A closer look at AdMob

Ever since I started to blog about mobile advertising, I’ve blogged about a lot of mobile advertising companies. Yet, some stand out distinctly. One such company is AdMob.

Sure, there are other mobile advertising companies which have been successful in their own right. But still, AdMob is unique in the sense that it has become a market leader in a short period of time.

AdMob, which started off as a small startup with just one staff, has now become a huge success and has served over a whopping 20 billion ads all over the world. On an average, AdMob serves around 3 billion mobile ads. Its founder, Omar Hamoui, is confident that the company will see new highs in the next few years, as mobile advertising industry is predicted to grow enormously by 2012.

AdMob specializes in sending targeted mobile ads to users based on a variety of things like geographical location, preferences, type of handset, and more. Surprisingly, this process is almost entirely automated. AdMob has a gazillion mobile websites as publishers under its belt and enjoys a big market share. However, things will not be the as easy in the future.

Big names like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and Nokia have been eyeing the mobile advertising space for quite some time now and have entered the market with their own service. The competition is going to be fierce and it remains to be seen if AdMob could tackle this monstrous competition.

However, when questioned about the competition in the mobile advertising market, Omar Hamoui simply smiles and says that it will be an interesting battle and it will be easier for a small company like AdMob to adapt to the ever-changing mobile market than it will be for the big names. That, I think, is what you call confidence. What do you say?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Virgin Mobile enters mobile advertising - will display banner ads to users

Looks like it’s the season of banner ads. After Google, Third Screen, AdMob, Yahoo, and most recently Microsoft, Virgin Mobile USA has announced that it will display banner ads to its mobile users who surf the web in their cell phone.

Virgin Mobile will use AOL’s mobile advertising system to display banner ads to users. This is the first time Virgin Mobile is entering the mobile advertising market. However, the CEO of Virgin Mobile has made it clear that they are being very cautious with these ads. These banner ads will be displayed on an experimental basis and depending on the response they get, they might think of expending their territory further.

The way I see it, this is a perfect partnership. Virgin Mobile’s growth has been not so impressive recently due to various reasons and AOL is the classic example of an erstwhile famous company trying to come to terms with the fact that it’s struggling. These two entities have joined hands. So, if things work out well, it might be good for both of them.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Microsoft says yes to banner ads in mobile phones

Microsoft has announced that it will allow advertisers to serve mobile users with banner ads from now on. Advertisers will now be able to display banner ads to mobile users using Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail. However, this is restricted only to the users in the U.S., France, Spain, and the U.K.

By doing this, Microsoft has joined the list of companies like Google, AdMob, Yahoo, and Third Screen which serve banner ads to mobile users.

Microsoft also hinted that it might soon introduce keyword advertising service in Windows Live Search Mobile. Though the beta version is available in the U.S. now, Microsoft believes that there is still room for improvement and it might hit the market only later this year. Microsoft is also working on expanding its presence in mobile market and has made Live Search Mobile available in 49 markets.

It’s good to see that Microsoft has put the Yahoo fiasco behind and working to improve its position in the mobile market. However, with Yahoo going great guns and Google looking to leave no stone unturned for Android, it better be watchful.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Microsoft, Mobile Web.

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DoubleClick joins hands with industry leaders

DoubleClick, a well-known name in digital marketing, has announced that it will be joining hands with other industry leaders in mobile content to deliver more value to publishers and end users. DoubleClick Mobile, the mobile advertising delivery system from DoubleClick, will join hands with AdMob, Google AdSense for mobile, and Millennial Media’s Decktrade network and MBrand Network.

This partnership, DoubleClick says, is aimed at publishers who are looking to fill their available inventory and maximize their revenue. Thanks to this move by DoubleClick, publishers will now be able to sell mobile display inventory both directly and indirectly, as they have automated access to plenty of mobile advertisers’ networks. DoubleClick Mobile will give an accurate account of the inventory that is ready to be sold, inventory that has already been sold, and the slots filled by ad networks. With this kind of data, publishers will be able to monetize their mobile content better than ever.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Free mobile analytics tool from AdMob

Regular readers of this blog might know that I’ve discussed the importance of analytic tools to track a mobile ad campaign’s performance time and again. Now, AdMob, the leading mobile ad platform provider, has come up with a mobile metrics package which helps you track the performance of your mobile sites and mobile advertising campaigns. More importantly, the service is entirely free of cost.

Called AdMob Mobile Analytics, the service is free of cost and it can be compared to Google’s Google Analytics service. With this, you can track your mobile site’s performance more effectively with data such as the number of unique visitors, duration of visit, geographical details of users, page performance, and so on. Also, using this service, you will be able to track any ad campaign, not just AdMob’s ad campaigns. So, it’s truly a great opportunity for mobile advertisers and mobile site owners.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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