Let’s first talk specifically about ad design. When using Google’s text ads you do not want to use borders. Many people believe the borders make their Adsense ads stand out, and they would be correct. Therein lays the problem. You do not want your ads to stick out like a sore thumb. You’re sending a signal that this is an ad and most people have an aversion to being solicited. Therefore their reaction, in a sense, is to dodge or ignore the ad. However, if your Adsense ads look like they’re a regular part of your web page visitors to your website are more apt to scan the ads and hopefully click on them.
What about ad color? This may insult your artistic proclivities, but stay with the regular Google ad colors which consists of the blue link and black text. The reason for using this color scheme is because people are conditioned to recognize the blue text as hyperlinks and that they should click on them. Because of the blue link, your visitor’s subconscious mind is telling them that some action needs to take place. If you use some other color like bright green or pink, you are disrupting your visitor’s normal surfing habits.
