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A Big Leap in the Right Direction for Online Marketers - Just in time for the Holidays

Whenever something big happens online, it most likely has to do with Google and this article covers news that is no different. Google has changed the clickable area of thier Adsense ads both on the Google search engine, all of thier properties (like Google Base and Froogle) and all of thier publisher's websites.

As both a publisher (that is now earning less money with the same amount of traffic) and an advertiser (that is now converting better), I applaud this step that Google has taken. It will pay off in great dividends for them. Accidental clicks will be lessened and it will increase advertisers trust 100 fold. Google and Trust must walk hand-in-hand.

Accidental clicks from DIV layer overlaps will all but be diminished to nothing.

As a publisher, it has been my experience that the online pendulum of online advertising has swung too far back into the direction it was when the dot-com bust happened. Another words, ad spending is not monitored enough, companies are spending more in advertising than they should - and more importantly more than what it is bringing them in business.

This of course, is a hotly debated topic - but I will stand strong on my opinion. Kudos to Google for taking a big leap in making sure that accidental clicks are lessened for advertisers. This change will also open the door to the pay per lead/sale program that Google is launching.

Google sent a letter to AdSense publishers, explaining why they’ve made the change:

"We’re rolling out a change to our text ad formats to help reduce accidental clicks and increase value for advertisers. Previously, users could click on the background and full text of an ad, but now users can click only on the title and URL of a text ad. This new format will match the changes we’ve implemented on Google.com to help decrease the number of accidental clicks and increase the number of ad conversions. A reduction in accidental clicks will keep users on your pages, interacting with your content until they choose to click on an ad. This change will enhance the users’ overall experience with your websites and improve advertiser campaign value, but it’s likely that your click-through rate will decrease."

Google's Adsense change is the first step in making that pendulum start moving back in the other direction. I can't wait until it stabilizes in the middle (or can I?)

Labels: Google Adsense, Online Marketing and PPC