Forum Moderators: martinibuster
This may be a good thing in the case of certain spammy advertisers who low-bid for keywords--the advertisers with page-targeted headlines but generic, non-specific ad text.
Do the site visitors really want to see the URL for you-know-who.com in ad after ad, page after page?
It occurs to me that, in the case of skyscrapers and other ad units where there is room for the advertiser URL to appear, it might be a good idea to mask the URL. How? By specifying a URL color to match the ad unit background color.
That trick would effectively hide the advertiser URL.
Does anybody have any experience with this? Good effect? Bad effect?
Would employing this trick draw a penalty in the Google SERPS?
In general it's not a good idea to display the ads different than they are designed to be by Google.
Especially when some ready-made ad unit types (as served by Google, with no web publisher customizations) exclude the advertiser URL?
You would have a stronger case that this violates the TOS if *all* Google-served ad unit types display the advertiser URL.
I have not tried the masking. Do you know for a fact that if you tried matching URL color with ad background color, that Google would override your choice and force display of the URL (with a color of Google's choosing, perhaps defaulting to black or white)?
In any case, Google is so vague about guidelines (and can be unresponsive to user requests for clarification), and I live in paranoid fear of being banned from the program, that I think it wisest not to try this particular trick.
Is this really a clear violation of the TOS?
Is it clearly allowed by the TOS? If it's a grey-area, then you would be well advised to just leave it alone. It might not be explicitly defined as being allowed, or against the TOS, but if it can general be conceived as being deceiptful, then why bother? Unless of course you wouldn't mind potentially having the AdSense account in question.
Email them and ask them, that will give you a clear cut answer, but I doubt very much that they will say it is permitted. Let us know!
I have not tried the masking. Do you know for a fact that if you tried matching URL color with ad background color, that Google would override your choice and force display of the URL (with a color of Google's choosing, perhaps defaulting to black or white)?
I think if you're using the Ad Color selector on Google's site and you try to create an ad that would mask a URL using a non contrasting color, the ad selector won't allow it.
That would mean that in order for an ad URL with no contrast to the background to be shown on your site, you would have to manually edit the adsense code to input the hex color values you're going for.
That (manually editing the Adsense code)definitely *is* a violation of the Adsense Terms of Service.
Like my grandma used to say: "If it sounds shady, it probably is..."
[google.com...]
"Elements on a page must not obscure any portion of the ads, and the ad colors must be such that any ad elements, including text and URL, are visible."
In that case, making borders invisible is a clearcut violation of the TOS.
In that case, making borders invisible is a clearcut violation of the TOS.
I think Google is being confusing and defining "the ad" here as "the text that the advertiser inputs." Since the border is just a structural element, it's not part of "the ad."
I think Google is being confusing and defining "the ad" here as "the text that the advertiser inputs." Since the border is just a structural element, it's not part of "the ad."
What's confusing about "any ad elements"? You just described the border as a "structural element" yourself, and "any" means just what it says.
That doesn't mean Google is enforcing its own rules, of course; the number of scraper sites in Google's SERPs makes it pretty obvious that enforcement of the TOS is spotty at best.
The only thing is, when the javascript is actually RUN. the script changes the "invisible" text back to black if the text color is too light (I'm talking white on white here).
In the end, you don't have to worry about invisible ads because google already took care of it. You physically can't do it. The javascript won't allow it.
