Images in Google Sponsored Links, Not Such a Good Idea

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A few months ago I read where Google was testing adding images to Google AdWords.

Well, today I saw it in action for the first time.

images-in-google-adwords

Notice the two images of riding mowers at the top of the right hand column.  In my opinion,  at least in the case of someone looking for a riding mower,  the images don’t help much and maybe even hurt my search.

The images are just too specific, I’m early in the process of looking for a riding mower I’m not looking for a specific model.  Here they are showing me two models.  One cost $650 and the other one is $2,184, not very helpful but rather more like two wild and crazy guesses as to what I’m interested in.

Since it’s a pay-per-click or even a pay-per-performance model it may not hurt these two advertisers but it hurts everyone else in that column who got pushed down the page.  As a consumer I don’t like it either as it just wasn’t relevant to me.  I need to learn a little more about riding mowers before a specific product and price are meaningful to me.

Now, if later in the process as I learn more, I may be looking for a John Deere riding mower with a 60″ deck, specific images and pricing may prove to be very helpful for that search, just not now.

Thankfully, this is just a test.

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