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Goodbye “Ads By Google” & Hello “AdChoices” As Google’s Backs Industry Label Effort

Pamela Parker on March 22, 2011 at 12:59 pm

Those “Ads by Google” and “i” labels on AdSense ads will soon be replaced by an “AdChoices” triangle icon and label, as Google moves to comply with an industry initiative from the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. It will be the single largest roll-out of the “AdChoices” label to date, giving significant momentum to the effort.

The program, aimed at regulating the industry before the government steps in, is backed by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (the Four As), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI).

Google says that its testing of this label has showed no impact on advertising performance.

Display ads, which previously had the “i” label, will display the triangle “i” icon. Text ads, which previously said “Ads By Google,” will now say “AdChoices.” When consumers click on the “i” triangle icon on display ads, it will expand out to say “AdChoices.” When they click on either AdChoices label, they’ll be taken to a page where they can learn more about online advertising. The page will also link users to Google’s advertising preferences page, where they can see the ad categories associated with their cookie. They can also remove categories, opt-in to more, or opt out of behavioral tracking altogether.

The changes will begin being rolled out to English language ads in most formats. Over time, the company will work to make sure that all ads on its English language Display Network carry the new “AdChoices” label. Ads in other countries and in other languages will continue to display “i” or “Ads by Google.”

Some exceptions apply, however. Some of Google’s largest AdSense publishers render their own ads using javascript or an XML feed — they don’t use the standard iFrame provided by Google. When they do this, they may use a different label, though they are required to label the ads.

About The Author

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Executive Features Editor at Marketing Land, MarTech Today and Search Engine Land. She's a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ, and worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing.