Google Mobile Advertising: It's Time to Start
Now that you've mastered "traditional" content advertising, it's time to take on the category that Google says will deliver revenue that dwarfs search advertising: mobile.
Now that you've mastered "traditional" content advertising, it's time to take on the category that Google says will deliver revenue that dwarfs search advertising: mobile.
I’m going to switch gears starting this week and cover an aspect of PPC advertising that will become increasingly important to every advertiser: mobile advertising. I’ll start with some background to help you understand that the mobile advertising channel is already big and getting bigger. To do so, I’ll need to help you through a “paradigm shift” (as we used to say in the ’90s).
Step 1 in your Mobile epiphany is to put aside the notion that “mobile advertising” = “cell phone advertising.” While the latter is a subset of the former, consider this:
But what if they’re not in the office — no monitor or keyboard available? No problem. Next year, manufacturers will start shipping cell phones (mobile computers) with built-in projection displays:
Any flat surface can become a large-screen monitor. Even further out: projection of both the display and the keyboard — like this prototype unveiled by NEC four years ago:
At the risk of wandering too far out into the weeds of the future, consider that most mobile phones/computers will include GPS capabilities, and you’ll begin to see the implications for advertising — not to mention data privacy, social interaction, entertainment, etc.
Little wonder that Google CEO Eric Schmidt said last week “…mobile advertising [will” generate more revenue than advertising on today’s Web.”
But back to 2008: starting next week, I’ll fill you in on the capabilities and best practices you can/should be using today to reach mobile computing users via Google Mobile advertising. Want to get a head start? Read this Google mobile ad FAQ, Google’s Mobile Blog, and this excellent site and newsletter from my friend Jim Cook.
Think I’m right about the future of mobile advertising — or is the whole category a non-starter? Send me comments and questions, or post them in the Search Engine Watch Forum’s Content Advertising thread.