Has anyone ever lost their account due to being targeted?

Sudden high-click thru rate has me nervous...

[WebFusion]

Hello all,

About 5 days ago, we changed our adsense code (on a large informational site) from a standard banner size at the top of the (article) page to the large rectangle integrated in to the actual article content itself.

Now, we expected our click-thru to go up some, but it has gone through the roof, and has continued to climb all week. In fact, the click-thru rate is so high that we're becoming concerned that one of our competitors (site is in a high-profile industry) may be using some kind of bot or other automated system in an attempt to get us kicked out of adsense.

has this ever happened to anyone? Does google haev enough measures in place to prevent this type of thing? Do we have anything to worry about?

[nealw]

WebFusion,

Some months ago when I switched to the large content integrated banner my CTR went through the roof as well.

Though I can't say if a competitor is causing you problems, my experience shows a dramatic increase in CTR by using the large rectangle ad format. CTR went up from low-mid single digits to double digits.

[androidtech]

"large content integrated banner"

What's that, an image ad? I don't think I've seen that option in the AdSense Ad Settings panel.

Thanks.

[nealw]

Look for "336 x 280 Large Rectangle" in the Ad layout drop down list.

[mark1615]

Is this typical from what others have seen, i.e., the large rectangle increases CTR? How important is mid-page placement?

And BTW, I have never heard of high CTR being a reason for a ban unless there is actual fraud.

[rubenski]

I've seen a large increase in CTR too when I placed my ads in-line with the text. I would send an email to Google to express your concern. Then they at least have your email on file should they discover any fraudulent activity.

[Atomic]

I've seen a huge increase in CTR since I placed ad units into articles. After refining the placement I am pushing a 6x improvement in what my CTR was when I was only using skyscrapers and leaderboards.

[cagey1]

the large rectangle is good :)

[Broadway]

I made a positioning adjustment with my AdSense ads. The CTR went up and I was alarmed just as you were. I wrote AdSense so to offer my cooperation in their investigation of the CTR increase event. They wrote back saying that they had looked into the matter. No fraudulent activtiy was detected. They congradulated me on making the changes that resulted in the higher CTR.