California startup iPromote exemplifies the trend toward more visuals on the smallest of screens. The company, which runs a Web-based local advertising network for small businesses, has launched a mobile ad product designed to put local brands on smartphone screens.
At $5 per day, small businesses can use iPromote’s ad-creation and geo-targeting service, which mixes visuals from an advertiser’s site with stock photography from Dreamstime. Before signing up, advertisers can test-drive the ad-creation service by entering their URL and seeing resulting ads online, free of charge but with watermarked images.