Google – Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Google recently posted an update on the AdSense blog “Making Ads Smart – Adapting Ads to the Device” where they discussed some of the changes they were launching to change the appearance of the ads on certain devices.

Google has also had a long time AdSense policy which prohibits “encouraging clicks”.

Source – AdSense Programme Policies

“Encouraging clicks”

Publishers may not ask others to click their ads or use deceptive implementation methods to obtain clicks. This includes, but is not limited to, offering compensation to users for viewing ads or performing searches, promising to raise money for third parties for such behaviour or placing images next to individual ads.”

Source – AdSense Ad placement policies

“Unnatural attention”

Publishers are not permitted to bring unnecessary or unnatural attention to their Google ads. Examples of this include:
•    flashy animations that draw a user’s eyes to ads
•    arrows or other symbols pointing to Google ads”

Google all of a sudden seem to have forgotten about their own policy guidelines. Below is a screen shot of some Google Ads taken from an iPhone yesterday showing a big arrow pointing to the title of the ad copy.

As far as I am aware, these ad format changes were not mentioned to the AdWords advertisers on the AdWords blog and I am a regular reader.

What It Means To The Advertisers

This change brings along a few important things that the advertisers need to start thinking about.

CTR –     Will it go up due to the image encouraging the click? What about an increase in accidental clicks?

Conversion Rates – Will they drop as we have more accidental and encouraged clicks?

Text vs image ads – Maybe you will need to consider changing or possibly removing certain text ads based on their performance since this change.

Ad Position & Impression Share– If you were aiming for position 3 on the display network you would normally get good coverage as most sites were accepting 3 ads per ad slot. The increased size of the text ad with the arrow has made Google reduce this on some devices. You might now have to aim for position 2 to get the same exposure as you previously had. Check to see if your impressions on mobile are dropping, this could be why.

Increased CPC– If you were in position 3 and now have to aim for 2 CPC is going to go up as you now have a much more limited and competitive network.

What it means for publishers

Google stated “As part of our focus on helping you monetize your content across all screen sizes, we’ll soon also be improving the way ads appear on different devices. “
It looks like publishers are getting a free helping hand in increasing their revenue from Google so it will be interesting how this pans out. Both parties (Google & Publisher) are going to win and it will be interesting to watch out for this topic in the AdSense forums to see what people are saying.

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