Clickable Areas in AdWords vs AdSense
Google once changed the top AdWords in their search results so that only clicking on the title of an ad - the link itself - you'd be taken to the advertiser's site. Google said they did this (along with a change in ad colors from light blue to light yellow) …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google Blogoscoped reports a confirmed interface change on Google's own results pages: the top AdWords placements now register only a click on the ad's title link as a visit to the advertiser's site, paired with a recoloring of those ads from light blue to light yellow. The framing matters because Google runs two ad systems with different incentives — advertisers pay per click on AdWords, while publishers host AdSense units — and this piece puts their clickable-area policies side by side.
There was no syndicated pickup or public reaction captured around the June 30, 2007 report, so the story travelled quietly; its significance lies in Google unilaterally redefining what part of a paid placement counts as an ad, without a parallel change announced for publisher-side AdSense units.
First-order effects
- Top-position AdWords advertisers see raw click volumes fall, since cursor passes over body text or URLs no longer route to their site — only deliberate clicks on the title link do.
Second-order effects
- Advertisers comparing AdWords behavior against the broader clickable areas still typical of AdSense units face inconsistent cost-per-visitor math across the two sides of Google's ad business, pressuring Google to justify the asymmetry.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Google keeps tuning ad-unit interaction surfaces system by system — shrinking what counts as a click where it controls both auction and landing page, while treating publisher inventory separately — making click definitions a moving target that advertisers must continually re-measure.
The trend: Search advertising is drifting away from whole-block ad interactivity toward narrowly defined, deliberately clicked surfaces, with each platform recalibrating click zones independently.