AdSense is moving to a new medium: Mobile Phones…
Google has begun testing text ads on cell phones, offering publishers a way to make money off of their mobile sites, the company confirmed to The Utility Belt.
The beta version of AdSense for Mobile is in a very limited mode of testing — The news came out after the Self Made Minds site reported receiving an invitation from Google so far.
In a typical Google fashion, it ushered in the beta program not with an announcement, but by sending invites to AdSense users late last week.
Self Made Minds received an email inviting them to participate in a new beta for AdSense for Mobile ads. Part of the email that reads:
“As part of our efforts to develop new and improved AdSense products for our partners, we will begin a limited beta test for AdSense for mobile. AdSense for mobile allows publishers to monetize their mobile websites through the placement of targeted text ads. Publishers can take advantage of the fast-growing mobile advertising market and benefit from our targeting technology.”
Internet entrepreneur Scott Jones posted on his blog, Self Made Minds, that he received an invite to the Google beta.
A Google spokesperson confirmed the beta. “Google is committed to finding new and better ways to get users the information they need while on the go, and to opening up new revenue opportunities for our partners.”
We are currently conducting a limited beta to test AdSense for mobile, a monetization product for mobile publishers. We will continue to evaluate the beta and will refine the product based on feedback from our users, publishers, and advertisers.
We have nothing further to announce at this time. Google would not say anything about the scope of the test, but offered to keep the loop on future updates.
The tests are being conducted in U.S. markets only and are available through the current Adsense network, which enables website developers earn revenue by placing ads on their sites.
At present it just appears in my AdSense in the list of products and has not been tested, said Jones. He went on to say ad units include single and double ads, WAP 1.0 or 2.0 in the normal color palette for integration.
As for the ads themselves, The Utility Belt’s Jon Fortt states that they “contain two lines of text, with 12 or 18 characters per line, depending on the language.” Advertisers have the option to let people call their business directly from the ad. Advertisers pay only when someone clicks on the ad, or initiates a call from the ad.
Google operates the backend network that positions ads on the sites related to site content. And every time a visitor clicks on the ad, it converts into revenue for the site owner.
At present Google is supporting mobile sites which are coded in one of the three mobile markup languages including WML (Wireless Markup Language), XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) and CHTML (Compact HTML) in order to use AdSense for Mobile, according to a Google AdSense for Mobile help page.
While positive about the move, industry analysts question the size of the market for contextually delivered mobile ads. “How big is mobile advertising at this time, and how much is Google coming into the space going to impact positively or negatively?” asked M:Metrics’s vice president consulting and senior analyst Evan Neufeld.
“Google’s AdSense is a very powerful product online, but it fits a particular niche for advertising. I do not think that niche is currently filled in mobile, but I do not know how big that niche is,” said Lee Hancock, founder and CEO of go2 Wireless, pointing to Google’s offering of standardized ads, contextually-based units, PPC and impression-based models.
“If you look at the way AdSense works online, typically associated with content that is relevant, it is typically displayed in extra areas on the page,” Hancock said. “You are not going to have that flexibility and capability on the mobile phone, with its small screen.”
Google’s mobile AdSense limited beta may bring mobile one step closer to becoming a line item in advertisers’ budgets, rather than an experimental entry.
“Mobile advertising is a huge opportunity for us starting with the basic premise that there are something like – 3 billion or so handsets in the world,” said Dilip Venkatachari, director of product management responsible for mobile monetization efforts at Google, in a recent interview, whilst speaking about their plans for Google AdSense for Mobile.
Skepticism aside, Hancock said “Google will likely be successful; the question is the magnitude of that success.”
According to information on Google’s AdWords Help Center, mobile ads are available in 13 countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, China, Ireland, India, Russia and Australia. Advertisers can target their ads to specific countries. Google says the cost is similar to its standard PC Web ads.
So if you think you fit the bill then apply now. Here are some ways that will help AdWords advertisers to create mobile search ads.