GMAT Club Ads Master Thread

Question

Today while opening questions in forum, the google ads are coming in question itself which is very distracting. Is it problem in my PC only or others are also facing the same problem? In case it is so then moderaters pls look into it,

nink · Answer

It's not just you.

Everyone sees the google ads.

GMAT TIGER · Answer

Seems the adds are embaded. Can do nothing. :oops:

isa · Answer

I'm seeing them in the first post of every thread. Not so attractive.

walker · Answer

it seems to be not very good idea - too annoying...

bb · Answer

Thanks for the feedback.

We hired a company to optimize our google ads - the placements we have right now are underperforming by far, so we are trying a number of options and some of them are definitely better than others. Appreciate the feedback - we are trying to balance their prominence.

If we were to place them in areas other than header and footer, yet at the same time to be not as annoying as first post, what placements would you be comfortable with?

P.S. The results from first post placement should be completed by Thursday or Friday, so the ads will move to a different spot then. Pardon the inconvenience.

nink · Answer

The problem is that the ads are showing up in boxes (pretty big in size) and they are showing up in the post area.

If optimizing google ads are the goal (and these ads HAVE to show up somewhere), then why not move it to the area where our signatures show up. At least they won't hinder our viewing of the actual posts. It will also be visible throughout the site.

Also, some members don't have avatars (especially new members). until they choose to get an avatar, why not put ads there?

bb · Answer

pretty crazy COOL idea

terp26 · Answer

agreed. that's definitely a great idea.

The ad in the post is very annoying and frustrating. It would turn people away from this site.

bb · Answer

I had the ads lowered to the lower section of the post - hope this helps for the time being - let me know if this makes it worse

Again, thanks for all the feedback and ideas!

isa · Answer

I'm still not a fan of the ads showing up within the text of the post - looks like we (the ones writing the post) are endorsing ads/websites.

Could we maybe put something below the signature? Not a full box ad but a line that has a random link to an ad in it?

ritula · Answer

Yup, I agree

bb · Answer

Good point. Let me talk to the technical people about this.

bb · Answer

Next version is out based on your feedback

GMAT TIGER · Answer

Thats better. :good

Do not see any problem! :cool

ritula · Answer

Thanks a lot. Its better now

terp26 · Answer

The ads could be underperforming for other reasons such as the demographic of our members. If the benchmark are ad clickthroughs from the rest of the web then I would imagine the general public would use click thru ads moreso than a site that harbors I would imagine a young , extremely computer literate, intelligent crowd, pursuing top MBAs. Just an idea.

xALIx · Answer

It looks better now, although I don't like the ads stuck in the middle of a thread. My vote goes for ads on the top most part of the page and the bottom most part.
Don't MSFT and Y! pay more than google for ads? Just a thought. :-)

GMAT Club Ads Master Thread

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