Google Image Ads - Any first signs of results?

[Nacho]

Google launched in May "Image Ads (http://www.google.com/ads/imageads/index.html)" as part of their Adwords advertising program. Danny Sullivan has a good article that reviews it, "Google Offers Banners & Image Ads -- But Not On Google Itself (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3353431)" (dated 5/13/2004). Here is a summary as taken from Google's description:

The image ads feature allows our advertisers to deliver contextually targeted, relevant graphical advertisements that visually engage users and help convey the value of their product or brand. These ads will appear on the content pages of our publisher partners who have opted to display these ads.
Has anyone started seen any signs of results? Are they good / bad? Can you tell any ROI differences among the distribution partners? Has anyone experience this for geo-targeting? Any feedback for Google to improve this new technology?

[rustybrick]

Good topic Nacho.

I can say that I heard from a leading PPC campaign company (not sure if I can name them here, so I wont) that the image ads offer a much higher click-through rate then the text ads.

That is all I have, I do not know if they offer a higher conversion rate or the like.

So I am also interested in hearing any case studies brought forth on Google's Image Ads.

[AussieWebmaster]

We are still experimenting with this and should have some input on results by the end of next week.

[KellySEM]

I've been running image ads at a fairly high cpc for more than a month and have gotten very few clicks and impressions, it still seems to be ramping up.

[AussieWebmaster]

I've been running image ads at a fairly high cpc for more than a month and have gotten very few clicks and impressions, it still seems to be ramping up.
So the price is not the factor... possibly the banner ad really has lost its impact. But it is interesting the impression numbers are low as well... is there an option to allow or disallow the images on a site?
In which case it is the publishers who are halting the progress of the image ads.

Or you are in such an niched area with few publishers using AdSense... I will report back this time next week. We are in a haevily traffic content niche... we can spend twice as much on content than on search if we let it happen.

[KellySEM]

The image ads are running on travel terms, which has a huge set of possible publishers - I just think not many are doing it. Additionally, Google can choose to run the text or image ad based on higher CTR, and I'm guessing the text is doing better.

[seobook]

is there an option to allow or disallow the images on a site?

AdSense publishers can chose to allow image ads on their site. by default the option was turned off when the option first came out.