Force Google to show the right ads

[keepclear]

I run a site for designers and have been showing adsense for the last year or so.
The click through rate wasnt so good as a lot of the adverts were for designers and design companies, I decided to run a block of text ads to affiliate programs styled the same as adsense underneath to things like font sites, stock photos etc.
I didnt anticipate this, but now adsense seems to be showing ads similar to these, ie. the font sites etc and click thoughs have gone right up.

[berto]

Do I understand you correctly?

You hand-crafted a static ad block that has the look and feel of the dynamic Adsense ad block? So that the casual visitor would not, at first glance, distinguish one from the other? (If so, I assume you omitted the "Ads by Goooooogle" in your custom ad block.)

Very interesting idea, but does this violate the TOS?

[esllou]

if they ever appear on the same page at the same time, then yes it does go against TOS.

[keepclear]

Yes I did, How is this against the TOS?
They are not dynamic, theyre not trying to trick people in anyway. I just made them look the same so my page would look tidy.

[fischermx]

If you try to trick and get the ads to seems content then it is.

[wonderboy]

if they ever appear on the same page at the same time, then yes it does go against TOS.

I thought that was just other contextual advertising? His links are just his own links.
You see this all over the cheap scummy sites, they just create their navigation systems to appear identical to an AS ad...

The showing of 'better' ads is simply because you are explicitly saying things about fonts etc... I am sure if you placed the same thing outside of your self created AS environment you would get similar results, although probably less confused clicks.

W.

[esllou]

I seem to recall them mentioning something about having something else on the page with the same "look and feel" of AS....immaterial whether it is actually contextual advertising or just internal links.

they don't want users getting confused and it "damages" their brand.

allegedly.....

[wanderingmind]

Okay, lets say he does not have ads. Instead, his text and links on the page itself is similar to the Google ads. No Ads by Google... of course.

Now what? Is that fooling, or is that acceptable?

Because, Google themselves says that the ads should integrate into the site. Look like part of content etc..

Also, I keep seeing advice that you should remove borders and use the same style as the rest of your page. So is that following Google's advice, or tricking people?

I am not sure about the affiliate ads styled like Google ads, though.. I think Google will react there, as they are pretty nasty about other advertisements that look like them...

[keepclear]

Well I've removed them for now and put the other google ad block back in and emailed for clarification.
Ill let you know what they say.

For now though, google seems to have remembered about the font links and its showing related ads still. So thats good.