It’s more and more obvous that Mobile will be the next big thing for various platforms. In social networking, gaming or advertising, mobile has definitely been touted as the next device for taking all of the earlier mentioned to the next level by making it available to everyone, no matter what their location. When we think mobile marketing, the first thought that comes to mind is SMS marketing, which most of us do not appreciate. But the advent of 3G will change mobile marketing leaps and bounds. Inevitably, mobile marketing will probabely overtake internet marketing sooner or later.
And Why is this inevitable?
The only two words that should answer the question is; Google, Apple. Google purchased AdMob, one of the leading mobile advertising companies, and Apple, who had initially tried to buy AdMob, bought Quattro, another mobile advertising company, and shortly later after that Google acquisition. Apart from these giants, InMobi, formerly known as MKhoj, and that is also in the race to rule the mobile advertising world.
Why will Mobile be bigger than Internet Marketing?
The answer is, Mobile phones will have higher penetration than computers. Also, the number of users using mobiles to surf the internet has increased immensely and will only continue to increase. This is precisely the reason why big names like Google and Apple are investing in mobile advertising companies. It probabely only a matter of time before mobile marketing overtakes internet marketing. The real question is how far behind will it leave internet marketing?
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Google, iPad, Geo-targeting, AdMob
AdMob has been acquired by Google, and are now testing new geo-targetedads, releasing a new They will also release a new SDK to support theiPad, and updating their AdWhirloptimizer.
This is the latest activities and give some ideas of where this mobile advertising pioneer company is heading.
Google Acquisition
The biggest news of course is that Google’s acquisition of AdMob was finally approved by the US FTC (Federal Trade Commission) after the FTC concluded that the deal was unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks. In particular the FTC cited Apple’s acquisition of ad network Quattro and the launch of the iAd as part of the iPhone OS as indicators that the market would remain open and competitive.
see MobiAD article: The Future of iPhone & iAd
Ad format for iPad
In June AdMob released an SDK that supports special iPad ad formats. Both iPad Text & Tile Ads and iPad Image Ads are supported within the SDK. The AdMob SDK is now unified across all devices running the iPhone OS, which means that developers can download one binary for development across all Apple iPhone OS devices – iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
In May 2010 according to recent numbers from the AdMob, they served ads on approximately 850,000 unique iPad devices. 38% of the unique iPad devices in AdMob’s network came from outside of the US.
Geo-targeting
AdMob has recently begun testing their new, real-time, geo-targeting targeted advertising in the UK, partnering with location-enabled dating site Lovestruck.com.
AdWhirl
An AdMob’s product that has not received too much attention to date is AdWhirl, which they acquired in late 2009. AdWhirl is an ad mediation product for mobile applications. It enables the app developer to easily source ads from several mobile ad networks to be served in their application. This is accomplished with a single set of ad codes, and the ads are selected according to rules setup by the developer.
AdMob has made the following changes to AdWhirl:
• It now supports both the iPhone platform as well as the Android platform
• Developers can now use an unlimited number of ad networks in their apps
• AdWhirl now fully supports Apple’s iAd
• House Ad functionality has been expanded so developers can centrally manage their own house ads
AdMob currently sees more than 100 million ad requests coming through their AdWhirl platform, from some 1,700 mobile applications. AdMob says they are commited to AdWhirl, saying “We believe that open source mediation plays an important role in the mobile ecosystem by giving developers the control they need to manage their business.”
Monday, June 14, 2010
Mobile SEO is important in 2010
2010 is the year mobile search need to implement mobile SEO best practices and that’s more important than ever. Optimization evolves in a high speed, and with the emergence of mobile search, staying connected to potential customers, and where and how they search, has just gotten a bit more complex than it was. With global mobil usage around 5 billion and rising, the importance of establishing a strong SEO presence should not be underestimated. More striking is the fact that iPhone users represented about 6% of the smartphone market in 2009, yet drove 70% of all mobile searches. This means that people want to search on their mobile devices, and they just need a capable phone to do it.
