Can you use Adwords on a site with Adsense?

[internetheaven]

I've tried searching on this, but the information seems opposing and most of the discussions are old.

Q: can you buy Adwords ads if you have Adsense on your site?

A1. it is fine as long as the Adsense is not on the landing page.

A2. absolutely not. never.

Is there any clarity on this anywhere?

I have a car parts website where local garages advertise to people entering their postcode. There are no Adsense ads on the main page, the postcode search results or in the directory area.

The only place Adsense ads are showing are in the newsletters and blog posts. (All reachable within 1 click of the non-Adsense pages though.)

Can I use Adwords to send traffic to the main, search and directory pages? I've asked Adwords "support" and the template email response didn't help. Google loves jargon and mysterious language too much.

[netmeg]

I have done it, but not to put too fine a point on it, I'm kind of an expert at AdWords.

Your safest bet is not to have AdSense on your landing page (but have it everywhere else if you want)

Unless they've changed something, you are allowed to put it on your landing page, technically, but most people unfortunately aren't expert enough at crafting a good landing page and they don't do it right. So they get banned.

The important thing to consider is what the end goal is here. Are you an ecommerce site? then your landing page should be completely focused on getting that conversion, and an ad there is pretty much an admission of failure.

Is the goal just to get traffic to the site? That's perfectly legitimate, but you're making a gamble that the cost of bringing them in is going to be significantly lower than the cost of sending them away if they see an ad on your site and click on it. Personally, I gave it up when I realized I was spending money to get people on my site only to have them leave again - d'oh.

So first you think about what YOU want, and then you have to think about what Google wants. Obviously they would love you to run AdWords to your site. But the AdSense group isn't usually thrilled about driving paid traffic to their ads, because that often isn't good converting traffic for their advertisers. So it might turn some eyeballs in your direction from G.

(Note - don't send traffic to your search, that will get you a horrible QS. Probably even sending it to the directory is not a great idea. Make a special landing page just for PPC, outlining the benefits of each)

[Leosghost]

They ( Google ) used to say something like it ( adwords ) "could not be your primary source of traffic" to an adsense site..arbitrage..

When you log out of adsense, the "you are now logged out" page, suggests that you try adwords to drive traffic..so is probably still a question of % of overall traffic..

They can and do, cancel your adsense account if you drive most of your traffic ( arbitrage ) using other ad networks too..like Y or bing or whoever..

I've known a few people who had large income streams ( 6 figures ) driven this way..got banned..did it again..got banned again..and so on..

[ember]

most people unfortunately aren't expert enough at crafting a good landing page and they don't do it right. So they get banned.

Banned from Adwords or banned from Adsense? I've been running a ppc landing page with one Adsense ad unit at the very bottom of the page for years without issue. I think the fact that it is so far below the fold and not the focus of the page is what's kept things Kosher in Google's eyes.

[netmeg]

Either or both. And yea, if the ad isn't front and center, I'm sure that helps a lot.