AdSense Ad in carousel, is that pushing my luck?

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AdSense Ad in carousel, is that pushing my luck?

NickMNS

3:29 am on Feb 27, 2019 (gmt 0)

I'm working on a site layout that uses carousels extensively. Not a typical image carousel. There is no auto-cycling of cards. It is basically a div with horizontal overflow, where content is displayed on a series of swipe-able cards. It is based on the Google video search carousel, same idea just not for videos. The content is a combination of tables, text and charts. I have used this pattern before and it is a very efficient way of displaying a lot of information, specially for mobile devices.

I would like to include an ad on one of the cards. In total there are about 6 to 10 cards. I'm thinking that AdSense's In-Feed ad units may work. Currently I have the cards vertically stacked with two ads showing up in between the cards. The only tangible difference between the two layout is that in one the user swipes content up or down and the other right or left.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Has anyone tried anything like this?

koan

7:15 am on Mar 4, 2019 (gmt 0)

I don't think Google Ads are allowed to be hidden in any way, even if they're revealed after a timed event, and I don't think you're allowed to hide them outside of normal browser page scroll or window resizing.

NickMNS

3:26 pm on Mar 4, 2019 (gmt 0)

even if they're revealed after a timed event

In my case the carousel is not on a timer. It is only the user that can scroll through the cards. Basically it's a div with horizontal overflow. I was thinking that I would only load the ad if there was scroll event. As such if the user never touches the carousel no add will loaded.

koan

8:21 pm on Mar 4, 2019 (gmt 0)

I remember checking in the past because a client wanted to show Adsense in a modal with a previous / next type of navigation and it was a definite no. Google relaxed some rules in the past years so I'm not certain, but make sure to do your research before.

NickMNS

10:48 pm on Mar 4, 2019 (gmt 0)

But this is not the same as a modal. A modal is in my view clearly and explicitly against the policies. And yet AdSense does offer an interstitial for mobile ("vignettes" in auto-ads).

In my case the ad would appear on the page within the normal content flow, the only real difference is the direction of the scrolling. Here is the description provided by AdSense for "in Feed" ad units.

Typically, you place In-feed ads in between the content of your feed, or where your feed begins or ends. As visitors scroll down your content they encounter In-feed ads. Because In-feed ads fit seamlessly inside your feed, they're not intrusive and they don't break the user's flow.

The only part that doesn't fit with my UI is "As visitors scroll down", in my case this would be "As visitors scroll right".

I sent an email help request to AdSense asking the question, I'm curious to see what they answer me back.

matbennett

3:36 pm on Mar 5, 2019 (gmt 0)

You can do this without breaching policy - think lazy loading. AdSense performance can be poor though, as you are only getting paid on the clicks, at which point they leave.

I'd rather use CPM based in a carousel (ideally Header Bidding working against adx + exchange bidding). You can then use the same GAM ad unit, reloading it each time you need a new impression (declare this with rules in AdX).

NickMNS

8:55 pm on Mar 5, 2019 (gmt 0)

I got a response back from AdSense, essentially confirming that this is including an "InFeed" ad in a carousel like feed is acceptable. Here is the link they sent me:
[support.google.com...]

The third bullet on that page reads:

A horizontal feed on the page

Which describes what I have.

@Matbennett what you say make sense, but the current situation is that this page (or pages) gets almost no traffic. I am hopping that the up-date to the layout will change that. I'm going to start with a plain-vanilla AdSense implementation and then take it from their.

matbennett

10:03 am on Mar 6, 2019 (gmt 0)

@NickMNS Sounds like in-feed in the carousel is the best solution whilst you build that traffic up. Sounds like a sensible plan : I'm all for keeping things easy until the $�� warrants the work! I don't recall seeing infeed used like that before, I'd love to see it if you would be happy to share a link when it's done.