subject: Creating The Right Image Ads For Googles Display Network [print this page] Most people marketing on Pay Per Click through Google Adwords know of the Search & Display Networks. Unfortunately, most do not know they can set up pay per click image ads on the Display Network.
Yes, Google will allow you to produce and use varying sized image ads in addition to or in replace of text ads on websites which allow them. Of course, the benefit is that a big image ad breaks up the marketing landscape way more than a simple text ad, and if produced with direct marketing principles in mind, these ads can produce substantial hits and leads.
There are two keys to a good image ad. The first is to use strong copy. People seeing your ad on the display network are not necessarily thinking about your product or service and need to be proverbially whacked upside the head. That means whatever is a great fear or huge benefit to your target audience needs to be expressed concisely and conspicuously right here.
Your copy could express a huge offer with a big benefit, or it could do an end around and offer some form of teaser that perhaps only your target audience would understand and respond to.
The other part, of course, are the graphics. The key here is to grab an uninterested mind and get him or her interested as soon as possible. Remember, these prospects are surfing the internet with something else on their mind. You need to break that cycle.
You can always go for some form of big action graphic or sex. These two items sell in our culture and I believe in most every other, and weaving these into your graphics may be a great idea. Another strategy is to key off pop culture and use images that are similar to copywritten images but definitely are not.
There are many movie covers, TV characters, political figures etc. which could work in your ads as long as someone couldnt definitely say, thats me or thats mine. A hack cartoonist can do this for you. Try Guru.com or some other site where people will bid on your work, and before long you will find a cheap source of graphic labor.
Image ads are now quite cheap through Google as very few marketers are using them. Get them while their hot.
