Google Clarifies Take on Adsense and Images

Placing images next to Adsense ads had become a growing trend and can clearly increase one’s CTR significantly. It was also a gray area which Google never really commented about, and just “let it go”.

Whether it is the growth in popularity of this trend or complaints from advertising, Google had decided to put an end to this practice. In an official statement on it’s Inside Adsense blog last week, Google writes:

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.

Publishers should also be careful to avoid similar implementations that people could find misleading. For instance, if your site contains a directory of Flash games, you should not format the ads to mimic the game descriptions.

In addition, they add sample ads of what not to do in order to completely clarify the issue:

Now, Google had been struggling with policing their current policy, but I find it hard to believe that they will be able to enforce this as well.