Can you get banned for "too much blending"?

[HuhuFruFru]

I really would like to know if you can get banned for too much blending; if your ads are for example so much integrated on your site that they fit perfectly.

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)

[Nitrous]

I suspect you might get the invalid clicks warning then banned if high levels of invalid clicks continues.

[humblebeginnings]

As far as I know Google encourages Publishers to blend in the ads exactly the way you describe it.
You shouldn´t get banned, G should give you bonus clicks;-)

[Nitrous]

One disadvantage is that althougth clickthrough will improve conversion will be worse so you may well get smartpriced back into line weeks later. Net result may be that earnings dont improve but the site looks more spammy.

[HuhuFruFru]

Why would it be an "invalid click"?

[moTi]

with too much blending you certainly increase the rate of enticed and accidental clicks. i wouldn't call them invalid, but they have less value for the advertiser, so you will probably get smartpriced and gain nothing.
as said, site layout which is percieved by the viewer as one big click enforcement makes your site look spammy like mfas.

[HuhuFruFru]

I also thought that smartpricing would hit me sooner or later, but I put the ad five weeks ago and instead of declining my CPC has increased!

It doesn't look spammy, it is a very content rich site with useful information and one single half banner ad (only one ad!) - no affiliate links, no adlinks, no pop-ups, nothing. A clean site with a single Adsense-Ad - which is nicely integrated into the site.

[BillyS]

>>As far as I know Google encourages Publishers to blend in the ads exactly the way you describe it.
You shouldn´t get banned, G should give you bonus clicks;-)

I agree -

I've seen other ads that look like content (article titles), but not adsense ads, they really look like advertisements. Blending makes the overall site more appealing to the visitor's eye. I wouldn't think you'd attract enough click "mistakes" to make a difference.

[anand84]

Yes, even I feel Google doesnt mind blended ads. But Smartpricing will kill your income..

[HuhuFruFru]

I'm not sure if I'm correct - but two or three years ago: wasn't there sth in the TOS where they said the difference between ads and your site's content must be clearly visible?

[BillyS]

Could you point that out HuhuFruFru?

[Troutnut]

I second the stuff about Smart Pricing. Basically, you want to make sure people clicking the ads understand that they're ads and are interested in what the advertiser has to offer.

The idea behind blending is to make people read the ad, not to make people click it. They're only likely to convert for the advertiser if they realize they're clicking the ad, so tricking them into thinking it's another section of your site is a bad idea.

[europeforvisitors]

Yes, even I feel Google doesnt mind blended ads. But Smartpricing will kill your income..

Also, if you have a site that's legitimate and might attract inbound links, blended-in ads may discourage such links just because of the "sleaze factor."

[david_uk]

If Google have provided you with the tools to alter it to blend in with the page, then you are able to freely use the options to match it in whatever way you want. It's pretty foolproof, as Adsense won't let you blend in ways that it doesn't want you to. For example, if you wanted to make the URL link white on a white background, the tool will let you, but the ad will revert to standard Google colour scheme when displayed on your site.

Having said that, as a visitor there's a difference between subtle blending so that the ads fits in with the site, and trickery. I really resent being tricked into clicking, and no matter how good the site is, I'll avoid it like the plague in future.

[skippy]

Why don't you look at some of the adsense case studies. They should give you a pretty good idea where the line is.

[HuhuFruFru]

you want to make sure people clicking the ads understand that they're ads and are interested in what the advertiser has to offer.

I don't think people understand or see a difference - they see just a link with content that they are interested in. It's the same with the ads one the Google SERP's: most people don't even know that they are ads and that someone has paid for it to show up there.

And as I mentioned: I haven't seen a negative effect of Smartpricing after five weeks yet - did not someone say that Smartpricing would influence your account once a week or so?

I would appreciate if Adsenseadvisor could answer the question if one could get banned for blending to much - I'm a little bit shy with sending emails to the Adsense-Team :)

[david_uk]

I don't think people understand or see a difference - they see just a link with content that they are interested in. It's the same with the ads one the Google SERP's: most people don't even know that they are ads and that someone has paid for it to show up there.

This may be true for some, but it's by no means a universal truth. I'm aiming to add to my site visitors education, and I'm assuming that many of my visitors are reasonably well educated people. That's certainly true judging by the content they visit and the patterns they follow. You can only fool that type of visitors once.

[jomaxx]

And for what it's worth, the people you're relying on to create those all-important LINKS to your site are going to be among the savvier web users. That's why I treat my visitors like normal intelligent people rather than dupes to be tricked into clicking on an ad.

Anyway my personal rule of thumb is that blending is OK in order to get people to have to scan the ads in order to determine if they're interested or not. It's the line where the placement becomes deceptive, where people are clicking ads inadvertently or with no intention of visiting an external site, that I refuse to cross.

