Pre-Populating AdSense Search Box Queries

I've often seen people asking in AdSense discussion boards whether they are allowed to pre-populate the search box when using AdSense for search. In case you don't know what that means, it simply means putting some predefined text in the text box that you would normally type in before clicking the "Search" button.

Well, in a post entitled "If it ain't broke..." on the official AdSense blog, this question was definitively answered earlier today:

our program policies strictly prohibit altering the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of Google ads or AdSense for search boxes . . . includ[ing] . . . [p]re-populating the AdSense for search box with specific queries.

So, there we have it. Don't pre-populate your AdSense for search text boxes or you could find yourself banned from AdSense.

Tags: adsense

Why It's Not Worth Putting Competing PPC Ads Alongside AdSense Ads

I frequently read questions on various AdSense discussion forums regarding whether or not you are allowed to put ads from other PPC programs, such as AdBrite, Bidvertiser, Clicksor, etc. on the same page as AdSense ads.

In this post I'll discuss why I don't think this is generally a good idea anyway. However, first, what exactly are the rules governing this situation?

AdSense Rules Regarding Competing Ads

The rules governing competitive ads and services were amended earlier in 2007 and now read as follows:

In order to prevent user confusion, we do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.

In various places, Google has also stated that if the competing ads naturally have a similar look to Google ads, they must use a distinct color scheme to clearly differentiate them from the Google ads.

Thus, you can now use pretty much any competing ad program alongside AdSense provided they are visually different, even if the competing ads are contextual, which was formerly prohibited. Of course, you also need to make sure that the competing ad program permits AdSense to be used alongside their own ads!

Why It May Not Be a Good Idea

There are 4 main reasons why I think it is generally not a good idea to display competitive ads alongside AdSense. However, I want to begin with a proviso. I do not consider in-text ads as being competitive ads. By this, I mean such ad programs as Kontera, Intellitxt, etc.

So, here are my reasons:

1. Poorer Quality Ads
Many of these competing programs simply have poor quality ads, as compared to AdSense. They don't necessarily follow the same editorial policies that Google requires of its ads and often just look tacky. However, this definitely does vary from program to program. Also, the format of some AdSense competitors' ads is not good. For instance, Element Ads often truncates the title of the ad when it is wider than the ad width. Thus, you may see ads for "Bicycle Shelters and R" or "Lake Tahoe Mountain Cabi," for example, where the end of the ad title is missing.

2. Lower Paying Ads
In my experience, AdSense competitors tend to have lower paying ads both in terms of the average cost per click and the click-thru rate. For example, on one site of mine, I earned more than 10 times the amount with AdSense in about 6 weeks than I earned from Bidvertiser and AdBrite during a period of several months. (Note: AdSense was not run alongside Bidvertiser and AdBrite).

3. Competing with AdSense
This kinda goes without saying . . . but if you have other ads on your page that are competing with your AdSense ads, you are going to get less clicks on your AdSense ads. If the AdSense ads tend to pay more per click, why compete against them?

Another issue to consider here is that of payment threshold. Suppose your competing program has a $100 minimum payout requirement, like AdSense has. By running the two programs side-by-side you are going to take considerably longer to reach the payment threshold, even if both programs perform equally well. Now, if you're a high-traffic, high-earning site, that's not an issue, but I know there are plenty of AdSense publishers out there struggling to reach $50 in earnings, let alone the $100 minimum! Can you really afford to wait perhaps twice as long to get paid?

4. AdSense is More Than Adquate On Its Own
In my opinion, you really don't need competing CPC ads because you can already place more than enough AdSense units on a page anyway. Under the current rules, you can place 3 ad units (which may each contain up to 4 ads), 1 link unit, 2 search boxes, and 2 referral units per product. That's potentially an awful lot of ads to appear on a single page!

Of course, if you're unhappy with the performance of your AdSense ads, feel free to try other programs, or test their performance against your AdSense ads. However, in my opinion, AdSense is by far the best contextual PPC program available.

