Let AI handle
the Google Ads grunt work
Where “images” fit in Google Ads (and why this matters before you upload anything)
In Google Ads, you don’t add images in just one place because images serve different roles depending on the campaign type. Sometimes an image is the ad itself (common in Display). Other times it’s an “asset” that enhances an ad (common in Search and Performance Max). Knowing which bucket you’re in is the difference between uploading a beautiful creative… and never seeing it serve.
Most common ways to run images in Google Ads
Search campaigns (Image assets): These are images that can appear alongside your Search text ads to make your listing more visual. They’re powerful when you have a tangible product, a clear service outcome, or strong brand visuals—but they also come with eligibility requirements and stricter creative rules than many advertisers expect.
Display campaigns (Responsive display ads and uploaded image ads): This is the classic “banner ad” world. In most accounts, responsive display ads are the default approach: you provide images, logos, headlines, and descriptions, and the system assembles ads across placements and sizes.
Performance Max (Asset groups): Images are core inputs here. You add images and logos to each asset group so the system can build ads across networks. Performance Max also has image-related automation controls that can pull images from your landing page and/or enhance your uploaded images.
Demand Gen (Image ads, carousel, and video-led formats): This is a very visual campaign type across feeds and placements. Your image coverage (square, horizontal, and vertical) directly impacts Ad Strength and where you’re eligible to serve—especially if you want coverage on short-form placements.
Shopping/product-led formats (via product feeds): For ecommerce, your product images typically come from a connected feed rather than being “uploaded into an ad” the way you would for Display. You still influence performance heavily through the quality and compliance of your feed images and brand assets.
How to add images to Google Ads (step-by-step, by campaign type)
Step 1: Get your images into the Asset Library first (the fastest way to stay organized)
If you manage more than a handful of campaigns, treat the Asset Library as your “single source of truth” for images and logos. This prevents duplicate uploads, makes refreshing creatives easier, and helps teams stay on-brand.
In your Google Ads account, go to Tools, then under Shared library open Asset library. From there you can create a new Image and upload files from your computer. If you use in-platform creative tools, you can also generate and edit images with AI directly from the Asset Library workflow, then save what you want to reuse across campaigns.
Step 2: Add images to Search campaigns (Image assets)
To add images to Search, you’ll create Image assets and attach them to either an ad group (best for relevance) or a campaign (best for speed when images apply broadly). From a performance perspective, tighter relevance usually wins—so ad group level is my default unless the account structure is very broad.
In the left navigation, go to Campaigns and open Assets. Click the plus button and choose Image. Select the campaign or ad group you want to apply images to, then add images from suggested options, your Asset Library, uploads, your website/social sources, or stock options available in the picker.
Expect to crop during upload if an image doesn’t match the accepted aspect ratios. After selecting images, save the asset.
Step 3: Add images to Display campaigns (Responsive display ads)
For most advertisers, responsive display ads are the practical, scalable choice because they adapt across placements and sizes. When you create or edit a responsive display ad, you’ll upload:
Marketing images (typically square and landscape) plus logos (square and optional landscape). Then you add your headlines, long headline, descriptions, business name, and final URL. Once saved, Google Ads assembles variations automatically across the Display Network.
If you’re migrating from older banner workflows, you may also see options for uploaded image ads in some cases—but responsive display is usually the best starting point unless you have strict brand/layout requirements and a full set of compliant banners.
Step 4: Add images to Performance Max (Asset groups)
In Performance Max, images live inside asset groups. Think of each asset group as a themed creative bundle that maps to a set of products/services and a landing page intent. The cleaner your mapping, the more useful your reporting and optimization decisions become.
When building or editing an asset group, add a mix of square (1:1) and landscape (1.91:1) images as your foundation, then add logos (at least a square logo). If you can support it creatively, also add vertical (4:5) images to improve coverage in more inventory.
Performance Max also includes campaign controls that can (a) enhance your uploaded images to better fit formats and (b) pull relevant images from your landing page to increase variety. These can help when you’re light on creative, but they should be managed intentionally so your brand presentation stays consistent.
Step 5: Add images to Demand Gen (and hit full coverage for stronger delivery)
Demand Gen is highly creative-driven. When you create ads (single image or carousel), you’ll upload images in multiple aspect ratios. If you want the strongest placement coverage, you’ll aim for horizontal, square, and vertical image formats. In many accounts, vertical options can include 4:5 and, where available, 9:16 to better suit short-form placements.
Ad Strength in Demand Gen is closely tied to whether you’ve provided complete format coverage, and it will prompt you during ad creation if you’re missing sizes that restrict where you can serve. If you’re serious about scaling Demand Gen, treat creative coverage as a delivery lever—not a design detail.
