It is not fair to advertisers to ask people to click ads.
How Does Adsense Work?
AdSense works by matching ads to your site based on your content and visitors. The ads are created and paid for by advertisers who want to promote their products. Since these advertisers pay different prices for different ads, the amount you earn will vary.
You have to apply for your site to be included in the AdSense program. Once you are approved by Google, you paste ad code on you site pages and choose where you want ads to show.
Google auctions off your site real estate. The ads on your site are the ones that bid highest.
Advertisers pay Google every time people see the ad on your site. They pay more, a lot more, every time someone clicks the ad to go to the advertisers site.
If you tell people to click, they are not clicking because they are actually interested in the ad. That is just not fair to the person that is paying for that click. Google agrees and Google will not show ads on your site if you do that.
…invalid traffic is strictly prohibited by the AdSense Program policies.
What is Invalid Traffic?
Clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest. Publishers may not ask others to click their ads. This includes asking users to support your site, offering rewards to users for viewing ads, and promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior. Additionally, clicking your own ads, automated clicking tools or traffic sources, robots, or other deceptive software are also prohibited.
(Part of the letter I received from the Google AdSense Team)
But I see people do it all the time!
Does it seem unfair? I see other sites do it. How come they can get away with it?
They can’t. I just saw it on a site. I bookmarked the site. Next time I remembered to look, the message was still there, but no ads were showing.
Google doesn’t try to trick you. They tell you exactly what they are looking for and exactly what the rules are. If you don’t follow the rules, adhere to the policies, they will not display ads on your site. They might even not pay you for previous traffic. They might even close your account.
Publishers who choose to use the AdSense service are required to adhere to the Program policies. If you fail to comply with these policies, we may disable your AdSense account… we reserve the right to… disable ad serving on pages that violate these policies, to withhold payment, or to close offending accounts.
Do you think Google won’t notice? I am confident they will. Searching is what they do. They want to be sure advertisers are getting a good value.
We actively monitor AdSense publishers to check for continued compliance with our Program policies. If we find publishers that do not comply with our policies or Terms and Conditions, we may suspend or terminate the account.
The policies are not a secret. You had to agree to them when you got the account, if you didn’t pay any attention then, you can refamiliarize yourself.