You place an Adsense ad unit on a page and blend it into the context. The "Ads by Google" notice appears below the ads, right the base. Most people read text top to bottom. If they read the top and don't look to the bottom, they don't see it's an ad. They think it's a menu link.
If you read a link, which is a call to action (click me), and it's a link to something you want, why would you necessarily bother to read further down the page?
And look at the leaderboard. The very wide ad block has the "Ads by Google" stuffed away at the bottom on the far right. Who is going to bother reading the whole series of links and all the text every time they see the blended leaderboard? Why isn't the "Ads by Google" notice in the top lefthand corner instead of the bottom right? So people think it's navigation links?
The Google Adsense blog so many times promotes blending and at the same time it says not to confuse site visitors with content (navigation menus).
But most of the Adsense ad sizes have the "Ads by Google" below the ad links, including the ad sizes Google encourages us to use the most, i.e., big blocks (336 x 280).
The only ad blocks that put the "Ads by Google" at the top are the vertical ads, skyscrapers (120 x 600 and 160 x 600) and 120 x 240.
See: [google.com...]
Why is the "Ads by Google" notice at the top of the 120 x 240, but at the bottom of the roughly similarly shaped and sized 200 x 200 ad unit? Google is not consistent.
What's the purpose of the "Ads by Google" notice? To make sure the public can see the difference between navigation links and advertising links.
What magazine or newspaper or print publication have you seen where the "Advertisement" notice appears at the bottom of the page? Every one I see is at the top for obvious reasons.
Conclusion: "Ads by Google" should appear at the top of every ad unit, not just a few, or most. Google has been and continues to speak out of both sides of its mouth speaking to Adsense publishers.
"Blend your ads"+"Don't mislead people to think your ads are navigation links."
Petition Google to protect you from invalid clicks by putting the "Ads by Google" notice at the top of every ad.
p/g
Petition Google to protect you from invalid clicks by putting the "Ads by Google" notice at the top of every ad.
I'd be more apt to petition them to crackdown on the blending period. But, that isn't going to happen as it represents the largest portion of their revenue.
I too stay out of the Content Network, mostly garbage from my perspective and a great way to drain your budget with little ROI.
Here's the catch, there are many managing those campaigns who check all the boxes and don't know any better. I'd say they are the majority, yes?
