Image assets allow advertisers to upload rich, relevant visuals to complement their existing text ads. Image assets can help drive performance for advertisers, with compelling visuals of products or services that enhance the message of their text ads.
Benefits
Image assets help you:
- Drive measurable performance. You can experience a 6% increase in click-through-rate on average when image assets show with your search ads. (Source: Google internal data, Global, 2 April 2023 – 29 April 2023).
- Convey information visually that is difficult to convey with text only.
- Extend Search ads to new platforms to reach more customers as image assets can serve on YouTube Search via the Search Partner Network (AFS).
How it works
When your image asset appears on the Google search results page, potential customers are shown:
- Your headlines
- Your descriptions
- Your URL
- Your image
Requirements
To use image asset, make sure that you meet the following requirements:
- Account has been open for more than 60 days.
- Account has a good history of policy compliance.
- Account has active campaigns.
- Account has active text ads and has been accruing spend on Search campaigns for at least the last 28 days.
- Account is in an eligible vertical or sub-vertical. Sensitive verticals or sub-verticals (for example, sexual content and gambling) aren't eligible for image assets.
Guidelines
To best represent your products and services, you can upload up to 20 diverse, high-quality images that are relevant to your keywords. Image assets must follow a strict set of creative guidelines without exceptions. Make sure that you review the guidelines below before creating your image asset to avoid disapprovals. Images must also meet Image assets format requirements.
Images go through quality and policy checks before being eligible to serve. You can read more About the ad review process.
Image specifications
Aspect ratio:
| Aspect ratio | Required |
|---|---|
| Square (1x1) | Yes |
| Landscape (1.91x1) | Optional but recommended |
Image resolution:
| Aspect ratio | Minimum pixels | Recommended pixels |
|---|---|---|
| Square (1x1) | 300x300 | 1200x1200 |
| Landscape (1.91x1) | 600 x 314 | 1200x628 |
File formats: PNG, JPG
Maximum file size: 5120 KB
Recommended image safe area: Put your important content in the centre, 80% of the image.
Image format combinations
Image assets can appear in the following formats and combinations in desktop and mobile.
| Mobile |
|
| Desktop |
|
Note: By creating image assets, you're confirming that you own all legal rights to the image and have permission to share the image with Google to use on your behalf for advertising or other commercial purposes.
Learn more about Google Ads specs: ad formats, sizes and best practices.
Best practices to create effective image assets
Utilise both image assets and dynamic image assets
Both advertiser-uploaded image assets and dynamic image assets adhere to strict quality and relevance checks to ensure a great experience. When dynamic image assets are enabled, the image assets that you provide and dynamic image assets will both be eligible to serve.
Create the right image asset based on your account structure
When you create image assets at the ad group level or campaign level, keep your account structure in mind because
- Ad group level provides for the strictest relevance, assuming that you have a well structured account.
- Campaign level provides for faster implementation in cases where images will be relevant to all ads within the campaign.
Add 4+ unique images to the Ad Group or Campaign
Form a good balance between the amount of effort it takes to create the image assets and its performance by adding at least four unique and relevant images at either the Ad Group level or Campaign level.
Implement images with both kinds of aspect ratio
Use both square (1x1) and landscape (1.91x1) images. Prioritise the square images since that ratio is required. You can use landscape images to enable more serving through experiments.
Add relevant images
Make sure to add images relevant to the queries that they'll be eligible to show for, the text ads that they'll show with and the landing page that the final URL directs to. Images need to be relevant just as headlines and descriptions do.
Make your image assets useful
The images that you add can convey unique selling points, can visually convey information or can inspire customers to take action.
Focus on quality
When you focus your content in the centre to 80% of the image, it helps the user to keep track of what your image is about. Simple backgrounds emphasise the essence of your content as well. Learn more about Image assets format requirements.
Experiment to learn what's best suited for your content
You can find inspiration by experimenting with the way your image asset looks. Make use of a wide variety of creative styles including product imagery, lifestyle imagery and creative visualisations of abstract concepts.
Cost
When someone clicks on your image asset, you’re charged on a Cost per click (CPC) basis, similar to search text ads. The images in your image asset are clickable and are charged the same CPC as a click to a text headline.
Instructions to create new image assets
Create new image assets
For subtitles in your language, turn on YouTube captions. Select the settings icon at the bottom of the video player, then select 'Subtitles/CC' and choose your language.
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
.
- Click the Assets drop-down in the section menu.
- Click Assets.
- Click the plus button
, and select Image.
- Select a campaign or ad group that you want to add your image assets to.
- Click Done.
- In the 'Add image' menu, click the plus button
- 'Suggested', 'Asset library', 'Upload', 'Website or social' or 'Free stock images'.
- Follow the prompts to include your new images.
- If any of your images don’t have an aspect ratio of 1:1 or 1.9:1, you’ll need to crop them before you can include them in your image assets. Click the image that you’d like to crop, make your changes then click Continue. Repeat this step for each image.
- Select up to 20 images for your image assets, then click Save.
- You can refer to a preview of your final image asset on the right side of your screen. If you want to make changes, click the pencil icon
.
- Note: Your ad might not always include all your text. Shortening may also occur in some formats.
- When you’re ready to run your ad, click Save.
.
.
Delete an image asset
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
- Click the Assets drop-down in the section menu.
- Click Assets.
- You will now see a table with all your assets.
- Find the image asset that you’d like to delete.
- Tick the box to the left of the asset that you’d like to delete.
- Click on Remove from the table toolbar.
- Click Confirm to delete your image asset.