[europeforvisitors]

I'm a little bit shy with sending emails to the Adsense-Team :)

Are you suggesting that blending might be the least of your problems in a manual review? :-)

[HuhuFruFru]

@jomaxx: Why should people click on sth if they are not interested in it?

If I for example visit a website and there is an interesting link - I really wouldn't care where that link leads me, as long as I can find the content which was described on the link.

[gendude]

I'm not sure if I'm correct - but two or three years ago: wasn't there sth in the TOS where they said the difference between ads and your site's content must be clearly visible?

If that was the case, they wouldn't have come out with AdLinks which are made to look like navigation menus (and believe, tons of very high-profile sites are using them in such a way that you would almost think they were navigation links).

Here's a relevant article about blending from Google:
[google.com...]

Try to steer clear of ads that stand out so much they're obtrusive and ads that blend in so much they're invisible. However you choose your color palettes, make sure that they complement the color scheme of the page.

There's several pages in AS support where Google makes it clear that they want you to make your ads appear as a part of your site.

Now if you were to deliberately place elements around the ads giving the impression that the ads are navigation links or lead to other parts of your site, i.e. "click here for more information" then you would be in trouble, as you would be drawing undue attention them.

[HuhuFruFru]

Thank you gendude, that's very clear!

[Teshka]

HuhuFruFru, I've had blended ads for more than two years, and if I'm being smart priced, I can't tell. For some sites, I average $50+ CPM. That said, I don't put my ads in places where people are going to mistake them for menu items (which I've seen done and think is a bit underhanded). I use a block in the content.

[jomaxx]

Why should people click on sth if they are not interested in it?

Surely you've seen sites where AdSense links have been blended in with the site navigation, or replace site navigation completely? Where they try to get clicks from people who are merely trying to take a look at another page of the site to see what it's about? The kind of clicks where 99% of the time the user will see a different site loading and back out within a split second?

THAT'S what I'm talking about. Very different from using blending merely to combat "banner blindness".

[HuhuFruFru]

Alright Jomaxx... I understand what you mean.

That would be really cheating and I'm not doing that so I hope I will be fine :)

[BillyS]

>>Also, if you have a site that's legitimate and might attract inbound links, blended-in ads may discourage such links just because of the "sleaze factor."

I think there is a problem with what people are calling blending in. I just checke EFVs site, his ads blend in the same way mine do. He has a white background and uses the same blue color in his links.

I do the same exact thing - except my color scheme is different. I consider mine blended per the Adsense posted in this thread.

If you're using the "wrong" colors, then readers aren't even going to look at them. They stand out and detract from the site's overall appearance. Let the reader look and decide.

This is just my experience, but I blended mine in the November timeframe and my CTR doubled overnight. It's against the TOS to make public eCPM, but mine is as good as any I've seen published here.

[joaquin112]

Could someone please tell me how on Earth Google would know whether someone purchased a product from a landing page? I am assuming that'd involve hitting the back button and the JS having some sort of "counter" to track the amount of time in a given website, but then, I assume many people would simply close the browser. Does Google count those as purchases? There are many myths around SmartPricing. Overall, I am with the more clicks = better earning theory until either my earnings or someone who knows better proves me wrong. Too bad Google is the only one who knows better, so I will have to rely on my earnings.

[europeforvisitors]

I think there is a problem with what people are calling blending in. I just checke EFVs site, his ads blend in the same way mine do. He has a white background and uses the same blue color in his links.

Actually, some of the AdSense links are blue and some are green, since I use the default AdSense link colors.

And the ads aren't blended in; they're set off from the navigation and content areas of the page with horizontal rules (not to mention white space on either side). They're also a different color than the navigation bars and columns: the ads are white, while navigation areas of my pages are grey.

This is just my experience, but I blended mine in the November timeframe and my CTR doubled overnight. It's against the TOS to make public eCPM, but mine is as good as any I've seen published here.

I didn't blend my ads in, but I did change the background color from rotating pastels to white when I added 160 x 600 display skyscrapers to my pages (partly for aesthetic reasons and partly to make the display ads stand out more). My CTR is exactly the same as it was before the change, which makes it obvious that--because of the way I've set the ads off with horizontal rules and a color that contrasts with my navigation bars--users aren't mistaking my ads for navigation links or content. (Maybe that's one of the reasons I haven't had any big drops in EPC that could be blamed on poor conversions and "smart pricing.")

[birdstuff]

But Smartpricing will kill your income..

I seriously doubt it. I have at least 15 customers who blend their ads right into the navigation scheme, and overall, their EPC is on a par with everyone's else's that I know about personally and better than several who don't bend their ads at all - and it's been that way for a LONG time.

Based upon my experience with 40+ other publishers, the fear of getting hit by "smart pricing" because of blending is unfounded.

[europeforvisitors]

Based upon my experience with 40+ other publishers, the fear of getting hit by "smart pricing" because of blending is unfounded.

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. 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.