Quadrupled my CTR thanks to DP members.

no its not in the TOS.. but then neither is "do not put big flashing arrows above the ads" but from what I know.. your best to not do what you sugested.

 

Now I have to change the layout put borders.. hmmmm..
Critters you helped me earlier too, just look at this and tell me please..
spamalertz.com/ thanks!

 

you are missing the point... the border needs to be round the ad unit, not round each image

maybe insert a line between the images and the ads, or change the ad border colour.

 

okie I will make border colour little darker?
Edit: I have used a very light but visible border is that okie or I should make little more darker?

 

ask google

 

lol, good reply but now I have modified the entire theme and threre is clear distinction between ads and images there is also a line border between them!
I hope this is fine...

 

I took your advise / suggestion Critters... however, I must be the most unluckiest - for even after a week of having images above my ads my CTR has NOT increased at all... initially it when up the next day by .5% but two days later back to 1.5% and steady...

Can you check to see... what I have done ... and offer me any suggestion, thanks

 

Oh Critters, not only an AS guru but physic as well. You are my hero

 

Put the VB down and post your url!

 

I have included my URl in my sig... please Critters take a look... and offer me your opinion why my CTR rate is still steady at 1.5% even after I added images above my ads like you suggested...

Would have anything to do with the fact that used the smaller adsense banner or because my ads are inserted into a table... thanks

 

IMHO, It's UNETHICAL to lure visitors to click on advertisements by placing images on the top of it.

I gone through this post (my) yesterday night, and became greedy. So, I placed two images above 468x60 adsense ads in two of my sites before I went to sleep.

But friends, I could not sleep properly because my act was constantly hitting my conscience. I realised that I did not do a right thing, whether it followed the TOS of Google or not...whether I put a <HR> below the image or a border around the ad.

Ultimately, what was the purpose of placing the images in such a manner? So that the visitors got misleaded by assuming the ads as the captions of the pictures above. He clicked, I got money. But what about the advertiser? Did he advertise, brainstormed words, to get clicked as a caption of images? Would the visitor stay for a second into that site the moment he understood that he had been misleaded? What impression would he bear about my sites?

The first thing I did after getting up in the morning was to remove all images that I placed yesterday night.

And the second thing....this post.

I don't know, how many of you will agree to my views, but I thought it would definitely reach certain people.

Warm regards

Subhendu

 

If the intent of placing the images near the AdSense ads is to draw the visitor's attention there in the hope he will see an ad of interest and click on it then it seems clear that there is nothing unethical about it.

On the other hand, if the intention is to confuse or trick the visitor into clicking on an ad then that is clearly unethical.

 

I think that it has to do with your implementation, the reasonings behind it, and your site design.

The problem that you are attacking is preventing your users from becoming blind to the ads - which is a very common behavior. You are drawing their eyes to a section of your page near the ads.

Having appropriate images near the ads - images of subjects that are inline with the content of the ads - can trigger some curiousity in the users and make them want to click on the ads and maybe become potential customers. It's no different than common retail placement strategies. You put impulse buy kind of items at eye level near the registers. You put batteries near electronic items that require batteries.

On the other hand, if you put something that is deceptive to the user - such as a photo that it's likely they will think they are clicking a link to get a larger version of the photo, then that is unethical and a disservice to the folks you are advertising for.

Are your images helping the advertisers and the users to develop a relationship? Or are they somehow deceiving your users and providing a disservice to your advertisers?

These questions also portend the long term viability of increased CTRs. Your users will stop coming to your site if they feel they have been deceived, and advertisers will minimize or stop advertising all together if they see declining or non-existant conversion rates.

The solution that this thread discusses isn't simply "put some images near your adsense ads", it can really be spelled out as:
1) draw your users attention to your advertising area.
2) help your advertisers out by using content near their ads that makes your visitors think about becoming a customer.
3) keep it clean and ethical to see continued success.
4) review your design for effectiveness, TOS compliance, and ethical behavior.

