How to use .swf ads in Google AdWords

Posted by Toni Anicic under Online Marketing @ 19th NOV 2008

The most common reason for using Google AdWords is trying to sell more. People tend to use search advertisement more than content as it usually brings more results which is actually logical since you are targeting people who are actually searching for things you want to sell.

However, during the past few years Google AdWords has evolved into a powerful tool which enables you to do much more then increase targeted visitor traffic to your site - it can help you brand your business.

If you are working with large daily budgets and are trying to raise awareness of your brand in online environment, you might consider using AdWords image ads.

AdWords allows you to place image ads into content in formats of .gif, .jpg, .png and .swf. It supports most of the common standard ad banner sizes including:

• 468 x 60 Banner
• 728 x 90 Leaderboard
• 250 x 250 Square
• 200 x 200 Small Square
• 336 x 280 Large Rectangle
• 300 x 250 Medium Rectangle
• 120 x 600 Skyscraper
• 160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper

Let’s take a closer look at the .swf ad format. This ad format actually gives you quiet some flexibility and allows you to be much more creative in advertisement messages you serve to your potential visitors.

You should keep in mind the fact that the ad size can not exceed 50k limit, however, 50k is more then enough to deliver a good, creative and informative ad. One of the best .swf AdWords content ads I’ve seen so far was the ad for Croatian site called njuskalo.hr. While limited with 50k file size they managed to deliver a content rich ad which left an impression of looking at 10 seconds long video ad.

Few tips on using .swf ads in Google AdWords content advertisement:

1. Carefully think about concept of your .swf ad concentrating on how it will fit into different ad sizes.
2. Create the .swf ad for every ad size available. You don’t wanna end up losing a potentially great place to advertise at just because you were to lazy to create an ad in format the site displays.
3. Make ads rich with both motion and content. There is no point in creating a static img and serving it as a .swf ad when you can do so much more.