Nov 17, 2010 16:30 GMT  ·  By

For many years, text ads have been Google's bread and butter. But recently the company has been expanding its ad offerings and relying more on display ads. Now it's introducing a new type of banner ad for Image Search which contains no text and is as close to a traditional display ad as they get.

"As part of our Google Images redesign this July, we introduced Image Search Ads, which include a thumbnail alongside your ad text. We learned that on Google Images, image-based ads provided great results for our advertisers," Google wrote.

"Today we're expanding the image ad formats available on Google Images by testing rich media leaderboard units that appear above Google Images search results and invite you to try new products and services," it announced.

The leaderboard ad is 728 pixels wide by 90 pixels tall. While Google has been experimenting with images and even video in ads, a full display ad like this hasn't been available from the company on its own properties until now.

Google introduced images for ads with the revamped Image Search. But those still looked like the classic Google text ad with a link, a description and a full URL beside the image.

The new leaderboard ads can be charged either on a CPM or a CPC basis. These ads are available through AdWords and have to be targeted at Image Search. Advertisers can provide their own graphics or create the ad they want with Google's Display Ad Builder.

Google's recent change from labeling paid search units as "sponsored links" to just "ads" signals Google's deeper commitment to display ads and diversifying its ad offering.

Already, Google is on track to make about $2.5 billion from display advertising in a year. The company doesn't usually disclose separate revenue sources but in the last quarterly financial report it provided some details.