Like most tips that you will find in these and other webmaster forums, it requires thoughtful planning on the part of the webmaster for maximum effectiveness and if you try to do things quick and easy without any forethought you really end up missing out on the whole point.

 

Thanks for your replies.

We really cannot put relevant pictures to the ad, because ads keeps on changing.

Drawing visitors attentions to the advertising area can be done in many ways, but definitely not by placing any fixed or rotating images around it in a manner so that visitors click on the text link which are paid ads. If that was the only purpose then Google would have allowed to put us text like "Please support our sponsors" or "Click the following links to know more about this subject".

We use adsense ads near the content, along with the content, blend with the content...that's enough to (1) generate related ads and (2) lure visitors to click on the ads. Placing images can never help to generate relevant adsense ads but also make a visitor blind to the details of the content of the ad including 'Ads by Google'.

We do not put ads in our sales pages, because we do not want our visitors to have a look at other options. We place ads in the pages, where if all visitors click on the ads and leave our site, we would be more than happy. So, we really are not dying to help advertisers.

There are many ways to attract visitors attention towards the advertisements. I like the idea how DPF places their ads in top right with bright flourescent color changing on every reload. That's a nice example of attracting visitors and being ethical at the same time.

Subhendu

 

If the images are generic, and do not suggest a specific product or service the user may receive when clicking upon the ad.

This been the case, adding images above ads is no different to having the ad an opposite color to your page design.. the whole point of images near ads is to get the user to read the ads instead of ignoring them. It was never my intent to mislead the user.

If you are unsure, please make a secret page with the images above the ads, email G and ask if it is OK. Given G's recent responses I would advise given the ad unit a different border color to the ad units background color and / or putting a line between the ads + the images. This will make it clear they are not linked.. but should still work as the images will line up with the ads and the user will read them.



On another note.. can people PLEASE stop sending me PM's asking me to look at their site to say if what they have done is OK or not.. It's not that I don't want to help it's that I can not say yes or no cos I am not Google. There is no ham in emailing G with your site and asking the same, infact they appreciate you taking an interest in the TOS and you will have a written record of their response.

I have only posted advice that I have been told is OK on my site by Google via email.

 

From a design point of view, the ads are supposed to look good and suit the design. IMO the images make the ads less ugly and better integrated into the site. Maybe google should just offer ads with images above the ads as an option. Im sure advertisers would like to be able to have a text AND image as an ad.

If I have images near the ads it the draw attention to the AREA as I would do for ANY other areas I wanted the visitors to notice. The purpose is not to convince people that wouldnt have clicked to click. Its to make sure they have at least seen the ads - same as any product on my site/ nav/ etc.. hence 'ugly' links are usually put low down the page.

People generally skim read and images are used EVERYWHERE to draw attention. favicon, logos, product images. This is no different if it is not an attempt to say 'please click here and pay me'

I would say its unlikely that people get banned for it unless its OTT. I would assume G will tell you to remove/ change it.

Note I do not work for google, so these are my thoughts

 

This is a good idea, indeed.

If Google starts text+image ads, this would definitely generate good attraction. I also take part in Adwords and I've seen that my image ads give much greater CTR than text ads. If advertisers select their own images and Google remains there as a 'check-point'... it would be very nice.

So, 468x60 text+image ads may become 468x160 (with 100px height image),
120x600 and 160x600 may contain less number of ads but will have greater responses in my belief.

Is Google listening?

Subhendu

 

Google must have already considered it, if not they should pm me... I have a whole list of improvements to the adsense concept

Infact i remember seeing them put the equivelent of favicons next to ads - using company logos, however, they were too small and hard to make out

 

nice little tip. cool

 

I am interested in using this technique but i do not know where to find images or cliparts for my site. Do you guys create those images by yourself?

Or do you guys hire some professionals to do it? If so, can you tell me where to find some cheap and quality designers?

Thanks.