What about Links
Not so important.Pagerank? Apparently mobile rankings is not an issue. Developing a mobile search strategy requires a shift in paradigm to drive mobile traffic to your site. With an amalgamation of traditional SEO and new best practices floating around, suggesting changes for mobile optimization could be a potential minefield.
This is a suggestion to prepare your SEO campaigns for success in mobile search.
What to do
The mobile web is different from the traditional web. Your homepage won’t help you here. Instead, you’ll have to recode your site to display properly on mobile devices in order to avoid losing visitors who land on a page of mumbo jumbo script. So, you have to use valid code and that mean that you need to use XHTML (at the moment), and using it well. By using W3C compliant XHTML code on your mobile site, you can ensure that users are seeing the content you want them to see, the way you want them to see it. While you are coding your site, and don’t forget traditional SEO practices. Keyword in headers and content are still effective and should be used, following traditional best practices.
Keyword Ranking
Mobile SEO success is dependent on two crucial factors: location and timing. If a user is searching for “car repairs in a spcific place”, the limited number of mobile sites in combination with a fast upload time for your site could make a small mom and pop auto shop rank just as highly as a Pep Boys in the area.
Keywords for SEO should be targeted, but in a different way than traditional SEO. Instead of focusing on long tail, multi-word phrases, keywords should be adapted to follow the mobile search style. This means shorter keyword phrases, 3 words at most, with geographical information included in highly competitive phrases.
Although this strategy may be of limited importance for global companies, it will allow local businesses to rank for terms in mobile search that are beyond their wildest dreams in traditional SEO, and this is good news for small businesses. Remember to use the word “mobile” in your content.
Microsites
Microsites are an excellent opportunity to provide mobile search capability without revamping an entire site.
Microsites can be adapted to implement all of the best practices listed above, but can be made to focus solely on mobile users, enabling businesses to maintain a traditional homepage for the benefit of non-mobile rankings and users. When crafting your new mobile microsite, keep in mind that display options are crucial when approaching the mobile market. Factors such as image display size, use of java, and varied browser usage should be considered when designing your site.
Conclusion
After your mobile site is near to perfection, you need to submit your site map to search engines’ mobile indexes, then sit back and wait for you traffic to come. But there’s only one small problem with monitoring your traffic: it might not be possible. To track mobile search is not an easy task. Google Analytics, doesn’t work if mobile devices don’t execute JavaScript, making it extremely difficult to judge what traffic is coming from mobile sites and what traffic is coming from traditional SEO efforts. But Google is working on this issue and it will be solved in the future.
What about Links
Not so important.Pagerank? Apparently mobile rankings is not an issue. Developing a mobile search strategy requires a shift in paradigm to drive mobile traffic to your site. With an amalgamation of traditional SEO and new best practices floating around, suggesting changes for mobile optimization could be a potential minefield.
This is a suggestion to prepare your SEO campaigns for success in mobile search.
What to do
The mobile web is different from the traditional web. Your homepage won’t help you here. Instead, you’ll have to recode your site to display properly on mobile devices in order to avoid losing visitors who land on a page of mumbo jumbo script. So, you have to use valid code and that mean that you need to use XHTML (at the moment), and using it well. By using W3C compliant XHTML code on your mobile site, you can ensure that users are seeing the content you want them to see, the way you want them to see it. While you are coding your site, and don’t forget traditional SEO practices. Keyword in headers and content are still effective and should be used, following traditional best practices.
Keyword Ranking
Mobile SEO success is dependent on two crucial factors: location and timing. If a user is searching for “car repairs in a spcific place”, the limited number of mobile sites in combination with a fast upload time for your site could make a small mom and pop auto shop rank just as highly as a Pep Boys in the area.
Keywords for SEO should be targeted, but in a different way than traditional SEO. Instead of focusing on long tail, multi-word phrases, keywords should be adapted to follow the mobile search style. This means shorter keyword phrases, 3 words at most, with geographical information included in highly competitive phrases.
