Cue shake-up in marketing departments...

Google is taking a big step toward becoming an online banner-advertising network as the market for brand ads heats up.


Beginning today, the search giant will start allowing advertisers to display animated image ads on third-party partner sites - a first for Google and a departure from company founders' early stance against such web advertising. (Google itself still shows only text ads on its site.)

Google will also allow advertisers to designate on which third-party websites their ads will appear, whether it's large partner sites like The New York Times or smaller pages.

The move is another first for Google and could resolve a longstanding complaint among advertisers who want more control of how and where they target promotions. Previously Google advertisers could bid only on keywords to appear in text ads across any of hundreds of related sites in its network.

Finally, to take advantage of the program, advertisers must bid for placement on a cost per impression (CPM) basis, as opposed to Google's stock in trade cost-per-click (CPC) search ads. CPMs are modelled more closely to brand advertising like TV commercials in which marketers pay based on the number of people who see the ad. In contrast, marketers pay only for CPC ads when people click.

Read more: silicon.com