Adsense image ad on same page as third party image ad ?

[ddg426]

I have a question about Google's Adsense policies regarding image ads that I've been trying to find an answer to and I was hoping someone here may be able to shed some light on it.

Essentially I'm trying to determine if it is in violation of Adsense's placement policy to have a Google image ad on the same page as an image ad from a third party advertiser or network. Google's policy states:

You're welcome to display Google ads on the same site or page as other third party advertisements provided that the formatting or colors of the third party ads is different enough from that of the Google ads. In other words, if you choose to place non-Google ads on the same site or page as Google ads, it should always be clear to the user that the ads are served by different advertising networks and that the non-Google ads have no association with Google. If the formats are naturally similar, we ask that you choose different colour schemes for the competing ads.

This makes sense when dealing with competing contextual ad placements, but what about competing image ad placements ? Changing the text or background color to differentiate the placements wouldn't be applicable - image ads have no customizable design elements and there's nothing to tell what advertising network any given ad is being served from.

On that basis, is it permissible to have, for example, a 300x250 Google Adsense image placement and a 728x90 third party ad image placement on the same page ?

What about a 300x250 Adsense image ad on one page and a 300x250 third party image ad in the same location but on a different page on the same site ?

[frankleeceo]

I think the only time that you will get in trouble if the third party image ads violates the adsense guide lines. for example #*$! ads will not fly and can get your site disabled, even if those ads are not a part of your "content".

make sure that you sign with an advertiser or middle guy who safeguards the type of advertisers that they accept and display on your site. you are responsible for that much.

other than that, all image ads look quite the same with that little triangle anyways.

what you want to do is actually "not" to state which is google ads, as it can be seen as "drawing" attention to your ads. let ads be ads...displaying naturally.

i personally have used 300x250 from 2~3 different networks on the same site.

[denisl]

I was in the same situation as you, when reading the bit of the adsense TOS about not having other ads that look the same as google, I was only thinking of text ads.

Then one day I saw that on one of my pages which had an affiliate ad and adsense, both had the exact same image. The only difference being the little blue thing in the corner of adsense.

I went to text only for most of my adsense ads after that. I also raised the question here about a year ago and the consensus was that you should avoid this happening - not worth the risk.

[ddg426]

I went to text only for most of my adsense ads after that.

I've done the same thing. While I've heard that you can try to label the other ads by name to differentiate them, some networks don't like that any more than Google does and ultimately it doesn't seem to be worth the risk.

The safest course of action appears to be to only use Adsense text ads on a website if you are also running image-based advertisements.

[MrSavage]

I have the exact same question.

What blows my mind and frustrates me is this. Nobody here can say. This is supposed to be a collective of Adsense publishers, some who are beyond successful, yet there isn't a definitive answer to this question. That to me is nothing short of baffling.

If I can somehow find an answer, I'll post back here. Aside from here, where can you get a definitive answer regarding adsense policy? Nobody wants to risk their account, myself included. I guess this is why competition in this space doesn't exist. We are all chicken S.

[nomis5]

For several years I ran Adsense image ads and other image ads (from two different affiliates) on the same website and the same pages at the same time. That didn't get me into any trouble with Adsense. I then sold the website but those same image ads are still appearing and generating income both Adsense and the affiates.

Just gone back to that website now and I see one Adsense 300x250 appearing right next to an affiliate 300x250 ad and as far as I see they are almost indistinguishable except for the little triangle on the Adsense ads.

That's my mileage, based on five years or so of displaying both types of ad. But different sites are treated differently by Adsense for a huge variety of reasons so don't take this as a green light for publishing ads in that manner. It just worked OK for me and still is working for the current owner of the website.

[MrSavage]

Thanks nomis for that. The "other" affiliate program said there would be no issues, but until I see something official, it's still a risk. Speeding but not being caught is still speeding whether or not you knew the speed limit or not. I'm still troubled that there isn't a definitive on this. It's vague. I can see the advantage to keeping it vague because people like me will take the overly cautious route instead.

[jpch]

Why not just send an email and ask them? That's what I did on a similar issue earlier this year and they said what I was doing was OK. I had been doing it for awhile but when they opened up the email support line figured I'd ask for clarification.