Tags: adsense

Putting AdSense Code in External Files

If you are managing a web site comprised of several pages and you would like to be able to add AdSense code to the site without having to paste the exact same code into each and every page, there are two main ways this can be achieved.

Include Files

Dynamic page building technologies such as ASP, ASP.net, PHP, and SHTML allow code that is common to multiple pages to be stored in an external file and incorporated into the main page with a single command.

For example, if you were using ASP you could place your AdSense code in a file named i_adsense.asp (the i_ prefix indicating an include file. Note: It is not good practice to name ASP include files with a .inc extension). In order to include this file in your main code, you simply use the command

<!--#include file="i_adsense.asp"-->

Similarly, in PHP you use the command

<?php include("i_adsense.php") ?>

External .JS Files

Using this method, you simply place your AdSense javascript in a file that has a .js extension, such as adsense.js, and reference this file in your main code, wherever you want the AdSense ads to appear. To incorporate the external .js file in your code, you would use the command

<script language="JavaScript" src="inputmasks.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Note, the src attribute can contain a full path or absolute URL, such as js-files/inputmasks.js or http://www.mywebsite.com/javascript/adsense.js.

Is this method permitted?

There seems to be some confusion as to whether external .js files are permitted. In order to clarify this situation, I recently contacted AdSense support and this is how they responded

You're welcome to include the AdSense ad code in .js files, but please don't modify the code or manipulate the ad targeting in any way, as this is against our program policies.

Thus, as long as you don't alter the core JavaScript code in any way, it is perfectly acceptable to make use of external .js files.

Limitations of these Methods

External files make managing your AdSense code across many pages much simpler. This is particularly useful when you are using a template that allows for an ad unit of the same size in the same place on every page in your site. However, this is not without its limitations.

The single biggest issue with this is that it makes the use of precise channels much more difficult. For example, supposing every page has a leaderboard at the top of the page that is in an external include file and you want to include a unique channel for every page's leaderboard. If you had no other AdSense ads on the page, you could make use of URL channels, but what would you do if you also had a skyscraper unit on your pages? How would you differentiate the two?

By incorporating programming techniques into your external include files in ASP, PHP, etc., even this is possible, but is beyond the scope of this post.

Tags: adsense

Why You Can Explicitly Encourage Clicks on AdSense Referral Ads

Google has just published an interesting post on the Inside AdSense blog entitled, "Referral policies - clarified," which explains why publishers are allowed to explicitly endorse the referral products (i.e., encourage clicks on them!) when they're not allowed to do so for regular AdSense ads.

The post gives 2 main reasons.

The CPA Nature of Referral Ads

Because referrals require the user to actually do something (the action) before the publishers gets paid by the advertisers, the advertiser will always get what they're after even if the publisher encouraged the click. For example, you won't get paid for any clicks on a referral ad for Firefox unless the person who clicked on the ad actually installs Firefox on their computer. In this case, the advertiser is happy, they got what they wanted, so they're happy to pay up!

Endorsing a Specific Product

When you endorse a referral ad product, you know exactly what product you are encouraging your visitors to click on. This is not true of ads that appear in regular AdSense CPC ad units and, as such, if you encourage visitors to click on those ads, you cannot possibly be doing so with any real knowledge that the products or services being advertised are of value to the visitor.

My Thoughts

I think in many ways this is a very sensible policy, however, as the post also points out, it must be remembered that you still cannot encourage visitors to click on referral ads "for deceptive purposes." In fact, unless you have actually used the product yourself, you cannot possibly genuinely endorse the product with any real knowledge of it.

Thus, this policy is still open to blatant abuse and I personally think the CPA nature of referral ads provides only a limited level of protection to the advertiser because many of the products being referred cost the user nothing.

It will be interesting to see if Google eventually changes this policy for free referral products.

Technorati Tags: adsense

Joel Comm's Monthly Templates Violate AdSense Program Policies?

In the Program Policies for AdSense, which all AdSense publishers must adhere to, you can read the line:

No Google ad may be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant.

The well-known Joel Comm, author of "The AdSense Code," sells from his web site AdSense templates, which are basically ready-built web sites, content and all, whose purpose is solely that of generating income via AdSense ads.

