Adsense in iframes. Does that hurt earnings?

Does adsense in iframes hurt earnings?

[Compworld]

I was changing some ads around. Temporarily, while I was doing this, I added Google and Microsoft ads in their naked code without going through my OpenX ad server. The ads were flash and 300x250 video ads. Something I never saw before through my iframe tags.

Does this have any correlation from iframe and non-iframe?

[tonyvf]

B careful, G TOS doesn't allow to show ads in iframes.

[Compworld]

My large sites are game sites where the players are on the same page for hours. I usually use iframes to refresh the ad once every few minutes. This cannot be done in javascript to my knowledge. Ad refresh is only available in iframes. No?

[tonyvf]

Hmmm I was checking the TOS and it doesn't say anything about frames/iframes any longer. I found this from Google:
"Our targeting technology is not optimized to serve ads within a separate IFRAME. If you placed the AdSense code in a separate IFRAME, your site may display less targeted ads or public service ads. For better results, please implement our ad code directly into the source of your webpage. Once you make these changes, relevant ads may not appear immediately. Until we are able to re-crawl your site, which may take up to 48 hours or more, your page may continue to display untargeted or public service ads."

[google.com...]

[iridiax]

I usually use iframes to refresh the ad once every few minutes.

Beware, this would artificially generate impressions.

[LifeinAsia]

I usually use iframes to refresh the ad once every few minutes.

I think this clearly falls under this prohibition:

Any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions on your Google ads is strictly prohibited.

[wyweb]

B careful, G TOS doesn't allow to show ads in iframes.

Yes they do.

[wyweb]

Refreshing a page every few seconds/minutes/hours/whatever to display a new ad - BAD

Using IFRAMES in general to display ads - well, it's still bad but it's acceptable...

I got this from the horses mouth. The google horse...

[AdSenseAdvisor]

From an AdSense Help Center entry [google.com]:

Our targeting technology is not optimized to serve ads within a separate IFRAME. If you placed the AdSense code in a separate IFRAME, your site may display less targeted ads or public service ads.

So while iframe ads are not strictly prohibited in and of themselves, they can affect ad targeting.

wyweb is correct, though, that there are several things that are strictly prohibited, including:

- Using iframes to try to affect ad targeting
- Using iframes to modify ad behavior (like making your ads auto-refresh)

Compworld, what you're doing is probably going to get you into trouble.

ASA