AdWords on the iPhone - Some Test Results

[abbottsys]

My testing of AdWords on mobile devices continues. Google is handling the iPhone well..

1) They are serving their regular ads, not the restricted mobile ad format.
2) The SRP contains only 1 or 2 ads at the top, nothing on the side or bottom.
3) If your ad contains a phone number it is automatically rendered as a live link, and clicking it dials the number.

Is it Google or is it the Safari browser that does the phone# detection in #3 above. And how does Google charge for these phone# clicks?

[EngineReady]

It is the iPhone Safari Browser that recognizes phone number formats and makes them 'clickable' for easy dialing. They aren't tracked as any sort of 'click' event by Google.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by EngineReady

It is the iPhone Safari Browser that recognizes phone number formats and makes them 'clickable' for easy dialing. They aren't tracked as any sort of 'click' event by Google.

Thanks. Yes, that's the conclusion we came to also. So, this is a nice supply of free clicks from AdWords ads. I wonder how long Google will allow this? Right now iPhone traffic is low, but as it builds I could see Google taking some kind of action to stop these free clicks.

In the bigger picture it's interesting to note that a browser manufacturer (in this case Apple) can easily add a feature that essentially breaks Google's financial model.

[jimbeetle]

I wonder how long Google will allow this?

Don't see this as really much different from a phone number included in an ad seen in a non-mobile browser. There's nothing to stop someone from reaching for the phone instead of clicking through.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by jimbeetle

Don't see this as really much different from a phone number included in an ad seen in a non-mobile browser. There's nothing to stop someone from reaching for the phone instead of clicking through.

I think it is different. The bottom line is that the browser has *modified the ad* to include a second click point. So the ad now has 2 click points (the headline and the phone#) and Google only gets paid for 1 of them! This is superb for advertisers, but do you think Google will let this pass

[jimbeetle]

Not really sure of the implications if they try to stop it, especially since they should have been aware of the browser behavior going in.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by jimbeetle

Not really sure of the implications if they try to stop it, especially since they should have been aware of the browser behavior going in.

Google is probably just monitoring things right now and will not move on this until volume becomes significant. I don't know about others, but for us the iPhone currently provides just 0.17% of our traffic.

[abbottsys]

My AdWords on iPhone testing continues. The phone displays just 2 ads above the organics, and the iPhone OS is responsible for the phone# detection described earlier. It's not limited to the Safari browser. Pretty amazing stuff.

I'm now looking at two things:

1) How are phone numbers in the *headline* handled. We know that phone# in the body copy are converted to live links.

2) Geo-targeting. I'm trying to discover if iPhone ads are served with Google's usual IP based geo-targetting, or is this just ignored for the iPhone. Anybody have experience with this?

[rustybrick]

Sounds exciting, please do keep us posted.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by rustybrick

Sounds exciting, please do keep us posted.

2 UPDATES

1) Geo-Targeting
AdWords on the iPhone does not use IP address geo-targeting (not a surprise.) There *may* be some geo-targeting technology at work so our tests continue, but we can rule out the standard AdWords IP address geo-targeting.

2) Phone number detection
Phone numbers in the ad copy are automatically converted to "phone# links" (i.e. clicking dials the number). This conversion is done by the iPhone OS. It's not just a browser feature. However, if you put a phone# in the ad *headline* it is not converted to a phone# link and remains a regular web link to the landing page.