That sounds like a Program Policy violation to me.

So, I left a comment on his blog post in which he promoted his monthly templates. I mentioned this program policy and my opinion that his templates possibly violated the AdSense program policy. Now a few days later, my comment has not been posted and, of course, he has left no reply.

That troubles me. I'd mentioned in a previous post entitled "Joel Comm or Joel Con?" that I had my concerns about Joel, now I'm more concerned than ever.

So, in order to assuage my concerns, I wrote to AdSense support to inquire as to whether or not such templates violate the program policies and I received an interesting response:

I understand that you would like to know on whether using a certain template complies with the program's policy. However, we do not endorse or encourage the use of any third-party tools.

We recommend that you exercise caution when using third-party software to ensure that you do not violate the AdSense Terms and Conditions. Please note that AdSense participants are solely responsible for verifying that any tools or software used in conjunction with AdSense do not violate the AdSense Terms and Conditions.

So, if I were you, I would not use any pre-built web site templates, whether they are from Joel or anyone else for that matter.

You have been warned!

Technorati Tags: adsense, adsense templates, joel comm

Other Contextual Ads Get the Official OK from AdSense

I just received an email from Google in which they confirmed my interpretation of the Program Policy changes and, as a result, you may now run any other contextual ads alongside AdSense ads provided they have a different appearance, which, in some cases, means a different color scheme.

In addition, the email also confirmed that excessive advertising is no longer prohibited but is merely discouraged because "doing so may result in fewer repeat visitors."

Note, however, that the terms and conditions of the other advertising programs may prohibit their use alongside AdSense. In particular, the Yahoo Publisher Network's conditions prohibit their use alongside AdSense ads.

The bulk of the response that I received from Google is copied below:

AdSense publishers may display ads from other contextual ad networks on the same page as Google ads only if the formatting or color scheme of these ads is sufficiently different from the layout of the Google ads. In other words, if you choose to place non-Google ads on the same site or page as Google ads, it should always be clear to the user that the ads are served by different advertising networks and that the non-Google ads have no association with Google. If the formats are naturally similar, we'd ask that you use different color schemes for the competing ads.

Of course, we're constantly investing in our advertising technology, and we believe that Google ads will monetize best for most publishers. Be aware that the addition of third party ads to your site may cause fewer users to click the Google ads on your site and thus your AdSense earnings may decrease. We'd also recommend that publishers be careful not to place excessive advertising on their sites, as doing so may result in fewer repeat visitors.

Technorati Tags: adsense

Lesser Known Forbidden Uses of AdSense

In the depth of the AdSense Terms and Conditions, in the Prohibited Uses section, you will find the following:

You shall not, and shall not authorize or encourage any third party to . . . display any Ad(s), Link(s), or Referral Button(s) on any error page, on any registration or "thank you" page (e.g., a page that thanks a user after he/she has registered with the applicable Web site), on any chat page, in any email, or on any Web page or any Web site that contains any pornographic, hate-related, violent, or illegal content;

The two "prohibitions" that I want to concentrate on in this post are the "registration page" and the "thank you page."

Even though this is consistent with Google's requirement that ads be placed on pages with "content," I can foresee a situation whereby this condition is unintentionally breached.

If your web site has been created as a dynamic site, using a technology such as ASP, ASP.net, PHP, ColdFusion, or even SHTML, you may well have created a site template that incorporates your AdSense ads into each and every page of your site via a standard "include file" or template file. If that is the case and your site contains a registration page or a thank you page, then you will need to conditionally remove the AdSense ads from those pages in order to comply with the Terms and Conditions.

(Note, by "conditionally" I mean by using programming logic such as: if page = registration then don't display ads).

This example shows you just how easy it is to unwittingly fall foul of AdSense's Terms and Conditions!

Technorati Tags: adsense

Is "Excessive Advertising" Now Allowed By AdSense Program Policies?

Prior to the January 2007 changes in the AdSense Program Policies, sites displaying Google ads were not permitted to include "excessive advertising." However, this is no longer listed in the policies as one of the things that AdSense sites may not include.

