Google Offers Banner Advertising On Mobile
Google the leader in CPC advertising and search engine has just announced some progress on the mobile ad front. They have started displaying banner ads on mobiles. Advertisers who use Google’s AdWords service will be able to choose between displaying plain text or banner ads to mobile Internet users.
A line of text with the word “[AD]” attached to the banner will identify it as an advertisement to users. Google is not the first ad platform, nor the first search provider to offer this format of advertising. Yahoo!, Microsoft’s Screen Tonic, AOL’s Third Screen Media and AdMob already provide mobile display ads.
AdWords, though, is the only integrated platform offering mobile display advertising alongside a host of other formats. Moreover, it is not too late for Google to enter this market, as mobile Internet usage is still not very widespread and advertisers are still testing the waters.
Mobile image ads on AdWords are currently only offered on a pay per click basis and not on the CPM basis where advertisers pay for ad impressions. Mobile text ads are also available on a pay per phonecall basis, but this option is not enabled for mobile display ads.
The mobile image ads are similar in principle to ads on the content network for PC users, but are smaller in size, in order to be accommodated on the mobile screen, and will run on mobile content network. The ads can be in JPEG, GIF or PNG format and will be in the following sizes:
- 305 x 64 Banner (3k max)
- 215 x 34 Banner (2k max)
- 192 x 53 Banner (2k max)
- 167 x 30 Banner (2k max)
Keywords will be used to contextually target the sites in the mobile content network. Google will only show one image ad per mobile page. Publishers will be allowed to maximise profitability by choosing between text ads, image ads or a combination of the two. Google will then automatically run the ad that is expected to best serve the user’s purpose.
Mobile image ads are currently functional in several countries including The U.K., U.S.A., Russia, Australia, France, India, Italy and Japan. The screenshot below shows how advertisers can use the new service.
