Images next to ads

 Many webmasters and online marketing experts used to put small images next to Google Adsense ads. This little trick improved their click trough rate (CTR) because it misguided visitors who thought that images have to do something with links (ads) next to them and in most cases this is not true.

I have heard that people used to send emails to Google Adsense team regarding this issue and that the response was to put a border or in other way distinguish images from ads.

Well, the problem is now gone since Google announced at their official Adsense blog that they do not approve images next to ads in any form and again they said that you shouldn’t trick your visitors in clicking on ads. Looking at this situation from webmaster view you are probably not very happy but if you take a second to look from publisher’s point of view then you have to realize that they are happy since the worst thing that can happen to a publisher is a large number of clicks that do not convert into sales.

Webmasters who removed images the first day reported a 25% smaller CTR so I guess they need a new way to blend ads or maybe another trick that could boost their CTR back to what it used to be. One idea comes to mind, playing little flash movies above ads. I’m not sure if this is against terms of service and it should be checked with Google team.

If you are one of these webmasters who were using images next to ads I feel sorry for you but I ‘m sure you will come up with a new solution very fast and that your earnings won’t suffer that much, if they do then you are not doing you job very well :)

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