Changes for What Constitutes a Click on Adsense Ads

Only URL and title will lead to click

[darkmage]

Google are about to implement a new change to the way clicks are counted. The background of a text ad will no longer take users to the advertiser's site. Only clicking on the Link or Title in an ad will take a user through.

I expect that this will reduce income for some publishers as accidential clicks will be far less likely.

Apparently it has been running on Google's search sites for a while. I understand that publishers are being warned that income may change as a result.

I should add that, at the the time of posting, only the title can be clicked on Google.com

[edited by: darkmage at 5:19 am (utc) on Nov. 13, 2007]

[chocorol]

That's interesting, who told you?

[ken_b]

Well that should lead to higher conversions if it reduces accidental clicks.

And that might lead to less smart pricing reductions.

So it should be a good thing if it happens.

[uhwebs]

When is this change expected to occur?

[Atomic]

I hope this is true and that it happens sooner rather than later. The only question I have is why this isn't the way clicks are counted already.

[edited by: Atomic at 5:37 am (utc) on Nov. 13, 2007]

[jomaxx]

It has ALWAYS worked this way on Google.com. There has been no change.

[jomaxx]

P.S I wonder how you can assert that "publishers are being warned that income may change" when you are the sole source for this information and thus publishers are clearly not being warned? For logic's sake, at least put this claim in the future tense, i.e. "publishers WILL BE warned".

[markus007]

What darkmage says is true, will be interesting.

[Mentat]

I've received the same e-mail from Adsense support

When will this be implemented?

[edited by: Mentat at 7:58 am (utc) on Nov. 13, 2007]

[edited by: martinibuster at 8:10 am (utc) on Nov. 13, 2007]
[edit reason] Removed email quote. [/edit]

[bbd2000]

I just updated the adsense code on one of my sites. The changes are in effect now for the new code.

[elguapo]

It will be implemented in the next several days. Wondering what percentage of our clicks are accidental clicks and how this will affect income.

[bouncybunny]

If this is true, it could affect the choice of ad format. Some formats do not show the URL.

[iwannano1]

Don't forget browser issue here. IE by default only shows link text click-able and FF shows entire ad including background.

[Scurramunga]

I wonder if the less savvy visitor will become confused by the change and not end up clicking at all.

[frakilk]

I always wondered it was like this in the first place. A good change IMO.

[potentialgeek]

Google could simply add a quick dialog box to confirm:

"Yes, I clicked the ad on purpose."

Geez, sorry, I think this update is silly. Doesn't G. have bigger issues to work on?

p/g

[WiseWebDude]

Yea, a LOT of times I will search in Google for something and I will just copy the URL from the ads and paste into the browser so I don't make the advertiser pay...so Google is screwing itself too, LOL. I bet a LOT of us do that...now, regular users might not...but, I bet Google still loses a LOT of dough from that. Matter of fact, they start doing that for our ads, I will NEVER click on another Adsense ad in Google search...I will just copy the URL from now on. So little 'ol me can put a hurting on them and make them see how it feels.

[elguapo]

This update is not intended for publishers initially - but targeted more for the advertisers. Afterall, publishers may see a drop of clicks if accidental click are ruled out; hence drop in revenues.

But it delivers a message to advertisers that G is working proactively to ensure that the money they spend for the clicks are not accidental clicks, but clicks from people who actually are interested in what they have to offer.

The end goal is that advertisers get better responses to their ads. Better response means more advertising money coming in -- and that hopefully should trickle to us publishers. Hopefully.

[Coolmath]

<mod edit>Removed second email excerpt from this thread. Please be mindful of TOS #9</mod edit>

Has anyone here ever tried Chitika? Similar kind of ads, but only little parts are clickable -- like the title -- same thing that AdSense is about to do. I ran highly targeted Chitika ads on prime real estate and made practically nothing.

My users are younger and will likely not have the dexterity to click on one little line of 7 point font. This is really going to hurt me. If they don't want kids clicking at all, then why do they run so many ads that target to kids?

Btw, I changed some AdSense code last night and the background is still clickable.

Also, the 234x60 size does not have a URL, so the only little bit that will be clickable is the title. I've switch these over to 125 squares for the change. Still, my guess is that my AdSense revenue is going to drop instantly.

[edited by: martinibuster at 7:26 pm (utc) on Nov. 13, 2007]
[edit reason] See TOS [webmasterworld.com] . Please... [/edit]

[youfoundjake]

hey hey hey, its markus007, glad to see you poking your head back in.

[Go60Guy]

I just checked on an ad in a new WordPress Post and it appears to have been implemented already. I took a look at an older post on the site, and it's the same as previously.

[WiseWebDude]

So did they add some code to the system for this? So if you keep your old code in, they will remain the same?

[elguapo]

You will not have to change your code. G will take care of the changes from their end, without needing publishers to post new codes in their pages.

[Coolmath]

I've still got the fully clickable ads on my sites.

I do a little AdWords advertising too and am not thrilled about this from that end. If someone wants to click on one of my ads, I want them to be able to do it easily.

[edited by: martinibuster at 5:52 pm (utc) on Nov. 14, 2007]
[edit reason] See TOS [webmasterworld.com]. [/edit]

[maximillianos]

Sounds like a good idea to me. They will act more like real links... which is how they should have worked all along. It is a bit confusing when you hover over them now and it looks like the whole block is a link and you are not sure which you are going to be taken to if any...

Good move G.

[koan]

I do a little AdWords advertising too and am not thrilled about this from that end. If someone wants to click on one of my ads, I want them to be able to do it easily.

Would you really want visits from users who can't clicked on a link? As a publisher, I think it's a fair decision to minimize accidental clicks and hopefully, ensuing smart pricing.

[WiseWebDude]

Also a LOT of times, for some reason, 468x60 ads do not show URL's either. That's gonna hurt right there. These are supposed to show, but they don't a lot of times depending on the length of the text in one of the ads, etc. I bet that will hurt some really bad right there.

[Go60Guy]

This has to be in a state of flux, because I just did another post to a WP blog, and it's still fully clickable. So, I've only seen one so far that's changed over.

[f1r3b4ll]

This measure has already been enacted at our website and this looks like a good thing....hopefully, my hunch is not wrong.

[f1r3b4ll]

I've stated that his measure by Google has already been enabled at our site. Since only the url and the link appear to be the only place where users may click, does this mean that the text description on the Google Adsense ads may be crawled by spiders and eventually lead to potential traffic via search engines?

It does not seem impossible, but I don't think it is likely.

It just seems possible because the ad description is now functioning as "content" in a very loosely defined manner.