can adwords look nice?

March 29, 2006 11:17 AM

How much flexability is there in the way google adwords are displayed? Whenever I see google adwords on web pages, they mostly look 1) pretty much the same as on other sites and 2) rather ugly. How much flexability is there in the way they are displayed? Are there any other textad services that allow more flexability in aperance?

Is it possible to do something as simple as display arbitrary CSS? Obviously google wants consistancy (and to prevent clickfraud) but the ad designs are soooo ugly.

posted by delmoi to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Here are the Google Adsense policies you agree to. The relevant one is:

"Any AdSense ad code, search box code, or referral code must be pasted directly into Web pages without modification. AdSense participants are not allowed to alter any portion of the ad code or change the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason."

Basically, you only have control over the color palette and the size.
posted by smackfu at 11:42 AM on March 29, 2006

Google Adsense text ads are visual noise on a website. I've never seen it look good or fit in with a website's layout, and I certainly won't use them on my site.

Clickbank (in my limited experience) seems to have better looking ads and offer more control over what the ad will look like.
posted by rinkjustice at 11:55 AM on March 29, 2006

Just to clarify, you wouldn't be using the AdWords program but the AdSense program, which is the contextual advertising you're thinking of.
posted by apple scruff at 12:16 PM on March 29, 2006

I've been using Google Adsense for several years.

1) You have very little design latitude. You can basically change the colors to anything you want, and the layout within about a dozen options. You can't make them look like something that isn't immediately recognizable as Google ads.

2) You have the option to let Google put image ads in the space, but my experience is that it usually runs text ads even with that option turned on.

3) In the past I have made very minor tweaks to the pasted Adsense code with no repercussions. But i think I just got lucky.

4) Ads are about the money. You are selling your soul for the almighty dollar. Don't kid yourself by trying to pretty it up. Google ads are white noise these days anyway.
posted by y6y6y6 at 12:21 PM on March 29, 2006

I'm in the process of moving from Google Adsense to AdBrite, which is fully customizable by CSS and also allows more control over pricing and what gets advertised on your site. I haven't used it long enough to recommend it, but these are the reasons I'm switching.
posted by scottreynen at 1:01 PM on March 29, 2006

This is a website where the ads fit in quite nicely with the rest of the layout (article and discussion)
posted by snownoid at 1:19 PM on March 29, 2006

Also, if you're a big name advertiser, Google apparently gives you more customization options. Check out the ads on last.fm and you'll see what I mean.
posted by danb at 1:29 PM on March 29, 2006

Hmm, I wonder if you could use a transperant gif or png overlay, which would move out of the way when you click on it.
posted by delmoi at 1:34 PM on March 29, 2006

(or mouseover)
posted by delmoi at 1:34 PM on March 29, 2006

delmoi, the ads themselves are in iframes, so you can't get at the iframe DOM or CSS. The only nice adsense ads I've seen are the ones on the high end custom sites list (like last.fm and technorati, etc)
posted by mathowie at 1:50 PM on March 29, 2006