Forum Moderators: martinibuster
[google.com...]
This is great!
So you'll have a ad.html ( or ad.php ) specified as your alternate_ad.
So, if you want your ads to use the target="_top" thing, you'll need to put that in your ad.html. e.g .
ad.html :
<html><head></head><body><a href="http://www.example.com/" target="_top">Buy example's products</a></body></html>
I'm doing something like this :
google_alternate_ad_url =
"http://www.example.com/ad.php?page=about";
So then my ad.php can choose what to display based on $page. So using php ( or asp etc ) you could do randomizing, geotargeting ( there are free IP 2 country databases ) or per-page ads.
You could also use something like phpads. For ad.php, the referer is the page that has the adsense code on it, so you can also see what pages are trigering the alternative ads.
Also, I can't believe I didn't think of having my "alternate url" log accesses to find out what pages are triggering PSA's. Thanks for mentioning that, as well, eaden!
I made a script that spits out code that looks like AdSense ads (but with my own affiliate link ads), and put the URL of that script in. I'm not entirely sure this is kosher, though, so I emailed Google about it. Can't wait to see what they say.
I guess if they don't like it, I can just change the colors. :-)
I'm seriously liking this new feature.
JK
SN
We then changed the background of the HTML file to be the same as our page background. This eliminates the "white space" left by AdSense on non-white pages.
This is a solution which suited me really well, since-
a) If Google can't serve anything but a PSA, I still show the affiliate links
b) If the user accesses a page which I'm not permitted to show Adsense ads on, I can show the affiliate ads instead through some relatively simple coding
c) If the user has Javascript disabled, I can include the code for the affiliates links in the <NOSCRIPT> tag.
Effectively no matter what, there's a link to either ads or affiliates on the site. And it's relatively simple to ensure that the same space is taken up irrespective of whether it's a Google provided ad or otherwise.
I tried a text link exchange service and it performs abysmally - in several days I got just one click on on their text ads.
A friend is using a well-paying banner program for a dating service - but the service is shady: they have adult ads popping up when you exit their site. I wouldn't want to freak out my visitors or do something to upset Google...
Andy
I made a script that spits out code that looks like AdSense ads (but with my own affiliate link ads), and put the URL of that script in. I'm not entirely sure this is kosher, though, so I emailed Google about it. Can't wait to see what they say.
Grr. Google said that my alternate ad code (that looked more or less kind of like the Adsense code) was unacceptable because it violated their trademark ("trade dress") rights.
So, fair warning for anyone wanting to make your alternate text ads look like Adsense ads.
Just FYI. :-)
SN
<snip>
They also pointed out what I believe is part of the TOS, e.g. they do not permit Adwords ads on sites with competing ads. We know about this -- it goes back to the beginning. I'm not exactly sure how they'd compete, since by definition the "alternate add url" is never going to be shown at the same time as Adsense ads, but okay.
I did not have the word "Google," "Adsense," "Adwords," "Ads by X" or any trademark, copyright, or anything pertaining to Google in the code, except it was a 120x600 HTML thingy with borders in #336699, "Sponsored Links" in white across the top, Blue titles, black text, and green URLs.
It looked pretty much exactly like the default Adsense ad format with the exception of "Sponsored Links" instead of "Ads by Google."
JK
[edited by: Jenstar at 10:28 pm (utc) on Oct. 21, 2003]
[edit reason] Against TOS # 24 [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
They are EXTREMELY serious about this trade dress thing, by the way. This email made the "Google aggressively protects its intellectual property" noises.
From the alternate code I sent them, I take this to mean that Google owns exclusive rights to any and all text/html advertisements of any kind displayed using an HTML table of 120x600, but I'm still waiting for clarification of that. :-)
This is twice that they have said "remove the elements that violate Google's rights" but will not tell me which elements they are.
I've designed alternate ads that are totally unlike the AdSense ones,
See, that's part of the problem. So have I. But pretty much any text-based ad I could squeeze into 120x600, Google said violated their policies and/or intellectual property rights.
Guess I'll keep trying. I'm still kind of flabbergasted at their reaction to some designs that to me are completely different...
This could be where Google has a problem with trade dress - on first glance would people assume they are AdSense ads?
It looked pretty much exactly like the default Adsense ad format with the exception of "Sponsored Links" instead of "Ads by Google."
I can see where the above quote would definitely be confusedm but I am not sure how "different" the other ad codes you sent were.
Or it could be they don't want to see the format of:
Title
Line 1
Line 2
URL
Maybe mixing them up, or adding an additional line of copy is enough to make them workable.
When this feature was launched, I must say I was suprised to not see any significant ad content or look guidelines for this. I suspect we will see something on the next updated terms/FAQ/policies though, as JollyK likely isn't the only one having problems with this.
Kidding, kidding! :-)
Jenstar, Google said that if the format could be easily generated using the Google color palette etc, then it would be best not to use it. Also, they are concerned that the alternate ads not be confused with AdSense ads by the average user.
They still won't tell me which specific elements or combination of elements aren't acceptable, though, which makes it a bit difficult. :-) I am trying to think in terms of the average user, though, and that helps.
I finally made one that is center-aligned, no borders at all around the cells, "ADVERTISEMENTS" in bold across the top, using browser-default link colors, and "(Sponsored by Company)" instead of the URL where everything is all in the same font-size also. They haven't looked at that one yet, although they have been pretty prompt so far at telling me "yea" or "nay" so someone will probably get to it today.
To me, it looks really different from the AdSense ads, but we'll see. I guess I could also change the font from a sans-serif to Times Roman or something, but the whole rest of my site is sans-serif, so it'd be strange.
The saga continues! :-)
JK
Basically, they have said that anything which could be confused at first glance by a normal user as an AdSense ad is not cool.
I finally narrowed it down to a plain white box with a one-pixel outline, one ad per box (whether leaderboard, sky, or normal banner) with more than the usual text per ad, and browser-default colors for the links. It looks kind of like this (except picture the line going all the way across to the edges of the ad block):
ADVERTISEMENT
__________________________________________________
Ad title goes here
Here's the rest of the ad where we talk about how great
whatever it is is and how much it costs and why you
should really buy it by clicking here blah blah blah .
It's all white. "ADVERTISEMENT" is in black text, and the rest of the ad text is just browser-link-color.
Google said this format was okay after rejecting any format I proposed that could be created with their palette settings.
I guess the moral of the story is, Google doesn't want the replacement ads to look like Adsense ads to the average user. If you're going to use a text-type ad replacement, either ask Google if what you have is okay, or hope that no one brings your site to their attention if you're using Adsensy-looking stuff. :-)
