Internet giant Google has announced that it is now delivering banner ads on mobile phones.As a result of the development, firms that use Google's Adwords service will have the option of displaying banner ads on mobile phones instead of plain text.
The banner ads are accompanied by a text line underneath identifying them as an advert and clicking on the banner opens a mobile web page.
According to IDG News Service, a number of other firms already utilise such ads on mobile web pages.
For example, Yahoo!, Third Screen and AdMob provide advertisers with the option of placing banner ads on mobile devices.
However, Greg Sterling, the founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, stated that Google has probably not missed the opportunity to make ground in this area, since the usage of mobile internet is still relatively low.
He commented: "It's not like consumer behaviour is established and they're late to the game."
Indeed, the analyst went on to say that Google may in fact have an advantage over rival firms in the field of banner ads because of the way it charges advertisers.
He stated that, with the search engine provider, advertisers can test mobile advertising with less risk because they only pay for what users click on, as opposed to how many times someone views a page with the ad on, for example.
In related news, Google also recently announced the launch of mobile image ads, which appear the same as standard image ads for desktop web pages but are smaller in order to fit on mobile screens.
