Google Announces New Mobile-Focused Display Ad Formats

Google will soon be releasing a new set of ad formats and tools for brands who want to effectively connect with the growing number of consumers who are rapidly moving from one mobile device to another. This move is definitely on trend as the digital advertising industry prepares for an increase in the number of mobile devices that individuals use on a daily basis, including wearable items.

The new mobile display ad formats and tools are scheduled to launch over the next few months and will work across Google’s Display Network (GDN), AdMob and DoubleClick. Companies will find this new functionality greatly advantageous for a variety of reasons, such as allowing them to create a single ad that will be repurposed for different screen sizes and types, ranging from 360-degree videos to still images that float on the bottom of the screen.

The mobile lightbox Engagement Ads will allow marketers to build their ads for mobile, while the technology will resize them for every screen that a customer may be using. Additionally, marketers will be able to use existing brand assets to create rich media ads in HTML5 that run across various devices and screen sizes. Another new tool being introduced by Google are TrueView ads, designed for gaming apps in the AdMob network, where advertisers only need to pay when the app user chooses not to skip the advertisement.

Jonathan Alferness, director of product management for Mobile Display Ads at Google, explained that while the Engagement ads dynamically resize to fit any ad unit size, the brand is only charged for the impressions when users click. “A new generation of display ads is changing how advertisers engage with consumers on mobile devices,” said Alferness. “These next generation mobile formats will make it easier for advertisers to build beautiful and engaging mobile ads that work across screens.”

Google’s Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool may very likely become one of the most popular among marketers. Google has been working on a beta version called Swiffy, which will automatically create an HTML5 version of Flash ads. Advertisers will be very interested in utilizing this tool so that when their ads are served on a device or browser that doesn’t support Flash, the system will display the interactive HTML5 ad instead of simply showing a static image backup.

According to estimates by eMarketer, in comparison to 2012, Google’s worldwide net mobile ad revenue nearly doubled in 2013. Worldwide mobile advertising revenue reached $17.71 billion in 2013, and eMarketer predicts that it will reach $32.71 billion by the end of this year. In 2013, Google owned almost 14.5 percent of the U.S. mobile display ad market in comparison to 35.3 for Facebook.