Adsense TOS Update: Don’t Run The Risk of Click and Miss

This is an update on Adsense TOS from Adsense Team. It is emphasized that Google ad implementation should not be placed near the features of sites or blogs that users may interact by clicking as this may increase ad clicks without increasing business results for advertisers.

Here is the complete post from Adsense Team at Inside Adsense:

Don’t run the risk of click and miss

As you may know, our tips and guidelines mention that “users should only click on Google ads if they’re interested in the services being advertised”. While there are many precautions a publisher can take to avoid encouraging clicks on their ads, we’ve found that some implementations of the ad code can lead to accidental clicks that the publisher may not have been able to predict. Some implementations that could lead to accidental clicks include placing your ads:

- In close proximity to Macromedia Flash games
- Under pop-ups or download prompts
- Near site navigation controls on your pages, such as drop-downs or menu links

Generally, we ask that you not place your ads near features of your site that your users may interact with by clicking. If your site contains elements that increase the number of ad clicks without increasing business results for the advertiser, we may consider these clicks to be invalid. “Business results” can range from an online sale to a page view. If we detect enough of these clicks and determine that the risk to our advertisers is too great, we may disable the account. To maintain compliance with our program policies and ensure that your users don’t inadvertently click on the ads on your site, we strongly recommend that you move any ad units that are in close proximity to interactive site features.

As always, thanks in advance for your cooperation!

Discuss this post

Below are the interesting comments, rants and queries on this Adsense TOS Update posted by the Adsense followers at the above discussion page:

From: Toivo Lainevool

It seems to go against the advice on your own optimization page
(https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?
answer=17954&topic=8437) , which says:

“Ads placed near rich content and navigational aids usually do well
because users are focused on those areas of a page.”

So which is it? Do we place ads near navigation or not?

From: vabole

Why Adsense cant just notify those very users whose pages are producing clicks which are considered to be “invalid”?
Why do we, Adsense publishers have to play blindfolded, having no clue about the business results of the ads placed on our pages? If those business results are considered to be critical and non-discloseable info, then publishers at least could get the abstract scale of the ad productivity. It could be as showing a simple indicator which would rate ad’s business productivity and maybe suspiciousness with the words like “bad”, “normal” and “good”, where “bad” would mean that the advertiser has to take some action to improve the indicator. I believe it would be much better than shutting up accounts of publishers who had no intention to make there pages producing “invalid” or “fraudulent” clicks.

From: dyelton

I’m in agreement with the other posters on this one. I believe this needs a bit more explanation and I’m dumbfounded on why Google would give such vague information like this in the first place. It definitely contradicts with your optimization tips. On a forum some ads can be “near” navigational links if using a lower resolution display (800×600 for example) but aren’t a problem when using say 1024×768. I certainly haven’t purposely places ads so to get accidental clicks from users but I feel that we are all under the gun on this rule considering almost every ad on the Internet today is “near” a navigational link of some kind. This is absolutely absurd and I certainly hope you rectify our questions and points in another blog post.

From: Dan of www.themediamage.com

Take a look at the leaderboard ad on Digg.com:

That ad can be described as near the menu, yet the ads must surely be approved by AdSense given that they have been customised. There is approximately 6 pixels between the clickable area of the ad and menu. So, click and miss is a possibility there.

How many pixels of space should there be between the two?

In my opinion, this Adsense TOS update wants the bloggers and webmasters to make sure that users or readers do not accidentally click on ads. In my knowledge, accidental clicks open a web page but immediately closed by the user without reading in less than 10 seconds. Honestly, I also accidentally clicked on ads before which I thought were part of the menu of other blogs or sites I visited. Upon knowing that the links were not part of the site, I’d immediately closed them without seeing the page.

When I’ve known that this accidental clicks could cancel the Adsense account of the concerned blogger or the webmaster, I never immediately close the page of any links I’ve clicked, be it Google ads or others’ websites. This is to protect the bloggers and webmasters from being punished for the users’ actions beyond their control.

But to be safe, bloggers and webmasters must make a clear distinction of Google Ads to help the readers identify the links that are part of the site or blog and the links of Google ads. This can be done by placing a borders, spaces and/or colors that separate the ad from site content and menu and/or by placing a distinctive caption to Google ads like “Google Advertisement”, “Google Ads”, “Sponsored Links”, and “Advertisers’ links”.

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