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Google Image Ads: Display Ads For Mobile

Yesterday Google announced mobile image ads. The ads are displayed on the mobile sites of publishers that are participating in AdSense for mobile (or that opt-in to the new program). Mobile image ads are created in users’ AdWords accounts and require more or less the same type of setup as traditional AdSense ads. The image ads are keyword targeted, priced on a PPC basis, and must be associated with a mobile URL (rather than an HTML page), so a mobile site or landing page is a prerequisite to participating in the program.


However, Google hosts mobile landing pages for advertisers that don’t have mobile sites.

Google has said that it will optimize ads for best performance for publishers that are running both text and image ads on their sites. The company also told Reuters that in early tests CTRs have been good.

The potential benefit for display advertisers is that they pay on a PPC rather than a CPM basis, which is the model that characterizes most mobile display advertising today. The other side of that, however, is that if the ads aren’t generating CTRs they probably won’t be shown over time — so there’s no guaranteed placement.

Mobile image ads are being launched in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the United States.

The following video explains the process pretty clearly:

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Australia Bronner's Christmas Wonderland China Click-through rate Cost per mille France Germany Google Google Ads Google AdSense India Ireland Italy Japan Mobile advertising Netherlands Pay-per-click Reuters Russia Spain United Kingdom United States
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Contributing authors are chosen for their expertise and work under the oversight of the editorial staff. Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. The contributor was not asked to mention Semrush; the opinions expressed are their own.

About the author

Greg Sterling
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.