Although this strategy may be of limited importance for global companies, it will allow local businesses to rank for terms in mobile search that are beyond their wildest dreams in traditional SEO, and this is good news for small businesses. Remember to use the word “mobile” in your content.
Microsites
Microsites are an excellent opportunity to provide mobile search capability without revamping an entire site.
Microsites can be adapted to implement all of the best practices listed above, but can be made to focus solely on mobile users, enabling businesses to maintain a traditional homepage for the benefit of non-mobile rankings and users. When crafting your new mobile microsite, keep in mind that display options are crucial when approaching the mobile market. Factors such as image display size, use of java, and varied browser usage should be considered when designing your site.
Conclusion
After your mobile site is near to perfection, you need to submit your site map to search engines’ mobile indexes, then sit back and wait for you traffic to come. But there’s only one small problem with monitoring your traffic: it might not be possible. To track mobile search is not an easy task. Google Analytics, doesn’t work if mobile devices don’t execute JavaScript, making it extremely difficult to judge what traffic is coming from mobile sites and what traffic is coming from traditional SEO efforts. But Google is working on this issue and it will be solved in the future.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Mobile Marketing
Mobile is growing all around us. more than 450 million people worldwide used the mobile Web in 2009. Is your business doing anything to take advantage of these mobile opportunities?
It isn't as hard as you might think and the benefits could grow your business to a new level. For starters, you need to mobilize your website. Some companies choose to have separate websites for mobile, but they don’t need to. If you need assistance mobilizing your current site, there are tools available. On the other hand, if you do create a separate mobile site, be sure to include a link to it on your main page in order to give visitors an option.
When your site is mobilized, you need to get your customers involved with your mobile efforts. To do this, you should send text messages letting customers know about special discounts and offers. Make sure to set up a system for customers to "opt-in" to your mobile endeavors. This form of mobile marketing allows businesses to not only expand their business, but also to build stronger relationships with existing customers.
Finally, you need to make sure your customers can take action on your mobile site, that’s the purpose of your mobile campaign. Your website needs to be capable of taking electronic payments via cell phones so that mobile transactions can be made. An additional benefit of doing this is that you can send invoices in the form of email or text messages, which saves costs, paper, time, and perhaps the climate.
It isn't as hard as you might think and the benefits could grow your business to a new level. For starters, you need to mobilize your website. Some companies choose to have separate websites for mobile, but they don’t need to. If you need assistance mobilizing your current site, there are tools available. On the other hand, if you do create a separate mobile site, be sure to include a link to it on your main page in order to give visitors an option.
When your site is mobilized, you need to get your customers involved with your mobile efforts. To do this, you should send text messages letting customers know about special discounts and offers. Make sure to set up a system for customers to "opt-in" to your mobile endeavors. This form of mobile marketing allows businesses to not only expand their business, but also to build stronger relationships with existing customers.
Finally, you need to make sure your customers can take action on your mobile site, that’s the purpose of your mobile campaign. Your website needs to be capable of taking electronic payments via cell phones so that mobile transactions can be made. An additional benefit of doing this is that you can send invoices in the form of email or text messages, which saves costs, paper, time, and perhaps the climate.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Google Gives Mobile Users Location Based Suggestions
Google has launched location-based search results for iPhone and Android mobile device users.
What this means is that people using these devices performing a regular search (not Google Maps) may be directed to geographic location-specific results for any number of queries. Google itself uses the example of museums.
You know how some businesses have ads that simply tell people to Google them? Perhaps there is some more incentive than meets the eye in that strategy.
Read more
What this means is that people using these devices performing a regular search (not Google Maps) may be directed to geographic location-specific results for any number of queries. Google itself uses the example of museums.
You know how some businesses have ads that simply tell people to Google them? Perhaps there is some more incentive than meets the eye in that strategy.
Read more
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
AdMob lunches new Video Ad unit for iPhone
Google has resently purchased AdMob. And Admob has unveiled a new interactive video ad unit for the iPhone today. Upon the announcement of Google's acquisition, the highlights of the purchase included SMS, search, web display, and app display ads. Now, video is part of the mix.
