June 9, 2008

SEW Experts: Google Mobile Advertising: Start Now!

Mobile advertising revenue is expected to dwarf current ad spend on search and content networks. In today's Content Advertising column, "Google Mobile Advertising: Start Now!," David Szetela breaks down the dynamics of mobile search advertising as an essential starting point to creating great mobile content ad campaigns.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 29, 2008

Mobile Marketing Association Issues New Display Ad Standards

Last week, the Mobile Marketing Association updated its standards for mobile display ads. In doing so, it automatically outdated Google's brand spanking new mobile ad formats.

The new MMA guidelines are:

300 x 50 pixels 216 x 36 pixels 168 x 28 pixels 120 x 20 pixels

Google's new banners are:

305 x 64 pixels 215 x 34 pixels 192 x 34 pixels 167 x 30 pixels

According to ClickZ, Google said that its ads are compliant with MMA's previous recommendations. While mobile industry leaders differ on the need and implementation for mobile ad standards, most agree that innovation by both MMA and companies like Google are good for the industry.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:37 AM | Permalink

January 25, 2008

SEW Experts: Mobile Local Search: A Perfect Storm

Last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) showcased the first few devices that run Google's much anticipated Android operating system. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Mobile Local Search: A Perfect Storm," local search expert Michael Boland explains how these are the first physical signs of what will be a major inflection point in the history of mobile devices and mobile local search.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

January 21, 2008

AT&T iPhone Google Deal Pits Apple Against Blackberry

Pitting Apple against Blackberry, AT&T will offer a corporate plan for iPhone users, Engadget reported today.

The iPhone Google AT&T alliance made news at MacWorld with the launch of new Google apps and features for the iPhone.

Today's announcement, though, may be the biggest search engine industry news to come out of MacWorld. If the iPhone succeeds in dislodging Blackberry from the enterprise -- and Google maintains its iPhone-Apple ties -- then Google's share of local mobile searches could increase significantly over the next two years.

Google doesn't enjoy the same dominance in local mobile search as in desktop search. Google's strategic business development deals a couple years ago bundled Google desktop search with Dell computers and made Google the default home page on the computer's pre-installed browser.

Engadget blogger Thomas Ricker notes the move by AT&T iPhone comes in lieu of a 3G announcement by Apple. 3G, with service at 5-10 Mb per second, would make wide-area wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data available in mobile.

With faster speeds and more bandwidth, 3G would likely increase the total volume of local mobile searches.

Increasing the number of searches is the only win-win for the search industry. Slicing and dicing search inventory increases the long tail of searches. With Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask battling for small gains against Google's dominant share of searches, local mobile search -- and the enterprise -- may be the final frontier.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:06 PM | Permalink

October 23, 2007

New CBS/Medio Mobile Search Deal: The Start of a Revolution?

CBS Mobile is teaming up with Medio Systems to add mobile search capabilities and search advertising opportunities to CBS Mobile sites. Is this "the shot heard round the world" of mobile search? In today's SearchDay, "Will the Revolution in Mobile Search be Televised?," Greg Jarboe argues that this signals the opening salvo in a revolutionary war to deliver easy-to-access mobile content to a growing mobile Internet audience. It's also the launch of an ad-supported search solution that is optimized for the mobile experience.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:22 PM | Permalink

September 26, 2007

SEW Experts: Mobile Search Fortune Seekers

The year of mobile search seems to be forever a few months away. In today's By the Numbers column, "Mobile Search Fortune Seekers," Eric Enge shows that even if mobile search doesn't hit the ad revenue jackpot this year, marketers need to know how to secure a seat at the table.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 11, 2007

The Year for Mobile Ads is Here...Really

It seems like every year, an industry analyst or pundit declares that this year will be the year of mobile search, and mobile advertising in general. According to a Kelsey Group report, a confluence of factors may mean that now really is the time for mobile advertising to take off.

Google is looking for more places to put its text ads and more formats to sell advertisers. Microsoft is looking to combat Google's online dominance by beating them at mobile search. Mobile devices, especially the iPhone, are making the mobile browsing experience more accessible to mainstream users.

The Kelsey Group's U.S. Mobile Advertising Forecast predicts that the U.S. mobile ad market will grow from $33.2 million in 2007 to $1.4 billion in 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 112 percent. At the same time, the number of mobile Internet users will grow from 37.9 million in 2007 to 91.7 million in 2012, a CAGR of 19 percent.

