Google seems to always think of new ways to make their ad formats better for all users and the advertisers who appear on your pages. Google Adsense introduced favicons in text ads today. Google believe this will make searches faster and easier for its users and will help businesses clearly identify themselves and their products.

You might be wondering what a favicon is. Simply put, a favicon is a small icon or picture which an advertiser can use on an ad for their website, such as a company logo or clip art related to their business’s services. For example, a hotel website might choose their company’s logo or a small picture of a hotel to advertise their site through the Google Adwords program. Sites can choose from a selection of available clip art or provide their own images.

Using favicons means that an advertiser’s ad will be easily recognizable, so users searching for a specific business or type of service will be able to know from the picture what is being advertised. This also makes online searches easier as a quick scan of the pictures that appear will help the user find exactly what they are looking for.

Favicons also liven up the ad space on your website, changing it from plain text ads to a more colorful and interesting sight. This will be more of a draw to those who view your site and may encourage them to check out the sites being advertised. This will increase the web traffic to your site and boost ad revenue should they visit the advertiser’s pages.

We know through studies that pictures near ads help click through rates and Google has finally provided a more robust option for Adwords advertisers. By optimizing your text ads with favicon images, you can maximum readability and click through rates on your ads. Google’s favicons update should be a good choice for anyone looking to enhance the appearance of their text ads and increase their click through rates .