"For the first time, mobile video is truly interactive as we've included customizable in-player action buttons enabling consumers to engage with Web content and more video content without leaving the video player," says AdMob VP Product Ali Diab. The in-player action buttons enable users to browse web sites, view additional videos, etc. while the video is playing.
See a Video from Webpronews
"For the first time, mobile video is truly interactive as we've included customizable in-player action buttons enabling consumers to engage with Web content and more video content without leaving the video player," says AdMob VP Product Ali Diab. The in-player action buttons enable users to browse web sites, view additional videos, etc. while the video is playing.
See a Video from Webpronews
Monday, November 09, 2009
Google to Acquire AdMob
AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. AdMob’s says that people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Their product and engineering teams will keep building great products for their customers. Their sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Their business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.
After the deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. This deal will benefit advertisers, developers and publishers.
You can read more about this deal at www.admob.com/google.
After the deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. This deal will benefit advertisers, developers and publishers.
You can read more about this deal at www.admob.com/google.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Monday, October 05, 2009
AdSense is Now Available for Full HTML Mobile Sites
Many mobile devices are now featuring a full HTML web browsing experience. As a result, web developers have often created mobile sites that offer a richer experience than a page full of text links.
Google AdSense is now allowing publishers and web developers to use bigger ads than the typical tiny mobile display ads.
The AdSense team has developed a snippet of Javascript that's easy to embed on your mobile site that gives you more control over the ads displayed on your mobile site. If you're targeting all mobile devices or, for whatever reason, are unable to change your website, AdSense will detect the full HTML mobile browsers and serve up bigger ads for you.
Google AdSense is now allowing publishers and web developers to use bigger ads than the typical tiny mobile display ads.
The AdSense team has developed a snippet of Javascript that's easy to embed on your mobile site that gives you more control over the ads displayed on your mobile site. If you're targeting all mobile devices or, for whatever reason, are unable to change your website, AdSense will detect the full HTML mobile browsers and serve up bigger ads for you.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Live Motorola CLIQ / DEXT
The hardware is not exactly sexy, the software is really quite brilliant. This MOTOBLUR system takes all of your contacts and social networks and integrates them all into a really useful and usable system. You get all of your messages organized perfectly, and you can update status on one or all networks easily – all from the device’s 5 customizable home screens.
There is no multitouch support (yet), but apart from that, Motorola really seems to taking it to HTC and the Sense-based UI found on the Hero. It is going to give Palm a scare as well. For a company that’s never been good at UI design and software, the MOTOBLUR system on the CLIQ is really a very pleasant surprise.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Official Google Mobile Blog: The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data
Official Google Mobile Blog: The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data
now you can use Google Maps for mobile with GPS enabled on your phone. When you choose to enable Google Maps with My Location, your phone sends anonymous bits of data back to Google describing how fast you're moving.
now you can use Google Maps for mobile with GPS enabled on your phone. When you choose to enable Google Maps with My Location, your phone sends anonymous bits of data back to Google describing how fast you're moving.
Monday, August 10, 2009
2009 is A Great year for Mobile Ad
AdMob is getting ready to serve its 100 Billionth ad, and other AD firm’s states that mobile advertising is booming. The AdMob company notes that this is over 14 times the entire world population (as of 2008), 107 times the distance (in miles) to the sun. Suffice it to say, that's a lot of mobile advertising. And that's just from AdMob.
AdMob tells that smartphone shipments worldwide are projected to grow 13% this year. You can expect a lot more mobile advertising to come.
eMarketer estimates that there will be 280.8 million mobile phone subscribers by the end of the year. comScore says there will be 29 million smartphone users. eMarketer also projects that US mobile advertising spending will reach $760 million in 2009.
Remember that not that long ago, mobile used to mean simple WAP sites or worse, trying to view a traditional website with a sub-par transcoded experience. Mobile websites have come a long way since then and now provide a rich user experience optimized specifically for mobile.