I spoke with Matt Booth, VP and program director of The Kelsey Group's Interactive Local Media practice, about these and other factors. Read more at ClickZ News in "Could This Be the Year for Mobile Ads?"

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:18 AM | Permalink

April 10, 2007

24/7 Adds Mobile Search Ad Management

24/7 Real Media has added mobile search ad management to its Decide DNA Platform. With the latest version of the platform, marketers can now manage mobile search campaigns in the same interface as Web-based paid search, search engine optimization (SEO), and feed management.

As Enid Burns notes in her ClickZ News story, this upgrade comes one week after the digital marketing firm implemented mobile within its Open AdStream platform for managing display ads.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:44 AM | Permalink

November 15, 2006

Google Expands Mobile Text Ads Beta

Google has expanded its mobile ads beta test beyond the U.S., U.K., Japan and Germany to eight more countries: France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, China, Ireland, India and Australia. Ads appear above and below Google search results on mobile devices.

Here are some bullets from Google PR about the program:

-- Mobile Ads are text-based ads that will appear above and below the search results and will be clearly marked '[Ad]'.

-- The auction bidding model will be based on Quality Based Bidding. Mobile Ads will not bid against Text Ad keywords that appear when a user searches Google.com from their desktop.

-- Mobile Ads enable advertisers to link users directly to their mobile website or provide users with a phone number that they can click to call.

-- In the US, Google offers advertisers the option to target specific carriers.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 1:04 PM | Permalink

October 17, 2006

Google Mobile Ads Found In U.S.

Gary Price spotted Google testing mobile ads on Google Mobile search on his Treo. We know Google has been testing mobile ads in the U.S., U.K. and in Germany but this is the first case I have seen of anyone noticing these ads on their mobile devices, outside of a Google employee. Gary has posted screen captures at Flickr showing how Google places the ads in Google Mobile web search.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:08 AM | Permalink

October 9, 2006

Windows Live Search Mobile PPCall Deal With Ingenio

A few weeks ago Google introduced sponsored listings into mobile search. Yahoo followed last week. Now Microsoft has partnered with Ingenio to deliver pay-per-call listings into Windows Live Search for mobile. But unlike the other two programs this is not being launched in beta.

Ingenio's advertisers are the only paid listings that will appear when users conduct a geotargeted search on Window Live for mobile. There will only be one advertiser shown for any given search and Ingenio's entire inventory will be funneled into Windows Live. When there are no relevant Ingenio advertisers, no sponsored listings will appear. (The company has existing mobile distribution through Jingle Networks' 1800-Free-411 and go2.)

Since Ingenio announced its original deal with AOL (see example) more than a year ago it has been steadily building distribution with smaller players in the local market. This is obviously a very significant relationship and may be a prelude to a broader deal with Microsoft. Ingenio wouldn't comment on that possibility, however.

Microsoft currently offers "call for free" click-to-call functionality on Live Local.

All three of the dominant search providers have now flipped the switch on sponsored listings in mobile. We should see a continuing acceleration of product development and competition in the wireless space. Early evidence argues that response rates (clicks/calls) in a wireless environment will be much higher than clicks on sponsored listings online because there are fewer competing advertisers (due to smaller screens) and users' needs are typically more immediate.

While the number of users conducting searches in a mobile environment is currently a very tiny fraction of what it is online, mobile search will be a significant channel in the next several years as the user experience improves.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 8:45 AM | Permalink

October 4, 2006

Yahoo Rolls Out PPC Ads In Mobile Search Results

Yahoo is launching (in beta) paid-search ads in mobile in the U.S. and expanding its test program in the U.K. Only a "select group of advertisers" are initially included (it's not clear what the criteria are). But the number of advertisers will expand over time as the program rolls out.

According to the press release, "consumers will be able to click on the sponsored search results to go to the advertisers' mobile web site or a landing page to get more information about the advertisers' offerings, including the ability to call the advertiser."

Yahoo had already been running tests of mobile PPC ads in the U.K. and Japan.

