Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I know straight up statistics are a no go. But, what about a statement such as, "I changed from skyscraper to leaderboard and increased CTR by 1.2%."
Anyone know of any other good ways to talk about statistics without violating the TOS?
The problem is that many want to know stats but aren't willing to reveal their own, even when their username cannot be traced back to their AdSense account at all. All it takes to start is a couple willing members and it could be a rather interesting and revealing thread for everyone ;)
I'm talking about could you make that statement if your identity COULD be traced to your Adsense account.
I know it isn't allowable to say the exact stats themselves. But is saying "I increased my CTR by 1.5% by going to leaderboard" acceptable - assume you were talking to a crowd at PubCon about it and Google reps were listening.
The TOS says "Confidentiality. You agree not to disclose Google Confidential Information without Google's prior written consent. "Google Confidential Information" includes without limitation...(b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance in the Program provided to You by Google..." (my emphasis).
Now, the plain reading would be that if Google didn't provide the statistics that you are communicating, then you would not violate the TOS. That being said, I think many of us take a more conservative approach -- we aren't going to say much. Why? This is the "hen that laid the golden egg" and there is no way I'm going to risk having my account suspended or terminated because I shared something I should not have.
A thread like the one you suggested ("I changed from skyscraper to leaderboard and increased CTR by 1.2%.") could be very helpful. But I think it would be enough to just characterize the impact the change made without precise stats. For example (a real example), when we changed to the 300 x 250 Inline rectangle imbedded in the content from the skyscraper on the left side of the page, we saw a nice increase in CTR. The increase has held up now for over 60 days. This type of statement, IMHO, would not violate the TOS, yet it would give others helpful guidance on something they may want to try.
It is not important what “nice” means. It is enough to know what the change was, that it had a positive impact, and that that impact has been maintained.
My WAG is that it is okay to disclose relative numbers - for example, "my CTR increased by 50%". That's probably a sounder basis for comparison anyway in most cases, and the underlying stats could have changed from 10% to 15%, or 2% to 3%, or 0.1% to 0.15%.
Pretty much everybody here feels comfortable saying that their earnings have gone up, or gone down, or stayed about the same, or whatever. That's speaking in relative terms, and doing so doesn't really provide much information about the exact numbers.
Obviously Google may have a very different interpretation of the agreement.
