The Clickable Search Engine Marketing Blog

One of the ad formats we’ve recently introduced into Clickable’s Manage section is Google Local Business Ads which appear on Google Maps pages. In order to use Local Business ads, you first need to create a local business listing with Google. (You can create one in just a few minutes at Google’s Local Business Center.)

We describe the process for creating Local Business Ads in detail in our Product Guide, so I’d like to focus in this post on one small component of the process: Custom Map Icons.

When you conduct a search on Google Maps, you’ll see a number of listings on the left, and markers indicating their position on the map at the right. For the most part, the listings will be indicated with a simple red droplet, keyed to the listings with a letter, “A” to “Z.”

To make your ad “pop,” you can customize your marker icon. There are two ways to do this, and you can do both in Clickable’s Local Business Ad wizard.

The first way is to choose a “category” icon from Google that relates to your business. These simple brown and white icons include images related to a number of business verticals, from “Movies, Film, Video” to “Hairdresser, Barber, Tailor .  To use one of these icons, just click on the icon in the drop-down box, and you’ll see it appear in the smaller box to the right.

When you save your ad, your custom icon will be uploaded to your Google listing.

The other option is to use a custom icon. If you decide to create your own icon, there are a few guidelines that you need to follow:

• Icons need to be exactly 16x16 pixels
• The maximum file size for icons is 20K
• Compatible file types include JPG, GIF, and PNG
• Your icon must be relevant to your business
• The images must be static: no animation, Flash, etc
• Icons cannot include “trick to click” features
• All icons must be appropriate for all audiences

If you have something that works, you can also upload it using Clickable’s Local Business Ad wizard. Just select the radio button for “Upload a custom icon,” browse to the image on your machine, and upload your ad. 

Once you click “SAVE!” you’re all set, and your custom image will begin appearing on Google Map searches.

i beleive that thisis lame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i beleive that thisis lame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice mature comment bby. Thanks for this info - very useful especially as the guidelines for custom icons seem to have disappeared from Google's own help pages!