Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I didn't find anything in the TOS.
On my site I'm using ads with the same colour of the navigation links, and the background and the border of the ads have the same colour as the colour of the page's background. Of course "Gooooooooooooooogle-Ads" is seen very clearly and I haven't made any change to the code.
Do you know of any cases where an account got banned because of that? Or does Google send you a warning email before they close your account?
Thanks in advance,
HuhuFruFru
(Excuse my bad English)
The issue isn't whether you'll get hit by "smart pricing" because of blending, but whether you'll get hit by "smart pricing" because of low conversions.
The premise behind the "blend and you'll get smacked by smart pricing" is indeed because of the possibility of low conversions. Since Google has no reliable way at the present time to accruately determine conversion rates, the results of the smart pricing algorithm tend to be more or less random - and those of us who deal with multiple high-traffic sites see exactly that.
If you're using blending in a deceptive way (e.g., to trick people into clicking on what they think are navigation links), then it stands to reason that smart pricing should catch up with you eventually.
If the smart pricing algorithm worked as intended this would indeed be the case. Some day it might (hope springs eternal), but right now it doesn't.
SmartPricing will get you...
Actually, it most likely won't.
Actually, some of the AdSense links are blue and some are green, since I use the default AdSense link colors.
EFV: On your website, your background is white, your links are blue, your type is black.
On your adsense, your background is white, your links are blue and the type is black.
You're blending baby - whether you did it intentionally - I think you did ;) - or not. You wouldn't be blending if your adsense had a red background.
I see your horizontal lines. Guess what? I've got verticle lines. If your turn your head 90 degrees, then your blending just like me. That's my point, there is a difference between blending (which Adsense encourages) and the blending some posters are talking about - which is making Adsense so much a part of the site that the user is "mistakenly" clicking the ads.
Also, the proof is in the pudding, and the fact that my CTR is the same as it was when my ads were in pastel colors makes it pretty obvious that the ads aren't confusing users (as ads blended into navigation bars or content are likely to do).
By the way, here's something really weird: I'm seeing green URLs below the ad text on some pages but not on others. What's up with that?
This is what I'm seeing EFV (aka blender)
You've got a different format on some pages than others. Not sure if you're doing that intentionally or not (I dont think so). But when there are four ads there is no green, when there are three ads there is a green link.
You've got a different format on some pages than others. Not sure if you're doing that intentionally or not (I dont think so). But when there are four ads there is no green, when there are three ads there is a green link.
No, I'm not using different numbers of ads in the leaderboard intentionally--that's Google's doing. I don't quite understand the point of showing green URLs in the fewer-than-four-ads format (since they aren't shown in the four-ad format), but I guess that's for Google to decide.
Well, I don't think we ought to start yet another endless discussion of whether or not smart pricing works as advertised. Been there, done that too many times. :-)
I agree, but...
The original poster was specifically advised that blending the ads into the site too well could result in "smart pricing" kicking in. I was merely pointing out that personal experience and first-hand knowlege gained from working with 40+ other publishers (and over 200 sites) have proven that to be a completely unfounded fear - at this point in time.
Besides, if smart pricing ever does kick in because of "blending", it's very easy to unblend - at which point a properly working smart pricing algorithm would adjust the EPC back upwards.
PLEASE GOD let's not have it again.
Actually, He's probably the only one who truly understands how smartpricing works. In fact, He invented it:
"When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops" (Lev:25:16)
I prefer Gen:23:9:
"sell it to me for the full price"
