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View Full Version : Whether or not to allow political ads via AdSense



KLB
02-28-2008, 05:49 PM
NOTICE: THIS IS NOT FOR POLITICAL DEBATE! The question of whether to allow or block political ads assumes an across the board non-partisan decision.

As we get deeper into the U.S. political season, we will start to see more and more political ads on AdSense. My question is what do people think about allowing or blocking political ads on their sites?

I ask this because yesterday I found ads for two political campaigns (one one for President and one U.S. Senate) appearing on my environmental chemistry site via AdSense. In the case of the U.S. Senate candidate, they were explicitly targeting my site with site targeted CPM ads.

My own concerns are three fold:

1) I do not want it to appear via campaign ads appearing on my site that I am endorsing a specific candidate. If there are only ads for one political party or the other appearing on my site, it could create the false impression that my site is supporting one candidate over the other.

2) I am concerned that graphical PPC AdSense ads for a candidate will suppress my CTR as these types of ad campaigns are more about branding than getting people to visit the candidate's website. This in turn could reduce my ad revenues.

3) I do not want to see partisan attack ads appearing on my site. I already found a few of those ads from the U.S. Senate Candidate I mentioned earlier. :sick:

Chris
02-29-2008, 05:59 AM
TV stations and newspapers (well, most) do not seem to have a problem with it.

It isn't something I care about, if it in the end gets me a higher CPM, I'm fine.

Our democratic process relies on advertising to inform voters. So it is an integral part of the system.