According to CTIA-The Wireless Association, there are more than 194 million wireless subscribers in the U.S., with a market penetration rate of about 65%. In other countries, especially Northern Europe, penetration rates exceed 100%. And China claims over 400 million mobile phone subscribers.

Indeed, as Yahoo's Terry Semel and Google's Eric Schmidt have now pointed out multiple times (I'm paraphrasing), "There are more wireless devices in the world than PCs." As a result there's a great deal at stake in developing a viable mobile search capability and the advertising that goes with it.

According to an article today in MediaPost, which points to a study by mobile research firm M:Metrics, response rates to text (SMS) ads on mobile phones are "only" 7% vs. 29.1% or more in countries in Europe where mobile text ads are more common. Obviously a response rate of 7% is higher than average response rates to sponsored search online. There are several competing studies, however, that argue consumers are least interested in advertising in SMS vs. other mobile formats.

Not to confuse matters, Yahoo's new mobile PPC launch is not about SMS. Rather it's sponsored ads in mobile web search results.

Earlier this week mobile marketing firm Enpocket released the results of a study conducted by Harris Interactive with 1,200 mobile users in the U.S. Europe and India. The survey found general acceptance of mobile advertising deemed "relevant" by consumers. A majority of respondents (78%) said that "they would be happy to receive advertising that is tailored to their interests. Of those, 64 percent would be willing to provide personal details to be analyzed to improve relevance of targeted ads."

In general response rates in mobile tend to be higher than online because of relevance and less ad clutter -- there are fewer competing advertisers to click on (or call). PPCall firm Ingenio has repeatedly cited very high PPCall response rates for its advertisers in mobile, partly for that reason.

Mobile advertising is also great opportunity for local search. People are often looking for local information when they're on the go and have traditionally had to rely on directory assistance (DA), which has been limited by "what city, what listing?" rather than offering the open-ended ability to conduct a category search. Newer services are seeking to broaden the scope of DA, which is starting to evolve into voice-enabled mobile search. Yahoo already offers most of its properties on mobile devices and in June of this year research firm Telephia found that Yahoo Mail was the most visited site by mobile users.

Google shows PPC ads on mobile search results as well.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 9:07 AM | Permalink

September 6, 2006

Google Launches Mobile Ads On Google Mobile

ClickZ reports that Google is now testing ads on Google Mobile. The ads are being tested in U.S., U.K. and in Germany and are priced similar to how normal AdWords ads are priced, based on auction. Google has a whole help section for Mobile Ads here. It explains what the ads look like; "Mobile ads contain two lines of text, with a limit of 12 or 18 characters per line, depending on the language in which you write your ad. Your destination URL appears on a third line if you choose to enter one. If you select the option that allows customers to directly connect to your business phone, a Call link will appear next to your destination URL." For more information check out the ClickZ article and the Google Mobile Ads help page.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:52 PM | Permalink

August 16, 2006

Yahoo Partners With Go2 For Mobile Search Ads

Forbes reports that Yahoo has signed an agreement with Go2, a mobile Yellow Pages directory service, to offer Yahoo sponsored search listings on the search results displayed on the mobile Go2 results. The Wall Street Journal has a bigger write up on cell phones and ads, stating, "some of the largest wireless companies in the U.S. are starting to allow advertising on their cell phone networks." But don't worry, "no major carrier is talking about displaying ads on home pages or while customers are making calls." You will most likely see ad integration in the form of the Yahoo & Go2 partnership, i.e. ads tied to content, be it text alerts, mobile searches, mobile browsing and more.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:34 AM | Permalink

April 11, 2006

January 17, 2006

JumpTap Introduces Keyword Sales Program for Mobile Search and Releases Stats About What Mobile Searchers Are Looking For

JumpTap, a company that offers many mobile search solutions has just introduced a hosted Keyword Sales Program for mobile search providers.

JumpTap's Keyword Sales Program allows mobile operators to leverage the vast potential of performance-based marketing by bringing turnkey, Pay-per-Click and Pay-per-Call programs to mobile handsets.

JumpTap also released their first set of statistics about what people are mobile searchers are looking to find.

Despite conventional wisdom that the numeric keypad would be a barrier for mobile search text entry, searchers still entered unusually long queries, including "don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me", "the killers all the things that i've done", and "what are you doing the rest of your life". The first example query, referring to a ringtone by the Pussycat Dolls, is 45 characters long.