So, what does this mean for you? Well, I guess it now means that you can put as much advertising on your pages as you like, provided you adhere to the rest of the policies and the Terms and Conditions.

This may also be a response to the fact that you can now contain a lot of Google ads on a single page: 3 ad units, 1 link unit, 2 search boxes and 2 referral units per product (which gives you 8 in total). Now, given that a wide skyscraper can contain 5 ads, that gives you a potential grand total of:

15 ads
1 link unit
2 search boxes
8 referral units

which gives you 26 all together! That sounds a tad excessive to me!

However, I have a feeling that things are not quite that simple. Given that AdSense still requires Google ads to be displayed on pages that have "content," make sure that your pages have more genuine content that ads, otherwise you could find yourself in trouble.

Technorati Tags: adsense

AdSense Now Allows other Contextual Ads?!

According to Joel Comm's blog, he has heard officially from Google that you may now use "contextual ads like those provided by Kontera, Intellitxt, Amazon and Chitika . . . on the same pages as your AdSense ads."

Interesting, especially in light of the latest Jensense post in which Jennifer explains how the Terms and Conditions forbid the use of "any non-Google content-targeted advertisement(s)."

Of course, I still need to look into whether Kontera, etc. allow the use of AdSense alongside their ads!

I wonder if Google will be updating the Terms and Conditions too!

Technorati Tags: adsense

Digging Deeper into the New AdSense Program Policies

As I mentioned in my previous post, "New AdSense Program Policies", the "Competitive Ads and Services" section now reads

In order to prevent user confusion, we do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site.

In this post I want to concentrate on the first six words of this policy, "[i]n order to prevent user confusion."

That's an interesting statement, don't you think? What Google is saying here is that, the entire rationale for our policy is that we don't want our users thinking they're clicking on a Google ad when they're really clicking on an AdBrite ad, or a Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) ad because they'll get confused.

What a load of baloney!

Do you honestly think John or Jane Surfer could care less whether the ad is from Google, AdBrite, Yahoo, or even Bidvertiser!?! Yet, apparently Google is so concerned about us being "confused" that they want to make sure their ads look different to everyone else's.

I would love to hear from Google why they think John or Jane is getting confused and how that's harming them (harming John/Jane Surfer, that is).

I personally think this is a complete bluff on Google's part - all they're concerned about is making sure it's as hard as possible to incorporate two competing ad services in your web site, so that you will stick with AdSense.

On a side note, the only other time I've ever come across "preventing confusion" being used as a rationale for anything is in the area of trademark law. In trademark law, the "likelihood of consumer confusion" is a key concept and one that must be proven in order to win a trademark infringement lawsuit. Could Google possibly have legal reasons tied in with trademark law? I don't think so, as I said above, I think they're just concerned with maintaining their market share, but maybe there's a tad more to it than that.

Technorati Tags: adsense

New AdSense Program Policies

Google have just updated and amended the AdSense Program Policies page. After reading it through, the following caught my attention:

Copyrighted Material

The policies now state

Website publishers may not display Google ads on web pages with content protected by copyright law unless they have the necessary legal rights to display that content. Please see our DMCA policy for more information.

Previously the policy referred specifically to video and digital music (e.g. MP3) etc. This new policy wording appears broader in that it now specifically refers to any content that is protected by copyright. This is to ensure that Google is conforming with the requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

In practice this means that, if your web page contains any content at all that is not authored or created by yourself, it either must be:

1. In the public domain
2. Subject to one of the exceptions to copyright infringement, such as fair use, or
   
3. Published with the permission of the author and used in accordance with any condition accompanying that permission
   

Ad Placement

The new policy wording states that a single web page may contain

Up to two referral units from each referral product or offering may be displayed on a page, in addition to the ad units, search boxes, and link units specified above.

If my memory serves me correctly, prior to the update, you were only allowed one referral unit per product.

In addition, the policy states

No Google ad may be placed on any non-content-based pages

and

No Google ad may be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant.

