San Francisco — The Google vs. Apple battle for mobile supremacy is being waged on many fronts, with each providing ways for developers to monetize their applications. The search engine leader Google, which rolled out “click-to-call” ads to its mobile search results earlier this year, is expanding the feature today to its content network. The feature was demonstrated at Google I/O in May.
Now, the company says that advertisers who run ads on its content network will now be able to add extensions to their ads that include their phone numbers. Google is adding a new option for developers: click-to-call ads that appear within apps running on smartphones. Now, visitors who access those ads via their mobile phone browsers or on a mobile app will then be able to click on a symbol in the ad to call the advertiser who is charged per call the same amount he or she would be charged for a click.
“Expanding our popular click-to-call capabilities on mobile search ads to now include mobile content and apps helps increase the reach of your ads across the mobile web and provides mobile publishers and app developers with even more ways to make money and grow their businesses,” says Google Mobile Ads Senior Product Manager Surojit Chatterjee.
With click-to-call option, users tap mobile banner ads to originate calls to local businesses. Google is selling the ads to both national advertisers like Progressive Insurance and local supplier such as Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches.
“Click-to-call for mobile content and apps is one of many ad formats that you can use to help accomplish your mobile marketing goals,” says Chatterjee. “It is a great option for you and also helps drive great results for mobile publishers and app developers.”
Google said the positioning of ads would run on both Android-powered handsets and iPhones — if Apple does not block them, as it recently indicated in a terms-of-services change.
The move comes on the heels of Apple unleashing its iAds format, which caters to brand advertisers with high-quality units that operates on iPhones and iPads. Google is taking a different approach by betting on the scale of its ad platform — it has hundreds of thousands of advertisers — and a wide variety of formats that support both branding and direct response.
Google and Apple are competing for the attention of developers by offering not only platforms for expanding to large numbers of mobile phone users, but also options for generating money — including through advertising.