Can we place AdSense Ads below titles and headings

Many bloggers are confused if they can use AdSense ads below the headings. Google AdSense policies are bit confusing in this regard and there is no definite answers from Google regarding this confusion. Since I face this question quite often in the blogger communities, I decided to write this detailed post as part of my blogging tips and AdSense tips series.

First let us look at the relevant AdSense policies regarding the Ad placements.

There are 2 policies that may be applicable in this case.

1. Formatting content to mimic ads

This is what Google says about placing and formatting Ads to make the readers think your Ads are not advertisements but are part of content:

Publishers may not implement Google ads in a manner that disguises the ads in any way. This includes formatting neighboring content to look similar to the ads

2. Placing ads under a misleading heading

This policy guideline states that you should not place AdSense ads under a title that may confuse the reader that the ads below the title are the content described by the title. However, this depends on the text in the title as well as the specific ad displayed. Sometimes, the title and ad will be different enough so that there will be no confusion. But that may not be the case always.

In short, whether you can place Ads below the title or not depends on few parameters:

- the nature/text of the title
- how close they are placed
- how the title and ads are aligned

See the example below, which is a screenshot from a blog I found through a random search:



In my opinion, this screenshot shows a clear violation of the AdSense policies. Anyone looking at that blog post will conclude the Ad just below the title is part of the text and I am pretty sure most of the non-techies will click on the Ad. Since that ad placement in that particular context implies it is part of the content, it is a violation of Google AdSense policies.

However, the same ad placement with a different title may not violate the policies in some other cases. Here is a screenshot of the same ad placement, but may not be a violation of AdSense policies, just because the text in the title and ads are not really related to each other and thus not confusing:



NOTE: In case of a manual policy review of your site, the Google reviewer may interpret it differently. I have a received warning from AdSense for the above placement because Google interpreted some ads appeared below are confusing to the users. So, the bottom line is, ads placed too close to the headings may sometimes lead to policy violations, even if you take extra care to avoid misleading words in it.

Conclusion:

If you want to be on the safer side with AdSense program, you should avoid any placement directly under the headings.

Tips of safe ad placement under the heading