This wording is not new but it is worth emphasizing that AdSense is not permitted on any pages without content or on pages that have been created purely for displaying AdSense. This means that those AdSense templates that you see for sale all over the place, including those by AdSense guru Joel Comm, violate AdSense's program policies!

Competitive Ads and Services

This section has undergone a quite significant change in wording and now states

In order to prevent user confusion, we do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.

This is a very interesting change because it appears that Google has removed one of the previous requirements, that competitive ads must not be "contextual." Furthermore, the new wording clarifies what Google used to refer to as ads that "mimic" Google ads.

Thus, under the new wording, it appears that competitive ads are now permitted provided they do not look like the Google ads that appear on that particular site. This is also another subtle change because it implies that the competitive ads may look similar to Google ads provided they have a different color scheme to the Google ads that are appear on the same web site. This also implies that other contextual ad programs may be used, such as Kontera.

I have written to AdSense support to clarify these points and will post their response when it's received.

Technorati Tags: adsense

Terminating AdSense Accounts: Whys and Wherefores

Yesterday I found myself thinking about Google's AdSense account termination process in the light of a few other things I have read about or experienced.

First, partially in response to a previous post of mine, I read a comment on John Chow's blog, in which he stated, "once you start producing results, even Google will bend over backwards for you." I found myself thinking about AdSense account closures in light of his statement.

Second, the official AdSense Help Forum is constantly full of posts from people whose AdSense accounts have been closed, without warning and with the user having no idea why.

Third, and finally, the fact that I was once sent a warning letter from AdSense regarding my web site, www.adwords-for-profit.com, which informed me that I needed to remove AdSense ads from my site for reasons of trademark policy violations. Why did I get a warning? Why do others get warnings but some don't? That got me thinking about John Chow's statement again - why does Google "bend over backwards" for some, warn others, and not even bother to warn the rest?

This lead to a completely untested hypothesis on my part. If Google will bend over backwards for highly successful publishers, perhaps they treat policy violations on the basis of their perceived value of the publisher, or the publisher's web site, in terms of potential future earnings. In other words, does Google just ban those sites whose future prospects it deems poor and is more lenient with those it thinks have earning potential? Except for cases of clear, extreme policy violations, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some truth in that. Why else would Google treat even regular AdSense publishers (i.e., not "Premium Publishers") differently from each other?

Technorati Tags: adsense accounts, adsense

AdSense: A Bifurcated System

Now, I always knew there were two tiers of AdSense users, the "premium" publishers who have such benefits as Google Keywords (google_kw) and the rest of us, i.e. the average AdSense publisher. However, until today, I didn't realize (oh naïve me) that there are also two sets of rules (well, there's probably as many sets of rules as there are premium publishers).

I was aware that some rules in the AdSense Terms and Conditions, and Policies are not applied as written, but today I learned that AdSense is prepared to forgo entire rules for publishers that are in a special relationship. How did I discover this?

A few days ago I happened to be reading John Chow's blog when I noticed that his blog was displaying both AdSense and Intellitxt ads. Immediately I thought to myself, "Self! Intellitxt is a contextual ad system and you are not allowed to display contextual ads on the same page as AdSense ads, so something's up." (See the "Competitive Ads and Services" section of the Google AdSense Program Policies).

Being the curious type and one who likes to see rules being applied equally to all people, I thought I would write to AdSense support to ask if I, being a mere mortal AdSense publisher would be allowed to display Kontera ads (similar to Intellitxt) on my blogs alongside my AdSense ads. I also pointed out that johnchow.com was doing this very thing. I received an interesting reply:

According to our program policies, Kontera and Intellitxt ads may not be displayed on the same page as Google ads on your site. However, you are welcome to display those ads on pages of your site that do not include Google ads . . . Additionally, I understand that you've noticed www.johnchow.com is displaying Google ads. Because we respect the confidentiality of all publishers, we cannot disclose any details of our relationship with this site.

So, if you're lucky enough to be one of the John Chow's of this world, not only may you get access to premium features, but Google may also be prepared to break its own rules to have you use their contextual ad publishing service.

Technorati Tags: john chow, adsense