AdSense Ad Clones

[incrediBILL]

Now I see why Google doesn't want knock-off looking ads on the same site as I was just on the Washington Post reading something and commented to my wife that it looked like they were running Google ads of all things. Then I noticed I didn't see the words "Google" and I moused over the ad and it turned out it was some ad from DoubleClick's servers in the exact same color, shape and layout, had me fooled.

The best part is yet to come....

It was a 4 ad skyscraper that contained 4 ads for the same company written to look like it was from 4 different advertisers.

Now I see why Google has the rules they have for AdSense as although this was a very clever ad it was pure slime IMO and just goes to show how unscrupulous publishers could mislead people all over the place.

[thinkaholic]

Unscrupulous...yes. But the Google ad layout works very well, so it's only a matter of time that advertisiers will copy their format.

Do you think the ad was actually an image, made to look like 4 text ads?

[incrediBILL]

AH, I just went back and looked, it was a skyscraper image, not even text.

Oh my.

[thinkaholic]

I've seen this before, too. Makes the viewer believe they are clicking on something relevant, but may find a different destination entirely.

Honestly, this type of advertising is nothing new. Image ads made to look like text have been around since online advertising started. Basically, it comes down to making your ad stand out above everything else on the page. Whatever it takes, I guess.