Ads that stand out or blend in?

What do you think is best for better PPC results? Ads that blend in real well with the color scheme of your site, or ads that jump out at you with some radical colors.

Suggestions?

blended ads are proven to perform better.

Thanks for the reply.

Originally Posted by briansol

blended ads are proven to perform better.

By who? I've read that ads that stand out perform better. Don't listen to me though, I am not driving a BMW

I personally have to much pride in my site to put ads in it that do not blend in.

Originally Posted by James_S

Where did you read it then?

The one area where I’ve found blended ads don’t perform as well is forums, especially ones with a high volume of repeat members. Regular visitors develop banner blindness pretty quickly. One ‘trick’ to keep the ads from being ignored is to randomize the color and even the placement. As with any of the decisions about location, placement and color it’s a trade off. How much do you emphasize the ads without annoying your visitors. Remember it’s better to have a 1% CTR with 500 regular visitors as opposed to a 5% CTR with 50 visitors.

Google Adsense Tips, Tricks, and Secrets

listed 2nd in google when searching for 'adsense tips'

I'm pretty sure that is not where I read it in the past, I do not bookmark everything I read. I am also aware that it is just another opinion.

I do feel pretty silly asking Brian 'who has proved that blended works better?', when he makes more off adsense in a day than I probably do in a month.

I did my own testing with 3rd party a/b marketing tools. I work in e-commerce, so i have access to rather expensive services that some people pay $10,000 a month for.

I ran just about every color combo, size, placement, and so on known to man.
What I have on my site now has proven to be the best performer by a landslide.