Google announced that native Gmail ads are now available to all advertisers in AdWords. Advertisers can manage the ads by setting up a Display Network campaign and creating a Gmail format in the Ad Gallery.

The ads have two main parts – collapsed and expanded. The collapsed unit is what users see at first. It looks basically like a message they’d see in their inbox, but is clearly labeled as an ad. When the user clicks, it expands for more details. The expanded unit is a full-page native ad that “recreates the informational and visual richness of a landing page,” as Google puts it. After the user clicks to expand, any additional clicks are free. These include clicks that let the user save the ad or forward it to other people.

“Advertisers can choose from several customizable Gmail ads templates for the expanded ad unit,” Google says. “They can feature a single image, highlight a promotion that combines an image with a description and call-to-action button, or showcase multiple products at once. The custom HTML format offers the greatest amount of flexibility in how you configure your assets and allows you to create an even richer ad experience by including videos, forms, phone numbers, and multiple links and calls-to-action.”

“You can use most of the display targeting options you’re already familiar with likekeywords, affinity audiences, demographics, and topics,” the company adds. “For example, a sports apparel advertiser could select relevant topics like ‘Fitness’ and ‘Sporting Goods’ or reach people in the ‘Health & Fitness Buffs’ or ‘Running Enthusiasts’ affinity audiences.”

Gmail users can manage ad settings (which applies to all of Google) to remove unwanted ads from specific advertisers or opt out of interest-based advertising.

Image via Google