Google launches adsense beta for mobile apps
June 25th, 2009Google announced via their mobile blog today that they have launched a beta version of adsense for mobile apps.
Adsense for apps means inserting ‘context relevant’ mobile ads into applications and comes off the back of what google describes as a successful trial period.
Inserting ads into applications certainly seems like a good idea from a app publishers point of view. In theory ads can help fund an application, especially those that are given away for free. Inserting ads that are relevant to the app and its users makes even more sense, right? Better targeting means more clicks, means better results for publishers and advertisers. So far so good.
What about the user, what do they get out of ads inserted into applications? One could argue that what they get is a free app, i.e. without ads supporting app developer’s revenues, then the apps won’t continue to exist. So, shut yer face and stop complaining.
However, ads that take the user away from the application can seem rather counter-intuitive from a usage point of view. The ads that we’ve seen on some of the trial platforms are sometimes appearing on key screens and at key user journey points. Clicking on them takes the user away from the app, and can interrupt the user journey. It’s pretty much the same model as we’ve seen on mobile internet display ads. You are either consuming content or engaging with an ad, you can’t do both.
In some cases the destination sites that the trial ads have been pointing to have been full size PC web sites. Still, just a trial, right, so maybe in the future advertisers will be encouraged to build a re-formatted site, or plug into a transformation engine, or better still just build a simple mobile campaign site.
Another option, in our opinion, is for the publisher to actually host the campaign within the confines of the application. What this means is that the advertiser effectively takes over a part of the app, it can be a window onto a mobile site (transparent within the app), along with banner calls to action, so it doesn’t even require much bespoking in terms of format. What it would have though is a ‘back button’ back to the app, so once you are done with the ad ‘pages’, you can carry on with your app activity. We think this would improve CTRs (as consumer’s would be less reluctant to ‘break’ their activity, as they are actually only ‘pausing’) and allow for a more seamless experience.
Whatever the destination. We think than in-app advertising needs an approach that recognises that their are times when it is good for the user to click on an ad, and times when it is less desirable. We’ve advised on this in the past, nothing earth-shattering, but we think that, amongst other things, ads should appear at natural break points in the user journey, ideally when the core commercial or functional activities have been completed.
SimonManaging Director
www.welovemobile.co.uk















