Link Ads Eligibility Requirements
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Text link ads are one way to monetize your blog or website. In-text advertising turns individual words or phrases in the text into links. Usually, these links appear in a different color from the rest of the text. When visitors to your site click on the linked word or phrase, they are taken to a specific page on another website.
The publisher of the blog or website (you) is paid by an advertiser who is trying to drive traffic to the linked page. Publishers are usually paid based on the number of times visitors click on the text link ad (called pay-per-click advertising), but they can be paid a flat fee for publishing the link on their blog or website.
Benefits of Placing Text Link Ads for Advertisers
Advertisers place their ads on pages that have some relationship to the audience they are trying to attract to their websites.
The text link ads increase a website’s brand awareness with a targeted audience. Visitors become familiar with the products and services offered.
Text link ads can build links that search engines value, improving search engine rankings for the linked site.
Text link ads caused some controversy in the past when they were associated with a drop in Google search rankings or elimination from Google search results for both the publisher and advertiser sites entirely after Google uncovered an extensive spam effort connected to text link ads. Deal with reputable advertising program providers with a business history online to avoid any connection to spam.
How Does Link Ad Unit Work?
Link ad unit is different from other AdSense ads since link unit itself is not considered as an ad. And clicking on it will take you to the real advertiser’s page showing the ads. The picture below explains how does a link ad work.
Due to the fact it’s not an ad by itself, Google permits AdSense publishers to click on their own link ad units and publishers are not permitted to click on the ads in the resulting page. link ads Eligibility requirements
Where to Go for In-Text Link Ad Programs
Popular in-text link advertising programs include Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, LinkWorth, Amobee (formerly Kontera), and many others. They all offer contextual text link advertising opportunities along with other types of ads where text on your blog is linked to contextually relevant ad content. If you are interested, go to one of these advertiser sites and register. The advertiser will pair interested parties with your blog or website.
Link ads display a list of topics that are relevant to the content of your page. Link ads are closely targeted to the interests of your users. Because users directly interact with the topics, they may be more interested in the ads they eventually see.
AdSense publishers are paid for clicks on the ads that are linked from topics, not for clicks on the initial topics themselves. The ads on the linked page are pay-per-click Google ads similar to those shown in standard display ad units.
Quick Facts about AdSense Link Unit Ads
Link units themselves are not Ads, the resulting page from the link unit only will display Google AdSense ads and you will be paid if the user clicks on these ads. AdSense publishers are allowed to click on link unit ads on their own webpages. Publishers are not allowed to click on any Google ads on the resulting page showing ads.
Clicking on own link unit ads has the potential to inaccurately inflate impressions and affect your reporting metrics. Google will show your backup ads if there are no relevant link units available.
If you did not setup any backup ad, the link unit will show an empty search box labeled View ads about.
Users can enter their own search terms into this box to view ads related to their query. You will be paid for valid clicks on the ads displayed on the search results similar to Google Search box.
Currently there is no way to filter out the topics that appear in link units. However, you can filter out specific ads that might appear after your users click on a topic.
Responsive Behavior of Link Ads
Link ads are responsive by default. They allow you to support a wide range of devices (i.e., computers, phones, tablets, etc.) by automatically adapting their size to fit your page layout. They’re intended to work with sites built with responsive design, but will work on non-responsive sites too. Regardless of which device users use to visit your site, responsive link ads can help you provide a great ad experience. Eligibility requirements for link ads
Fixed-sized link ads
To ensure that link ads continue to deliver a positive user experience, fixed-sized link ads are only available in the following ad sizes.
728 x 15 – Displays four links in horizontal
468 x 15 – Displays four links in horizontal
200 x 90 – Displays four links in vertical
180 x 90 – Displays four links in vertical
160 x 90 – Displays four links in vertical
120 x 90 – Displays four links in vertical
Note that certain fixed ad sizes might have less ad inventory available. Please take this into consideration when choosing a fixed ad size as it could have a negative impact on your earnings.
