerships and individual advertisers.

If you would like to advertise with Q-Ads, as an individual advertiser or as an advertisement program, please contact us.