A couple of weeks ago when Google made changes to it’s AdSense policies there was a lot of talk about the impact that the changes would have upon using different ad network ads on the same page as AdSense ads.
One small change seemed to get lost in the midst of these larger changes but Eric picked it up and had it confirmed today.
Previously you were only able to label your AdSense ads with the words “Sponsored Links” and “Advertisements”. This seems to have been relaxed.
AdSense responded to Eric’s query about this with:
“To answer your question, “Sponsored Links” and “Advertisements” are not the only two labels publishers may use…..
However, please keep in mind that publishers are not permitted to encourage users to click on Google ads or bring excessive attention to ad units. For example, your site cannot contain phrases such as “click the ads,” “support our sponsors,” “visit these recommended links,” or other similar language that could apply to the Google ads on your site.”
This isn’t a massive change but it is a relaxing of their previous policy that some publishers have been asking for.
Well thank goodness they made that so clear. We can use other stuff…just not these things. Would it kill them to give a few examples of things that actually could be used?
How about “I Want My Kids To Go To College”
It doesn’t ask anybody to click or even do anything other than state a simple fact.
I wish that would be a bit more clear. A few examples would be nice. As an adertiser I would want them to be more clear as well.
I personally think it’s always been pretty obvious. You can label them anyway you want as long as you’re not specifically insinuating that clicking a link pays someone money. In short, don’t use verbs…
Yes: “Sponsors” or “Advertisements”
No: “Support our Sponsors”
Yes: “Ads”
No: “Support Us, click the ads”
As seen on some sites:
No: “Support our Site”
No: “Support the troops”
No: “Having a baby, support us”
-Jay
Gee, that’s a big help…
And what about pictures beside the ads.. the pictures!! Give us a break!
Mike – good one, not quite sure it’ll get through though ;-)
Jay – yeah those examples are good – although previously they did limit it to just the two versions and I know of some bloggers who were asked to make subtle changes back to the two things that they allowed.
Nick – no one said it was a major change :-)
[…] February 6th, 2007 at 10:14 am (blogging, business, reminder) is relaxing the labeling policy […]
Thought they have relaxed but wont help so much.Blending it with the post, so it seems the link is provided by the writer would help more.
I am little curious why people will click on the add if they see “advertiser” or “Sponsors” on top of it.
So, can I stop using the word Google in my ads?
Yeah, I wish they would blend it in a bit so it wouldn’t look so obtrusive.
It’s nice to see google clarifying some term with publishers in the recent past.I also feel it would be great if google make it pricing policy transparent.
This is a good relaxation, even though i don’t use any text for ads
how about …
[1] my favorite sites
[2] daily reading materials
[3] website sponsors
[4] main sponsors
[5] our advertisers
[6] knowledgebase
[7] external materials
[8] other materials
there could be thousand and one possibilities … google really needs to give examples … i won’t mind if google fix it to about 10 or 20 examples which does not violate TOS as a start …
Actually, “my favorite sites” is specifically said to be a violation in the TOS. But you’re right, they need to be clearer. We need more than 2 examples, as every site is so different.