Exactly. I'm not trying to take away from this post because I know that it's become quite popular however, I thought of this quite some time ago. ---> IMAGE I don't know whether or not it's against TOS. I think it's about 50/50. We need an AdSense expert here. Where'd Jensense go? PS: Here's a good answer: Welll, firstly, I'd say that you could argue this is still falling foul of the Program Policies since they don't actually define 'image'. All that's there is the line: "May not place misleading images alongside individual ads." Since, in this instance, the ad is clearly an image - regardless of what sort of image it is - then I'd say it still falls under the PP restriction. It could also be argued that this is a 'graphical gimmick' and therefore falling under: "May not direct user attention to the ads via arrows or other graphical gimmicks" However, these points are arguable so I'd rather say that the practice falls simply into the 'other deceptive practices' bracket. If you ask the question 'Why am I doing this', the only honest answer is that it is known that placing images alongside ads can improve click rate - this is why the practice is banned. You are therefore actively seeking for a way to circumvent the known rules and policies of the program in order to obtain more clicks. The following line from the webmaster guidelines is one of my favourites: "It's not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn't included on this page, Google approves of it. Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit." Which sums up the sentiment nicely. I guess the other thing to think about is whether it actually works in this case. The key to the whole image alongside ads technique was in getting images that 'matched' the ads in some way and deceived users into thinking the ads were a link to another part of the site and/or were not ads full stop. In the case you've posted there's not really much chance of a visitor thinking that 'CafeMum' is linked to muscle building ads! Of course, neither can you control the nature of the image ad shown. Be nice if an Adsense Pro could jump in here really.... Jon
Bottom line is do not trick the viewers.. and the method shared by our fellow mate does not in any way tricking any viewers. Psychologically human like something catchy. That's neutral. And by clicking any images based on its attractiveness is nothing wrong in any way. If it's wrong it's the advertiser that need to be blamed and not publisher like us. Furthermore it's clearly mentioned that it's a Google ads below each boxes. Lets not be too critical on this.. if anybody feels scared, so be it, and don't do it. But seeing so many well know, popular, high ranking sites doing similar things, I don't see how it's not permitted in any way. Cheers,
First, I would like to say this: With AdSense I think we can all agree that it's ignorant to assume. I understand where you're coming from for the the rules clearly state: "We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads. If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn’t actually being offered. That’s not a good experience for users or advertisers. " And things are pretty and you have a pretty good point until you hit the area in red because of the fact that the "neighboring AdSense image" may in fact not relate to the actual offer of the text ads. Thus, you're breaking TOS due to the fact that you're not providing a "good experience for users or advertisers." Like I said, you can't assume things with AdSense. I see what you're saying, but you must also understand what I am saying. I could be wrong, but couldn't we all? Then again, who am I to say anything. I'm not an expert.
You got it right.. and exactly what it means is, if the image is provided by the publisher them self then your point suits best. But in our case, it's ads image that is provided & decided by Google.. they should be, at the first place, allocating the most relevant image ads for our site and not us. Though an image and an "image ads" are physically the same, but intentionally not. So you see, this are totally two different things. With a very simple explanation in the TOS pertaining this issue, I don't see how it's hard to understand... It's not assuming ignorantly, but naive in understanding simple plain explanation..
Ok everyone I have emailed google to get this cleared up as some of you still have concerns. The only reason google adsense changed their terms because people were trying to trick the viewers into clicking by placing standalone images beside ads and the ads would be relevant to that image. So for example someone put a green apple picture beside an ad and the adsense ad beside that was a small ad saying discount green apples then people would think it is related to the website and click through. Google went against this because it was an image used beside an ad. This is not a standalone image it is just to ads and therefore shouldn't trick viewers. It works.
Great job mate.. now everyone can safely test your idea & rest assured not getting any red card from brother G.. I personally have used this too, but I don't find much difference from other combination, probably my content is not that catchy enough..
Could we see a quote from Google Please? Thanks for clearing this up, I just want to see the actual email.
You are right, that's actually the only good use of image ads. However, the main factor for a decent amount of clicks is to have targeted ads. Image ads are usually not as targetted as text ads and forcing image ads to show usually reduces how targeted your ads are. You might think: oh, that's no problem, then I am getting general ads, so? No! That's a big problem! General ads result in less conversions. People don't buy something after clicking on a general ads. Low conversions means low ROI for the advertiser. Google tries to fix that for them and cuts your CPC. What I am saying is, yes, you can do that, but the best way is leaving the targeting completely to Google. Setting text ads only (in case you want that) is usually safer as setting image ads only.
unless it is against the TOS it is good. i dont think this violates the TOS because image is a ad so as both text and images are ads how can it be look as a rick. However Lets wait for aaronlamont1 to post what he gets in reply from GOOGLE
how about to boost clicks? is joining this forum make ur clicks boosting? please share this here thanks
Just to let everyone know I still have not got a reply from google in reply to the email I sent, I am going to try and search out a phone number or go down to the google offices here in ireland.