Online display advertising has been around for years.  It’s been particularly popular with companies who have had a large advertising budget, and who want to increase their branding message in relevant online channels.  As more advertisers moved to the internet, banner ads continued to grow in popularity. The online space soon became very monotonous and cluttered. Every ad started to look similar, and the average visitor wasn’t able to remember one ad from the other. Static images were not enough anymore.

Next, Rich media came into the picture a few years ago.  With companies such as PointRoll, advertisers were still able to promote their brand through online messaging and images, but it was done with engagement being top of mind.  Rich media formats allow people to interact with the ad.  You have probably heard of roll over ads, video ads, expandable ads, etc.  These are all forms of rich media and have become increasingly popular with advertisers across various industries.

Google has now taken it a step further with gadget ads. Gadget ads enable advertisers to engage an audience better than ever before.  Many people within the industry think of gadget ads as mini versions of websites. Gadget ads are designed to offer useful applications to their audience such as: data feeds, images, audio, video, maps, Flash, HTML, or JavaScript in a single ad creative.  Gadget ads can also be shared and posted anywhere. Below are a couple of examples that Google recently featured.

Gadget ads run on the Google content network and are priced by CPM or CPC based on their auction model. Through the content network, the advertiser can serve the gadget ad on thousands of sites, with no serving or hosting feeds. The advertiser can also target their audience by site, category, demographic, geographic location, etc.  Google also allows the advertiser to extend their campaign on iGoogle while allowing for free inclusion of the gadget in the iGoogle directory.  According to Google, developers can build gadget ads in less than one hour using Google’s tutorial. Currently, Gadget ads are enabled for a limited number of AdWords advertisers who have created content-rich ads in the past. They expect to offer Gadget Ads to other advertisers in the future as the beta progresses.  Stay tuned!

Google announced last week that advertisers can now display their text and image ads on the iPhone, G1 and other mobile devices with full internet browsers on Google Adwords.

In the past, mobile advertising has not been well-received because advertisers were required to create unique landing or mobile pages. With the dramatic rise in the popularity of mobile devices with full internet capabilities, such as iPhones, mobile advertising is on the cusp of exploding. According to an article on SearchEngineWatch.com, around 95% of all mobile searches are conducted on the iPhone. AdWords offers the option to run your ads at the campaign level, which means that you can create specific campaigns for mobile devices. This also means you can allocate a budget for mobile advertising, create custom or local targeting and view performance reporting that is unique to your mobile campaigns. Perhaps the most exciting dimension is the ability to tailor your ad copy solely for users on their mobile devices. The mobile user may also be closer to a decision making point in the buying cycle. For example, if a mobile user is looking for restaurants in Chicago, they are most likely deciding where to eat right then and there. Having a presence for that type of search is crucial because you can capture that potential customer almost immediately.

Don’t discount the power of a mobile advertising strategy. Having great ad copy and even a great promotion to get customers to your brick and mortar store are essential. It is also important to include an enticing call to action. Using my previous example of someone searching for restaurants in Chicago, you might want your ads to say “Get 10% off your entire check. Find out more now.” On your landing page, you can offer a promotional code word for mobile users to get their discount. The possibilities are endless. You just need to think outside the box, get creative and have some fun.

Anyone who has ever conducted a search on YouTube knows that it’s quite possible to find a video on almost any subject matter.  Only recently, YouTube has recently announced the addition of promoted videos to their pay per click model.  

Much like Google Adwords, the YouTube promoted videos reach searchers by using keywords.  Advertisers can also add negative keywords to prevent their video from being seen next to undesirable videos or genres.  Promoted video ads have the same character length and character restrictions as a typical Adwords text ad; three lines of text with a maximum of 25 characters in the headline, and two lines of text with a maximum of 35 characters per line. 

YouTube promoted videos are subject to the same Google Adwords policies and procedures.  However, unlike Google Adwords, YouTube promoted video permits alcohol and liquor video advertisements.  Videos promoting competing sites, such as Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn or otherwise are prohibited to run within the promoted video section.

According to Google, over 13 hours of video content are uploaded every second, that being said, just uploading a video to YouTube is not enough.  A promoted video allows you to gain exposure for a very small price, due to the fact that the competition is so limited at the present time.  Once popularity of this program increases; the cost per click will likely increase.

With YouTube running a close second to Google in the number of searches performed, it is clear that YouTube is not going anywhere.  YouTube’s sponsored videos is not only a great opportunity for marketers to get in on the ground floor of video advertising, but also an opportunity to be a part of the next era of internet marketing.