In another move to extend its market-leading sort beyond the desktop, Google on Wednesday launched brand-image ads for mobile devices.

The image ads look like standard image ads for desktop Web pages, but they are smaller to fit on mobile screens and they run on the mobile-content network. All mobile image ads are keyword-targeted, priced on a cost-per-click basis, and must link to a mobile Web page.

Mobile image ads are currently available in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the U.S.

Understanding the Benefits

“For advertisers, mobile image ads serve as a branding tool and have shown to have good click-through rates,” Alexandra Kenin, Google’s product marketing manager for mobile ads, wrote in the company’s blog. “Advertisers using mobile image ads will additionally benefit considering we only show one image ad per mobile page.”

For publishers, he continued, mobile image ads supply added flexibility. Publishers can choose to show

text ads, image ads, or a mix of both, and Google will dynamically return the ad it expects will perform best at the moment the ad is shown. Publishers who are already using AdSense for mobile substance do, however, need to update their AdSense cipher to display mobile ads on their site.

“For those of you who are mobile Web surfers, mobile image ads supply a new way to interact with mobile subject matter,” Kenin said. “Contextual targeting keeps ads relevant, and with only one mobile image ad shown per page, you can uninhibitedly browse mobile Web sites while clicking only on the ads that interest you.”

A Booming Market

Worldwide mobile advertising is projected to surpass $2.7 billion that year, up from $1.7 billion in 2007, according to Gartner.

What’s more, 23 percent (58 million) of all U.S. mobile subscribers said they were exposed to advertising on their phones…

Orginal post by Top Tech News