Google launched custom search ads for Apple iOS and Android mobile apps in a move to boost its mobile ad business.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Oct. 19 launched custom search advertisements for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS
and Android mobile applications to boost its burgeoning mobile ad
business.
The
move comes roughly a week after Google CEO Larry Page said that the company's
mobile ad business was on pace to rack up $2.5. billion in 2011. That's a
healthy boost over the $1 billion Google claimed for 2010, but still just a
sliver of the company's annual $30 billion ad sales, which stem from desktop
search ads.
Custom
Search Ads are designed to provide more relevant results to users searching
within mobile applications for information on retailers, restaurants and other
services.
They
are also designed to help application developers offering free applications
make money, or even pad the pockets of those developers already earning money
from application sales. App developers can
customize the look and feel of the search ads,
altering the ad's font size, background color and gradient, as well as its
location.
With
its click-to-download format, Google is targeting the actions of searchers who
use Google to find more information on mobile applications. Searchers will be
able to click on one of the new click-to-download ads to go directly to Apple's
App Store or Google's Android Marketplace to download the software of their
choice.
Applications
developers will be able to include application icons and information about the
application in their ad unit to inform and, hopefully, entice consumers to
download and purchase their application.
But
Google is blanketing the whole application experience with ad revenue
opportunities. To wit, Google also trotted out mobile application extensions,
which let businesses use mobile search ads to direct searchers to a page within
a mobile application that is already installed on their phone.
"For
example, if someone searches for sneakers on a mobile device, they might see an
ad that takes them directly into a cool shopping app they've installed on their
phone," explained
Surojit Chatterjee, senior product manager for mobile ads.
Meanwhile,
local search ads are proving to be a boon for Google, too. Chatterjee said
click-to-call ads, in which customers can click on links to phone numbers to
call the businesses they've searched for, are now driving millions of calls a
week to businesses all over the world.
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