Google AdWords™ For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Exploring the Other Ad Formats

Google is constantly exploring new places and media for its ads. You can now create graphical ads for websites, text ads for mobile phones, local business listings that appear on search results pages and next to Google Maps, and video ads.

Getting the picture with image ads

Image ads are graphical files that display on content sites, but not on Google's or its search partners' results pages. Publishers can choose to display image ads instead of text ads. Image ads typically generate higher CTRs than text ads, but convert to leads and sales at a lower level. If you're a website publisher who gets paid for clicks on the Google ads on your site, image ads can be very profitable because of their high CTRs. For you, the AdWords advertiser, the high CTR can be a double-edged sword. Keep image ads in their own campaigns so you can monitor ROI and delete any ads that threaten to break your budget without bringing you paying customers.

If you decide to try display ads, Google provides a Display Ad Builder that allows even those who failed 7th grade art to create decent graphics. From within the ad group where you want to create the image ad, click the Ads tab and then click the New Ad button. Choose Display Ad Builder from the drop-down list. Go to www.gafd3.com/adwizard for an online tutorial on using the tool.

Making the phone and the doorbell ring with mobile text ads

Google is going mobile, creating content that can be accessed and acted upon seamlessly ...