More and more people are buying smartphones and mobile has become a real medium for advertisers & publishers. No longer for just early adopters, as smartphones have become mainstream, having a strong presence in the mobile landscape has become essential for both mainstream brands and emerging developers alike.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
iPhone 3G is Coming: Be prepared
AT&T Mobility and consumers marked will offer the iphone to its customers.
iPhone 3G S is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet, and we're extremely proud to offer it to our customers on the nation's fastest 3G network, We're also pleased to offer these innovative phones and plans at incredible values, including free Wi-Fi access at nearly 20,000 hot spots.
Pricing is as follows:
- iPhone 3G S will cost $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB) for new and qualifying customers.
- iPhone 3G will cost $99 (8GB) for new and qualifying customers.
- The 16 GB iPhone 3G will be available for $149 while supplies last.
The prices come with a two-year contract and approved voice and data plan. There are other options to purchase one without the contract.
75% of mobile search is done on iPhones. Around that time, we also learned that smartphone usage continues to grow despite even the economic downturn. Clearly the iPhone is the top dog
Specifications
Steve Jobs announces 3G iPhone
Friday, June 12, 2009
WolframAlpha On iPhone Mobile Search
The WolframAlpha Blog announced they have launched an iPhone mobile friendly version of their search engine. If you visit www.wolframalpha.com on your iPhone, you should see an iPhone friendly home screen. It looks like this:
The issue is, if you conduct any search, it doesn’t give you an iPhone friendly version of the results page. Yes, the iPhone loads the normal page just find, but I find it weird to announce an iPhone version of a search engine when the search results are not specifically iPhone friendly. Here is a picture of a search results page, which I had to pinch to look good:
The issue is, if you conduct any search, it doesn’t give you an iPhone friendly version of the results page. Yes, the iPhone loads the normal page just find, but I find it weird to announce an iPhone version of a search engine when the search results are not specifically iPhone friendly. Here is a picture of a search results page, which I had to pinch to look good:
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Google Launches Local Search Application for Android
A new app for Android, "Places Directory", that finds businesses that are close to your location. The app will list various business categories, such as restaurants, hotels and banks. Click on a category and get a listing with distance and star ratings. Click on an individual listing to see reviews and photos.
The app is available in the Android Market and initially supports English and Chinese. "Places Directory" is a Google Labs product.
The app is available in the Android Market and initially supports English and Chinese. "Places Directory" is a Google Labs product.
Monday, June 01, 2009
IPhone Gets Bigger as Ad Medium
In the past several months, companies such as Burger King Holdings Inc., Zippo Manufacturing Co. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. have experimented with promotional software applications that can be downloaded onto the iPhone, or they have created ads that are placed within other popular applications for the device.
From Wall Stree.
List of iPhone Advertiser Best Practices
Iphone Marketing & Advertising
Advertising to users on their devices is the most effective way to promote your application. While the quality of an app is the biggest driver of success, advertising can help users discover your app among the thousands of competing apps in the store. Below are some tips for success that we have learned working with our iPhone partners.
Advertising is most effective when launching a new app
A concentrated burst of downloads is the best way to maximize your ranking in the App Store. Combining downloads you receive as a new application with downloads generated from advertising can create a boost to your initial ranking. In addition, establishing a user base quickly means you receive product feedback, obtain user reviews, and gather usage data. You should also consider advertising when your app drops out of the Top 25 or Top 50 to keep it discoverable by users browsing these lists.
Read more
Advertising to users on their devices is the most effective way to promote your application. While the quality of an app is the biggest driver of success, advertising can help users discover your app among the thousands of competing apps in the store. Below are some tips for success that we have learned working with our iPhone partners.
Advertising is most effective when launching a new app
A concentrated burst of downloads is the best way to maximize your ranking in the App Store. Combining downloads you receive as a new application with downloads generated from advertising can create a boost to your initial ranking. In addition, establishing a user base quickly means you receive product feedback, obtain user reviews, and gather usage data. You should also consider advertising when your app drops out of the Top 25 or Top 50 to keep it discoverable by users browsing these lists.
Read more
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)