Google acquires AdMob: solidifies place in the mobile ad market
Google may have its fingers in a lot of pots when it comes to digital advertising, but to date, it has not replicated its runaway success in search. While the company may be late to market with its online display advertising play, Google is not risking the same fate in mobile.
From the Android to mobile search, Google has been making plays there for months. And with today's acquisition of AdMob, the search giant will have more of its bases covered in that market.
iPhone moms are waiting for the right marketers
Mothers of young children are a rapidly growing segment of the smartphone population, and considering how important the demographic is in household purchasing decisions, marketers should take note of how they're using their phones and the mobile space generally.
According to mobile ad network Greystripe, “iPhone moms” (female iPhone owners with young children) use mobile media more than other iPhone users. But from previous studies, we know that moms also don't take to iPhone ads. What's a marketer to do?
Freemium works in the iPhone's $2.4 billion App Store business
It may come as no surprise that more people download applications on the iPhone and iPod touch than on Google's Android phone, but on both services, people are making purchases based on services they've already tried for free.
Mobile ad network AdMob released its July survey results today. After surveying 1,117 mobile phone users, the company found that across platforms, free-to-paid upgrades are the most cited driver for mobile app purchases, helping to prove that the freemium model works. In mobile at least.
Case Study: Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap iPhone App
In the iPhone App Store, as in life, popularity begets more popularity. And while success in that space is a goal for many brands, getting people to download a mobile application is about more than simply creating a great interface.
In the case of Sherwin-Williams, the company had created a fun and entertaining application that was useful in the mobile environment and promoted the brand's products. After a $15,000 ad buy with AdMob, they moved up the ladder of popularity in the App Store, reaching the iPhone's coveted top 25 most popular applications list. And as AdMob promised, the app got even more popular after they stopped running ads.
Mobile ads perform better than ads online. For now.
Mobile advertising may still be a nascent market compared to online and traditional advertising, but its performance rates are often higher. For instance, mobile display ads have five to ten times higher click-through rates than banner ads online. Those numbers are impressive, but can they last?
At the IAB Marketplace: Mobile conference on Monday, the consensus was unsurprisingly yes. Mobile marketers and advertisers are pleased with how their medium has been performing in the downturn. And they were more concerned with the sucess of what is currently out there than the reach of mobile advertising as compared to online.
But will mobile advertising sucess rates continue when the novelty wears off?
Most free iPhone apps don't make any money
Apple may be making millions in its app store, but advertising on the iPhone is only as good as the application that it's on.
According to AdMob, over half of the free apps on the iPhone aren't really making any money at all.
iPhone advertising is about to get social
Apple fans are eagerly anticipating the release of the new iPhone on July 5, and it looks like advertisers will have a reason to get excited as well. Mobile ad platform AdMob has announced three new types of ad units. Each come with social, search
and rich media features, and will be available in July.
Jaguar and Land Rover make big commitment to mobile
Luxury brands are gasping for air. Automotive doesn't seem to know where its next metaphorical meal is from. And the fabled Year of Mobile has not yet dawned. Yet despite it all, Jaguar and Land Rover have together committed $1.6 million to US mobile advertising.
That's a big, big buy. And it represents only 60 percent of the automakers' total mobile budget.
Mobile ad network AdMob will be running the campaigns, once they stop jumping for joy at company HQ. Earlier this month, the company got a C round cash infusion of $12.5 million.
As an article in Ad Age points out, this level of commitment to the mobile platform borders on the unprecedented. Mobile is still very much in the sandbox of digital spending, accounting for only a small proportion of experimental marketing budgets -- and who's experimenting with money these day?
The report cites TNS Media Intelligence data indicating Land Rover spent $63 million on domestic measured media in the
Mobile wifi usage on the rise
Thanks to growing adoption of the iPhone and other smart mobile devices, an increasing number of Americans are logging onto WiFi networks to access the internet on the go.
Growth is heaviest in the heavily metropolitan West and Northeast sections of the country, together with Texas. California led the way with 18 percent of usage, followed by New York with 14 percent and Texas with 8 percent.
The findings come from mobile ad network AdMob's Mobile Metrics Report.
Worldwide mobile ad requests increased 8 percent month over month in January to 6.8 billion, led by double digit growth in Western Europe and Asia, but ad requests remained flat to negative growth in most of North America.
Q&A: AdMob's Thomas Schulz on mobile advertising
AdMob is a mobile advertising network that connects advertisers with publishers, allowing advertisers to target ads to mobile websites and, more recently, through iPhone apps.
We have been talking to AdMob's European MD Thomas Shulz about the mobile ad marketing general, and how the growth in iPhone usage has affected the industry...
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Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
