Why does one need a plugin at all? That is the first question.
Yes, you can paste Google AdSense code directly into your [tag]Wordpress[/tag] [tag]blog[/tag] template files. If you only want AdSense in your header, siderbar, or footer – you are all set!
However, you cannot paste [tag]AdSense[/tag] code into a post or page. Well, it’ll kind of work in Firefox but not all in Internet Explorer. I don’t know about other browsers. That is why you need the AdSense Deluxe plugin.
AdSense text ads are not known for their beauty! Yes, you can change fonts colors and borders. However, adding photos has always been a bit of a headache. That is why you need the AdSense Beautifier plugin. It is claimed that besides the aesthetics, images adjacent to ads can help increase click through rate (CTR).
How do these two plugins work together? Very well, as a matter of fact. Think of AdSense Beautifier as the back end doing the styling and Adsense Deluxe as the front end delivering the code to your post/page.
Here is the procedure:
1). Download both plugins and install/activate as recommended.
2). Go to your Google AdSense admin panel to generate code for one of the formats supported by the Adsense Beautifier plugin (leaderboard, medium rectangle, square, small square, large rectangle, banner, and half banner).
3). Use the code to create a new AdSense block in AdSense Deluxe.
4). Take the code snippet and enter it in the AdSense code box of the Beautifier plugin. MAKE SURE TO SELECT THE CORRECT AD FORMAT! Click the Generate Code button. Then, paste the new code into your post/page editor and span as needed.
Your code should look something like this:
Important! If your site uses a background color other than white (#ffffff), you will need to change the border color between the image and ad in order to make it visible (edit plugin stylesheet). If there is not a clear line visible between the images and ads, you are violating AdSense TOS. You know what that means!
Of course, you can use the Beautifier plugin alone to beautify code for use in your templates (see bottom of this page). And, you can use the AdSense Deluxe plugin to incorporate ad formats not support (yet) by the Beautifier plugin.
Don’t forget to support the plugin developers with donations.
Important Update: After this post was written, Google clarified their policy on images next to AdSense ads. Large images are allowed, however, small images that might line up with ad components are not allowed. I have stopped using the AdSense Beautifier plugin. The ad shown above is a screen capture only.