A few days ago Google adsense on his Blog make clarification on the ads with image beside issue. which it has been a well debate issue in some webmaster forum. Some says it’s against the TOS or brake the rule, and some says not. Well finally The Google adsense Team made some announcement about this issue in the Adsense blog.

Can I place small images next to my Google ads?

We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads.

for example like this:

even if you put the space or line between the image and the ads its still now allow.

The nexthing the publisher must also now about is:

Publishers should also be careful to avoid similar implementations that people could find misleading. For instance, if your site contains a directory of Flash games, you should not format the ads to mimic the game descriptions.

for example like this:

For me its pretty sad, although I never implement that kind of placement in my site. but I think, it will hurt some other webmaster out there, and will limit our creativity also. But the reason the Google adsense do this because:

If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn’t actually being offered. That’s not a good experience for users or advertisers.

and its very acceptable reason. because Google want to keep things up. And I’m one hundred percent support it.

But don’t worry there are still other placement of the ads that still produce high CTR ( Click Trough Rate ) and the best thing its not against the Google Adsens TOS.

1.This link ads placement from one of my blog which hosted in blogspot. Its a bit tricky. But its worth to try.

2. Another link ads, from my another site too:

I make the link ads like menu from my site. And it’s quite success. Because its surely like on of the Google adsense recommendation: ( the heat map )

3. this one from other site ( not mine ), a very nice implementation of unit ads. they make the ads like the content from their site, and when visitor first goes to the site, they will prompt them with ads.

There are some nice tips that you have to consider when you want to place the ads.

1. Place the ads on the place where you visitor would see when they first visit your site.
2. Place the ads in the middle of the screen. if you can’t do it just place it close enough to the middle of the screen. ( remember the heat map)
3. Borderless ads is much more better then ads with border. Never Put border on your ads, cause this will make the ads look separate from your content.
4. Try to using the color from the adsense that fits your site theme. Its better to use the background color same with your site background, the text color same as your text site color and the link color same with your link site color.
5. The link unit, make it look like its apart of your site menu or make it look like your site menu ( like in the first example ).
6. The ads unit make like its the main content from your site.( like in example three ).
7. For expert webmaster, You can try to switching your ads-place also the ads-color. This trick produce more high CTR in site with a lot of impression then unique hits ( like forum for example ). Why this happen? because regular visitor can developed ads blind very easily.

Hope that can help you, on where the best place to the ads and blend the ads. And finallly produce a higer CTR. Thanks for time reading this.