This is a dilemma every PPC advertiser will face when they have settled down with their campaign. The most used form of advertising in the pay per click word of Google AdWords is of course the text advert with a heading, description and URL to the landing page. It is 
extremely easy to create the perfect text advert for your campaign. With image adverts having an extremely more flexibility to styling, structure and colour, it is clear why many advertisers still don’t use it: becauase they cannot be bothered to create it which is a shame. The text advert to lazy advertisers is the much easier option. The problem is that advertisers make the decision not to use image adverts before they even decide whether to use it (if that makes sense?). For this reason, here is a post about the positives and negatives text and image adverts have to your PPC campaign.
The text advert is the most famous advert on the internet. I have already made an article describing the positives and negatives to a publisher. This is now for the advertiser.
A text advert has its many benefits and drawbacks such as:
- Simplicity – A simple advert makes it easy for you (the advertiser) to create it. However, simplicity will not always win over a reader on a website.
- Infamous Look – Everyone on the internet knows what the typical text advert looks like. From this, they automatically block it out which is bad. You want the people who view your adverts to be interested in them and gain a possibly click.
- Clean – As much as it’s simple, it is also a clean advertising option. With image adverts, they can become so colourful and packed that the reader will view it as spam. With text adverts, this can never really happen. It’s small, compact and to the point.
- High CPC – It can be said that the average cost per click for text adverts are high due to this size. Their size makes it possible for publishers to show 2+ text adverts in one box. This increases the demand for the space on the publisher’s site causing the CPC to rise.
- Auto-Optimisation – For a text advert, you create the words that go in it. After that, it’s the publisher’s decision to choose the right size, colours and font to gain clicks. From the publishers changing the look to your test advert makes your advert optimised to display on the publisher’s website which in turn will increase CTR.
The image advert is still used in programs such as AdWords but, not as often. Here are some reasons why image adverts may benefit you but also hinder your campaign:
- Decreased CPC – The number of people that use image adverts is far less than the number of people that use text adverts. Take advantage of this! Even I can see it as a publisher. My average text advert pays me $0.58. Whereas, my image advert is at $0.33.
- Increased CTR – Image advertising has been used for as long as the human race can remember. We are great at reading images, interpreting them and understanding them. This is why they get a higher CTR. It is easier for the advertiser to portray his message to the reader.
- Less Time for the Reader to Read = a Less Bored Reader – The attention span of people on the internet is extremely low. You don’t want to take up their time because the longer you take up their time, the less interested they will become. Image adverts stop this from happening.
- You have more Freedom to Customize – Unlike the text advert, you are completely in control of the advert’s colour, look, size: everything! This can help you make clear to the reader exactly what you want to advertise.
From this, have you changed your opinion on what advert to use in your campaign? If not, I hope it has informed you more of the benefits and drawbacks both advertising types have to you as the advertiser.
