Google has made a post on their Adsense blog clarifying some of the confusion around putting images near adsense.

They have said, Wait for it, images near adsense are NOT allowed.
Images are allowed on the page, But not in a way where they align with the adverts.

Google has even provided examples of what is not allowed. (included as attachments)

o o.. so the way i have on the front page here, right in the middle, is against the TOS now?
www.loreleiweb.com

Originally Posted by Lorelei

o o.. so the way i have on the front page here, right in the middle, is against the TOS now?
www.loreleiweb.com

No, it does not appear like those ads at all...

i decided to remove it anyway...

Finaly they did it!

No surprise there. It generates artificial clickthroughs in a way, since the eye is drawn to those images.

Steve (vangogh) made a good point in a reply on my blog about this.
He pointed out that in the exmples the images appear to be directly related to the adverts. For example, Next to the advert about fruit there is an image of fruit and next to the links where coloured shapes appear in the names there are images of coloured shapes.

Would the same rules apply if the images used were neither related to the content on the page or the content of the adverts?

Originally Posted by stOx

Steve (vangogh) made a good point in a reply on my blog about this.
He pointed out that in the exmples the images appear to be directly related to the adverts. For example, Next to the advert about fruit there is an image of fruit and next to the links where coloured shapes appear in the names there are images of coloured shapes.

Would the same rules apply if the images used were neither related to the content on the page or the content of the adverts?

It does not matter whether images relate to adsense contents and/or to page contents. Don't try to fool google by placing some abstract images. If you do it intending to fool your visitors it is clearly obvious, and G will first ban you and only then will try to resolve the issue.

It does not matter whether images relate to adsense contents and/or to page contents.

If you look at the examples it clearly shows images that look related to the content of the ads. For example, The adverts about fruit have images of fruit next to them.

It's especially confusing when you look at the email i got from google when i asked them about images near adsense

In general, you are welcome to place images near the Google ads on your site. However, some implementations are not permitted by our programme policies, so we ask that you exercise some caution when choosing or placing the images.

To be specific, we ask that publishers do not place misleading images near Google ads or use images that appear to be directly associated with the advertisers and their offerings

Thanks guys, I just know this.

that's a good point . i think adsense is on the true way

I still don't really see why? Why are ppl more likely to click an ad if it's got an unrelated picture next to it?

Originally Posted by Angelosanto

I still don't really see why? Why are ppl more likely to click an ad if it's got an unrelated picture next to it?

It's more to do with people thinking the images are part of the link.
The images next to the advert interfere with the ad format which may lead people to think what they are clicking isn't an advert.

One of my friend advise me to do that and now luckily I found this thread.

thank you very much

Originally Posted by Angelosanto

I still don't really see why? Why are ppl more likely to click an ad if it's got an unrelated picture next to it?

when you setup fo sample a golf related website, and with adsense... any picture to do with beautify golf course, golf stick, golf ball... and the picture contains no link, the ads is definately the target to click on.

Some webmasters advice me to add images near adsense. Thank you very much for posting this topic.

Well nice moov.Pictures and images draw automatic attention and thus region near images generates high revenue if ads are placed on it.Google is really true....

People still doing this trick. They don't know that it's not allowed. I know few people doing that and one of them is already banned so I really advice - do not use this method. It will make you in troubles.

Has anyone ever done an experiment proving that either related or non-related images next to ads make a greater click-through rate?

.

When I started using adsense a few months back, I was told that putting images next to the adsense is the best way to get some clicks!
But somehow, my site design makes it look weird, so I took it off.