Image is everything: Google serves up mobile image ads

Venture Beat — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:12:15 -0400

The number of users accessing the web from mobile devices is quickly growing. Where people are, advertisers follow. As such, Google has launched mobile image advertisements, according to its mobile blog.

Google has been advertising in this space for a while with text-based ads, but image ads offer publisher more options for campaigns. These ads will come in a variety of size (shown on the right), but all will be lightweight so as to work well in the mobile environment.

The company also promises that only one image ad will be shown per mobile page, so advertisers can be assured that their ad is getting exposure. This also means that users won’t be overwhelmed with ads on their smaller mobile screens. Google says tests have shown good click-through rates for these new ads.

The mobile space is quickly becoming interesting to advertisers. Many companies are looking at digital coupons for mobile phones so consumers can use a device they are already carrying around to get deals. Google is also exploring ways to use QR codes or Semacodes, small barcodes that a mobile phone’s camera can read, to serve up ads on mobile devices.