For the month of December 2005, the type of search for the top 100 queries included:

27% Categories. Top 3 terms searched: Christmas, Hockey, WWE (Worldwide Wresting Entertainment).

22% Adult. Top 3 terms searched: Sex, Porn, Girls.

20% Artist Name. Top 3 terms searched: Eminem, 50 Cent, Madonna.

14% Game. Top 3 terms searched: Tetris, Poker, Snake.

9% Music Genre. Top 3 terms searched: Country, Themes, Reggae.

5% Music Title. Top 3 terms searched: My Humps, Jingle Bell, Gold Digger.

3% Website Names. Top 3 terms searched: Google, MSN, Yahoo.

Much more about JumpTap, it's new ad program, and these new statistics in a news release.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:30 AM | Permalink

October 5, 2005

Group Formed To Help Develop Mobile Search

Group Plots Future of Mobile Search from ClickZ covers a new "Mobile Search Working Group" that's been formed by the Mobile Marketing Association. The MMA group aims to help carriers bundled branded mobile search solutions into their service packages. Frankly, I'd like the group or any group to bang carriers over the head that I don't want to be tied to any one search solution. I want the freedom to choose whatever I like. The groups home page is here, but the additional information the page points you at has yet to actually go live.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:39 AM | Permalink

October 1, 2005

Yahoo Testing Mobile Search Ads In Japan & Britain

Bloomberg News reports that Yahoo is testing paid ads on search result pages delivered to mobile phones and devices in Japan while also auctioning off ads on the Yahoo Mobile travel site in the UK.

"The way that Yahoo is going to stay relevant and essential is by extending our services beyond the PC browser to all devices that consumers use," Garland, who runs Yahoo's mobile group, said Wednesday in an interview at a conference in San Francisco. "There will be a paid search market that develops."

More in the article: Yahoo! is testing cell phone search ads.

In August, AOL Mobile Search began to show paid listings at the top of some pages.

The other day I posted a few thoughts about branding specific mobile search and answer tools as another way for search providers to make money in the mobile search space.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:33 AM | Permalink

July 13, 2005

A Couple of My Favorite Mobile Web Tools

I'm often asked about the tools and sites I use for keeping up while on-the-go. So allow me to point out two favorite services.

Yahoo Alerts via SMS In addition to the just launched Yahoo SMS search tool, Yahoo also offers keyword news and several other types of info alerts delivered to your phone or mobile device via SMS. I've been using some of these services for well over a year with just about zero problems. The "breaking news alerts" keep me in the loop as news about "major" stories occurs.

Bloglines Mobile Here's a suprise (not) Bloglines Mobile is superb. Feeds look great on my mobile browser. Using it allows me to catch-up with news when I have a few spare minutes. Bloglines Mobile is simply a different interface to your "regular" Bloglines account. So, syncing what you've seen while on-the-go vs. at your main computer is not an issue. Actually, lately I've only been using the web version of Bloglines to add feeds. Bloglines Mobile (via my Treo 650) is now the primary way I check my RSS feeds at home or on the road. RSS and mobile access to info work well together.

Of course, these are just two of many useful "mobile" tools out there. I'll do my best to post about others in the coming weeks.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:32 PM | Permalink

June 10, 2005

Ads Coming to Mobile Search

It looks as if keyword advertising is coming very soon to the mobile search arena.

A short article on the Netimperative site points out that Yahoo Search Marketing Services (formerly Overture) has signed a deal with Mobile Commerce to provide keyword ads, something we haven't seen much of on mobile services up to this point, on a new "mobile" travel search site that will launch later this year in the UK.

The three companies currently bidding the highest amount for those keywords will have their advertisement shown to the user...Sean Walker, general manager of vertical markets at Overture said: "This service is going to replicate the internet performance-based search advertising model, where companies bid and pay for advertising space in real time. "For us, this is a natural transition from the advertising we serve on the internet. Many of our existing advertisers are interested in this new method of distribution."

Posted by Gary Price at 11:37 AM | Permalink

January 28, 2005

MotionBridge Offers Mobile Sponsored Search

MotionBridge, which provides mobile search services to various European and other cell phone providers, has rolled out a new paid listings service for the mobile platform. A few more details from the company's press release.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:08 AM | Permalink

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