I used to run adsense on a couple of my sites but I have removed the last ones about 6 months ago. I have also canceled my account and collected my last pittance... I find the ads are now so ubiquitous and ugly that I question how anyone receives even a few clicks using it. To make matters even worse Google says they want the ads to speak for themselves and attract clicks naturally but unless you are a very large site you are stuck with "Ads by Google" all over your page. And I do not care how well you try to "blend" them, they still stand out like a thumb smacked with a large hammer. I truly believe these ads make your webpage unattractive and tends to turn people off to your product or service simply because it appears that whatever it is that you are selling couldn't possibly stand on its own without the aid of paid ads. Apparently I am in the minority because the majority of sites use them now... or could it possibly be that their products or services truly cannot stand alone...
No choice, google have to protect their customer to minimize the non-targeted traffic. And that's why adwords and adsense getting more and more popular.
This is one kind of marketing stretagy, google need the publiher to put the "ads by google" is one kind of promoting also. This can actually let the advertiser know how big are them and this also can get attention from the publisher. This is just as Marlboro advertise on FI using millions on it just to show their brand. This is what google do, they save the advertising cost
I have no clue as to what you are talking about... I asked a simple question about what you said about non-targeted traffic with respect to adsense which you said was a problem... What difference does a publisher not having "Ads by Google" displaying have to do with "sensing" by adsense... None...
I totally agree that adsense is ugly, not-transparent, not flexible etc'. But I also have to admit that it is monetizing my websites best, in comparison with its alternatives. nothing come even close. Sad story.
They do take away from how the site looks in most instances and if all you want is a pretty site, then it makes sense. On the other hand, I bring in enough revenue from adsense on my sites that I can easily live off of the revenue. I don't offer a service, nor do I offer a product, my sites are essentially informational.