Step 6 (optional): Bulk upload image ads using Google Ads Editor
If you need to launch lots of image ads quickly (common for large Display builds), Google Ads Editor supports adding multiple image ads via bulk workflows. This is especially useful when you already have a prepared set of image files and a clear campaign/ad group mapping, and you want to reduce manual UI work.
Image specs, policy pitfalls, and optimization tips (the difference between “uploaded” and “actually performing”)
Use the right sizes and ratios (and don’t fight the system)
Most image-based formats revolve around a small set of aspect ratios. If you standardize your creative production around these, you’ll save endless time and approvals pain:
- Square (1:1): Common minimum is 300×300, with higher recommended sizes for better rendering quality.
- Landscape (1.91:1): Common minimum is 600×314, with a higher recommended size for sharper delivery.
- Vertical (4:5): Frequently recommended in performance-focused campaign types to expand placement coverage.
Keep key content centered. Across many placements, edges get cropped or UI elements overlap, so “designing to the middle” prevents cut-off logos, chopped product shots, and unreadable text.
Know what will get images disapproved (especially for Search image assets)
Search image assets, in particular, have stricter rules than many advertisers assume. The most common reasons I see disapprovals (or “Approved (limited)” headaches) are excessive text/graphic overlays, logo-heavy images used as the main image, overly blank/empty designs, collages that look manufactured, and low-quality (blurry, distorted, or poorly cropped) images.
If you want overlays for promotional creative, be cautious: in some campaign types overlays are allowed, but for Search image assets they can quickly push you into disapproval territory. When in doubt, include at least one clean, high-quality, no-overlay product/service image in each required aspect ratio so the system always has a compliant option to serve.
Eligibility and “why can’t I add images?” (critical checks)
If you don’t see the option to add image assets (most often in Search), it’s usually not a bug—it’s eligibility. Here’s the short diagnostic checklist I use before escalating anything:
- Confirm the account has been open for more than 60 days.
- Confirm there is a good policy compliance history (no recurring violations).
- Confirm there are active campaigns and active text ads.
- Confirm the account has been accruing spend on Search campaigns for at least the last 28 days.
- Confirm you’re not in a sensitive vertical/sub-vertical that restricts image eligibility.
When eligibility is the blocker, the fix is rarely “click here.” It’s usually “build consistent compliant history,” then add images once the account qualifies.
Use automation intelligently: dynamic images, landing page images, and image enhancements
If you want to scale visuals without manually producing dozens of creatives, you have three automation paths—each with different control levels.
Dynamic image assets (Search): This is an account-level automated option that can extract relevant images from your landing pages to complement your Search ads. It’s not a replacement for uploading your best images; it’s a coverage layer. The best outcomes typically come from using your own curated image assets plus dynamic images together, then removing any automated picks that aren’t brand-appropriate.
Landing page images (Performance Max): This can pull images from your landing page to expand creative variety. It’s helpful for coverage, but you should review what your site contains (including seasonal banners, sliders, and images with heavy text) because those can influence what the system finds “relevant.”
Image enhancements (Performance Max and Demand Gen/App campaigns): These features can adjust images for formats and, in some cases, create additional variations (such as text overlays in supported contexts). Treat this like a performance tool that still needs brand governance: you’re aiming for more eligible inventory without sacrificing message control.
Practical creative strategy to boost engagement and conversions
If you want images to do more than “look nice,” align them to conversion intent. For lead gen, show outcomes and trust signals (real people using the service, before/after context, location cues, proof elements). For ecommerce, prioritize clear product visibility, accurate color, and lifestyle images that show scale and use-case. For local businesses, location and team shots often outperform generic stock because they reduce uncertainty and increase trust.
Finally, measure images like any other asset. In asset-based campaign types, review asset performance labels and rotate in new variations when you see stagnation. The best advertisers don’t “set images and forget them”; they refresh visuals the same way they refresh offers—based on what the data is telling them.
Let AI handle
the Google Ads grunt work
Adding images to Google Ads is mostly about picking the right “surface” for your campaign type—image assets for Search, responsive creatives for Display, asset groups for Performance Max, and multi-format uploads for Demand Gen—then centralizing everything in the Asset Library so you can reuse, refresh, and stay consistent across accounts while meeting the key aspect ratios (1:1, 1.91:1, and often 4:5) and avoiding common policy pitfalls like heavy overlays or low-quality crops. If you manage this at scale, Blobr can be a helpful sidekick: it connects to your Google Ads account and uses specialized AI agents to continuously analyze performance and turn best practices into concrete, prioritized actions—so staying on top of creative coverage, relevance, and ongoing optimizations doesn’t have to become another manual checklist.
