Lots of great image ads appearing now

Do advertisers pay more for image ads?

[beggers]

I'm starting to see a lot more leaderboard image ads from AdSense. Some of these ads are really dramatic and compelling -- and I'm seeing them often so they must be effective. I'm wondering if advertisers are charged more for images. I'm assuming it's a good thing to run these ads, but what are your thoughts?

Also, the ads seem to be custom designed for leaderboard size. Does AdSense offer design services?

[Rodney]

No, advertisers don't necessarily pay more for image ads.

Probably the only way to tell if they are worth running on your site is to monitor your stats for that channel where you see them showing up.

I don't think Google offers design services, however, the advertiser can choose to upload image ads for the various ad format sizes that the content network offers.

[BriGuy20]

Beggers:

Image ads are not charged more per se, but they must perform better than the block of ads (5 for a leaderboard, I think) to show for the ad block. All this means is that effective CPM must be higher, whether through higher CTR or through higher bids from the advertiser (or perhaps a combination of both).

What this means for you, the AdSense publisher, is that you're getting more money to show the image ad than you would showing the text ads it replaced. So long as the ad is reputable (IMHO, not one of those seizure-inducing flash ads), you should be quite happy that the particular image ad is showing.

Hope this clears things up. :)

[tomda]

But don't forget that users tend to prefer text ads than banner. Some studies said that more than 50 % don't (or try not to) look at banner; just as I :)