From B2BOnline

A recent study by IAB and Nielsen//NetRatings found text advertising, such as paid listings on search engines move brand metrics in a positive direction. The study demonstrated that sponsored text advertising in the search environment works for an array of branding objectives. Sponsored text ads, much like the standard image based ad, had their biggest impact on “unaided brand awareness,” especially where a brand held the top position on search results pages.

On average, when respondents were asked to name a specific leading brand within a tested industry, they were 27 percent more likely to name the brand displayed in the top spot compared to a control group not exposed to the ad. For the articles pages (pages containing contextually targeted text advertising), the text ad caused a 23 percent lift among respondents that saw the ads.