Extending "Ads by Google" notice

From time to time you've probably noticed the 'Ads by Google' message on ads around the web -- we display this label because we want users to have an awareness and understanding of the ads they see online and where they come from.

As more and more advertisers use rich media ad formats, such as Flash and interactive ads, we want to provide the same benefit to users for those ad formats.

So today we're starting to add the "Ads by Google" message to rich media ads in a way that's unobtrusive to your ad creative and the publisher site, but as user-friendly as our current "Ads by Google" notices on other ad formats.

You'll soon notice a small 'i' (for "information") icon overlay in the bottom right-hand corner of these ads, which will expand when the user hovers over it. This was specially designed for rich media ads. This new message will appear on your AdWords rich media ads, and will show up on standard AdSense ad units.


Just like before, users who click on the 'Ads by Google' label will be taken to a page where they can learn more about online advertising and the ads they've just seen. Our tests of this new message format on rich-media ads showed it doesn't affect ad performance.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew