Can I Mix Better Text Ads With Adsense?
This question is coming up more and more frequently as the number of members of BetterTextAds.com grows.
I’ve been avoiding the question to some extent because I’m not a lawyer and I can’t give you advice on interpreting contracts you have entered into with another party (ie., Google). But, I’m getting asked the question so often that I thought I would do a little research and give you my thoughts on the matter.
I will point you to a passage in Google’s Adsense terms and conditions:
“If You have elected to receive content or Site-based Ads, You further agree not to display on any Serviced Page any non-Google content-targeted advertisement(s).”
This seems to indicate that Google doesn’t want you display other content-targeted ads ON THE SAME PAGE where you have adsense ads. Of course, that begs the question, what constitutes a “content-targeted” ad. Seems to me that ANY ad you put on your website is content-targeted (you wouldn’t put ads for Viagra on a website for kids, for example).
And BetterTextAds.com is not content-targeted in the same way that Adsense is. The Adsense technology actually reads the content of your page as it is displayed to a visitor to determine what ads to show. But with BetterTextAds.com, you, as a webmaster, have to select the category of ads you want displayed when you create your BTA ad block code. And isn’t that the same as deciding which ad banner to display at the top of your site?
But I’m getting off-track. My advice to you is to take a close look at Google’s full terms and conditions to determine if you should put BetterTextAd.com ads on the same page with Adsense ads. Get some legal counsel to help you if you still aren’t sure.
The bottom line is that you are responsible to make sure that you adhere to the terms of the contracts you enter into. BetterTextAds.com has no provision that prevents you from displaying BTA ad blocks along with Adsense ad units. And that is all I can say on the matter. It’s up to you to determine whether or not Adsense has such a provision and whether or not you are willing to risk your relationship with Google if you violate it.
That’s my two-cents for today,
- Dan
PS: Please feel free to post comments on this. I’d love to know what others think about this topic.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 3:55 PM and filed under Commentary. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.
I’d say its the same as searchfeed - where you select the category, what Google doesn’t want is microtargeted (if there is such a word) targeted ads. Really they want to keep Yahoo out from their guys - only one “read your page and provide ads EXACTLY targeted to the content” type ads.
They’re fine with other, less perfectly targeted ads, especially if they don’t look exactly the same.
I fsearchfeed is fine - and it has been for me - then bettertextads is fine too
Then again, I’m no lawyer either!!LOL
Posted on 24-Apr-06 at 5:18 pm | PermalinkI personally wouldn’t take a chance on placing BTA and Adsense on the same page. In Google’s eyes they look similar and might be grounds for termination of your account.
?
Posted on 24-Apr-06 at 5:18 pm | PermalinkOn different pages though it should be OK.
The revenue is bigger with BetterTextAds though so you might consider using it more frequently than Adsense.
Since Dan doesn’t have anything against ad mixes I would like to show you a cool free script that I found that enables you to create Adsense styled ads for Amazon too.
http://www.linkbrander.com/go/12846
Check it out, it can’t hurt right
Hi Dan,
I have adsense and BTA on the same page - I don’t think it violates google’s terms for basically the same reason you mentioned.
It’s not against their terms to advertise an individual Clickbank product, or another affiliate product, on the same page and BTA are advertising Clickbank products.
I think maybe I’ll email them and just ask to be sure - I’ll let you know when I get a response.
By the way, is the any way to add a section to the member’s area that allows you to see your referrals name and stuff? Just wondering!
Congrats on your excellent program,
Tina
Posted on 24-Apr-06 at 5:24 pm | Permalink