Hello Guys,

I'm trying to blend G Ads in my blog navigation bar (http://www.bmwe36blog.com).

I managed to do it, but I'm still facing 2 problems:

1. The G adsense font. Can I control the font of the ad some how (font size & face name )?

2. The Words "Ads By Google". They're preventing the blending process. Is it legal (from Google point of view) to hide this text. I also feel that this would be like tricking the website visitors. I need your opinions on this b/c I'm not sure I want to go ahead with this.

thanks in advance for the help.

You are unable to do either of those things.

Google only allow you to change the size of the adblock (to any of the sizes provided) and the colours used, And when you change the colours every element of the advert (title, text and URL) must be visible.

1. with google adsense i do believe you can change the font, font colour! no quesion about that.

2. the "ads by google" part - well you just need to live with it - and take your borders down.

Originally Posted by roy77

1. with google adsense i do believe you can change the font, font colour! no quesion about that.

How to do that! Can you please send me a hint?

Concerning the "Ads by Google", I've found a way to get rid of it , but I'm not sure if this would be again the TOS and against the visitors best interest

You aren't allowed to change the font style.
You aren't allowed to remove the "Ads by Google".

Both are very much against adsense ToS and will see you get banned. They are very clear about this.

That's what I thought when I first wrote the message but I had to hear your opinion guys regarding this. I also thought that this will be like cheating and tricking my website visitors. That's why I asked.

anyway, thank you for your reply. I think I'm better with the straight technique :-)

Tony it's like Matt said. You can't change either. But what you can do in regards to the font is change what you use on the site to match the AdSense font. I think the AdSense font is 11px Arial, but don't hold me to that.

It would be nice if we could change the font-size for the ads though since 11px is a little small to my eyes.

same as what others have said,

unless ofcourse you are a "huge" network.

i know couple of companies, including the one i work for, has the ability to change the font size and font. though i havent been told whether this was done by google or they do it somehow..

That's true. I think if you send enough money to Google through AdSense they'll invite you to be a premium publisher which allows you to do a few things the rest of us can't.

I'm not sure how you get to be a premium publisher, but it's through Google invite only.

hmmm... I would love to be part of that some day! But seriously, I think they should provide you with the option to play with the Ad fonts.

If you take a look at the Ads on my website (navigation bar), they look awful. That's why I wanted to do it in addition to blending the ads better with the website.

I agree with you Tony. There are certain things I can understand Google not letting us change, but the font should be something we can control.

Do you guys have any notes or suggestion about the ads placement in my BMW E36 Blog (link below) ? I appreciate any help regarding this.

Google don't allow publisher to modify adsense code.

Tony you might try using a white border and white background. I think the ad units next to your navigation work nice. The main difference is the nav links are bold and the AdSense are underlined. It might work better if both displayed the same.

Have you tried ads in the sidebar? Right above or below your calendar might be a good place for an ad block.

I've also found ad blocks embeded in the text can work well. On pages where you have enough text floating an ad block to the right or left within the text can draw clicks.

Steven,

Thanks for replying on this. I wanted to manipulate the fonts in the ads next to the navigation, but as you guys told me above that there's no way I can do this, so I had to leave it like this. But, I don't understand what you mean by making a white border & a white background?

For the Ads block above the calendar, it's a very good place. I should've thought of it before. Thank you for that.

On the ad you have (the half banner) that's displaying in your main content area it looks like you have the background of the ad set to #ffffcc and you have the border around the ad set to #ff8f00. You can change those when setting up the ad colors at AdSense.

The AdSense code from your site is:

google_color_border = "FF8F00";
google_color_bg = "FFFFCC";

I'm thinking you would change both to #FFFFFF which would leave the ad looking like a couple of links within the page instead of having it set off as an ad.

I'm not saying it would definitely improve things, but it's worth trying as a way to blend the ads into the site more.

Hmm.... I tried it and it looks good. I hope it would give me something in return. I will also add the another one on top of my calendar and see how things will go.

Thanks Steven. Thanks guys.

It does look good. Now to test and see if it generates more clicks. You never know till you try. It's always possible the borders and backgrounds lead to a higher CTR.

Test and measure. Test and measure.

What do you think now?... I think this is much better than before, but ofcourse the $$$ will prove me right or wrong

I think it looks better now too, but like you said the proof will be in the $$'s