Forum Moderators: martinibuster
You'll answer yourself if you tried to define the difference between MFA owner produced Google Adsense Ads and a link in a Google Adsense Link Unit.
Sorry for a pun, mfablocker^):
"[G Ad Link Units] also creates a very poor user experience. A user clicks on a [Ad Link Unit's link] expecting to find information, not more ads[links]".
Publishers, do you think about the day after tomorrow?
P.S. Sorry, for my English. I'm Russian.
No offense, but as a new user with 1 post, following the June 1st situation and a question like this, I don't really believe that you hate MFA sites. I think you're an ex MFA site owner who got banned.
I can see the comparrison you are making, considering that structurarly they are pretty much the same thing: you click a link and are taken to a page full of ads.
But the difference is that a link unit clearly states "Ads by Google" at the top. I have never seen an ad for a MFA site that says "Click here to view a bunch of ads." So the Google link unit is not deceptive. Anyone who follows the link should be expecting to see "Ads by Google" related to the word they clicked on.
the difference is that a link unit clearly states "Ads by Google" at the top. I have never seen an ad for a MFA site that says "Click here to view a bunch of ads." So the Google link unit is not deceptive. Anyone who follows the link should be expecting to see "Ads by Google" related to the word they clicked on.
99% of the uses I've seen with Adlinks is in a MFA fashion, i.e. the Adlink units are blended with the site to be easily mis-interpreted as site navigation, leading to unexpected results.
I feel that the Adlink product was designed with exactly this use case in mind. Even the Google Optimization booklet that some of us received can't make this feeling go away.
I feel that the Adlink product was designed with exactly this use case in mind.
And I think it was created for a more practical reason: to increase the available inventory of AdSense ads.
That doesn't mean AdLinks can't be designed to encourage accidental clicks, but if there is deception, it's the result of blending and positioning--just as it is with conventional AdSense ads.
[edited by: Doc97 at 12:36 pm (utc) on June 10, 2007]
>>>I feel that the Adlink product was designed with exactly this use case in mind. Even the Google Optimization booklet that some of us received can't make this feeling go away.
Except that they are on real content sites and the user can choose back if he clicks by mistake. And there is still the ideal of a real publisher displaying an ad to a visitor he obtained naturally via links to his content or search traffic to a real advertiser selling his product. Rather than feeding a greedy middle layer that sucks up the advertisers revenue and feeds most of it back to google for another "cut".
Which is probably why my epc and ecpm have risen by 30 percent or so since 1st june...
you click a link and are taken to a page full of ads.
And just like MFAs the links you find when you click on a topic brings up results are often unrelated to what the link claims to be. I especially see this when the title is a specific kind of widget but when you click on the adlink many of the links shown have nothing to do with that specific kind.
I like the idea of adlinks and they have worked OK for me as a second ad on a page. But when a person clicks on an adlink topic the resulting ads should fit the topic.
Anyone who follows the link should be expecting to see "Ads by Google" related to the word they clicked on.
he should, but i doubt that the average user does expect a wall of ads.
from a strictly user experience point of view (that google luckily seems to support at times, see reasoning for the june 1st crackdown) adlinks delivers poor performance.
- one more needless click before the advertising message
- rather poor targeting, not enough inventory for combined keywords
- often same ads as on the publishers' website
- no content based alternative in the frequent case that the user doesn't find a useful link
[edited by: moTi at 11:16 pm (utc) on June 11, 2007]
from a strictly user experience point of view ....adlinks delivers poor performance.
I'd agree with that, and I don't use AdLinks partly for that reason (just as I don't use large rectangular AdSense ads plopped in the middle of body text).
I know from my own experience that visitor clicking on link named "dollar rate" wants to see the dollar rate and does not want to check links to finance or forex sites. Am I wrong?
What I mean saying about negative user experience? In the course of time users begin to think that clicking on Google ads is the waste of time. It's a problem for all us, G publishers.
[edited by: Doc97 at 8:58 pm (utc) on June 12, 2007]
