{"id":6250,"date":"2026-04-11T01:59:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/?p=6250"},"modified":"2026-04-11T01:59:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T17:59:30","slug":"google-starts-showing-sponsored-ads-in-the-images-tab-on-mobile-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/?p=6250","title":{"rendered":"Google starts showing sponsored ads in the Images tab on mobile search"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Google has begun placing sponsored ad units directly inside the Images tab of mobile search results \u2014 a new placement that eligible campaigns can access without any changes to existing keyword targeting.<\/p>

What\u2019s happening.\u00a0<\/strong>When a user navigates to the Images tab within Google Search on mobile, they may now see sponsored units appearing within the image grid. Each unit shows a full image creative as the primary visual alongside text, and is clearly labelled \u201cSponsored\u201d \u2014 consistent with how Google labels ads elsewhere in search results.<\/p>

How it works.<\/strong>\u00a0Eligible campaigns can serve into the Images tab without any changes to keyword targeting or campaign structure. The placement draws from existing image assets, meaning advertisers running Search or Performance Max campaigns with strong visual creative are best positioned to benefit. No separate image-only campaign setup is required.<\/p>

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Why we care.<\/strong>\u00a0This is a meaningful expansion of Google\u2019s paid search real estate. For product-led and catalog-heavy advertisers, the Images tab is where purchase-intent discovery often starts \u2014 and now ads can appear right in that moment. If your campaigns already use strong image assets, you may be picking up incremental impressions without lifting a finger.<\/p>

The big picture.<\/strong>\u00a0Early indications suggest this placement behaves more like a visual discovery surface than classic paid search. Expect high impression volume but lower click-through rates \u2014 more in line with display or Shopping than traditional text ads. That said, the assist value in multi-touch conversion paths could be significant, particularly for retail and direct-to-consumer brands. Treat it as upper-funnel reach, not a last-click channel.<\/p>

What to watch.<\/strong>\u00a0Google has not made a formal announcement, and there is no dedicated reporting breakdown for Images tab placements yet. Monitor your impression share and segment data closely to understand whether this placement is contributing \u2014 and whether it\u2019s eating into organic image visibility for competitors.<\/p>

First seen.\u00a0<\/strong>The placement was spotted by Google Ads Expert \u2013 Matteo Braghetta, who shared seeing this update on LinkedIn. No official documentation has been published by Google at the time of writing.<\/p> <\/div>

Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. We remain committed to providing high-quality coverage of marketing topics. Unless otherwise noted, this page\u2019s content was written by either an employee or a paid contractor of Semrush Inc.<\/em> <\/p>

\"Anu\"Anu <\/div> <\/p><\/div>

Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land<\/span> since 2024. She covers<\/span> paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.<\/span><\/p>

In 2008, Anu started her career delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side. <\/span><\/span>Outside editing Search Engine Land article she is the founder of PPC networking event – PPC Live and host of <\/span><\/span>weekly podcast PPC Live The Podcast.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US, UK, Munich, Berlin), Friends of Search (Amsterdam, NL), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna, IT) and more.<\/span><\/span><\/p> <\/p><\/div> <\/p><\/div> <\/p><\/div> <\/p><\/div> <\/p><\/div> <\/div>

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News#Google #starts #showing #sponsored #ads #Images #tab #mobile #search1775843970<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google has begun placing sponsored ad units directly inside the Images tab of mobile search results \u2014 a new placement that eligible campaigns can access without any changes to existing keyword targeting. What\u2019s happening.\u00a0When a user navigates to the Images tab within Google Search on mobile, they may now see sponsored units appearing within the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[152,75,10258,344,83,95,2598,15112,814,12598],"class_list":["post-6250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","tag-ads","tag-google","tag-images","tag-mobile","tag-news","tag-search","tag-showing","tag-sponsored","tag-starts","tag-tab"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}