Google Co-Founder Brin Sees New Mobile Ads Working Well

Google said its new AdWords graphical ads could be used in any combination with text-based versions. "For publishers, mobile image ads provide added flexibility. They can now choose to show text ads, image ads, or a mix of both and Google will dynamically return the ad that we expect will perform best at the time the ad is shown," Alexandra Kenin, Google Mobile Ads product marketing manager wrote in a Wednesday entry on the company's mobile blog.

Google adds text below each AdWords mobile display ad labeling it as an advertisement, providing what Kenin calls "a new way to interact with mobile content." Some analysts have expressed concern that showing mobile ads on small mobile device screens may make it harder for cell phone users to find what they are looking for, however Google will display only one image ad on each Web page, and Kenin contends that with Google's mobile display ads "you can uninhibitedly browse mobile websites."

Google Begins Delivering Mobile Display Advertisements

Google co-founder Sergey Brin spoke about the effectiveness of mobile ads during last week's earnings conference call. "The mobile ads work very well," Brin said after reporting first quarter gross revenue of $5.19 billion. "There's nothing to dissuade me it would be any worse than traditional desktop search," added Brin. Google enters a relatively young and wide open mobile advertising field with rivals that include embattled Web pioneer Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL's Third Screen Media and Silicon Valley mobile network AdMob.

Google said that it will deliver mobile display ads based on the searches users conduct on their mobile devices, and that the service will work on a cost-per-click pricing system which only charges advertisers for those ads a user clicks. Google, which requires the new mobile display ads link to specially optimized mobile Web pages, said existing publishers using AdSense for mobile can begin using the new graphical ads after updating a portion of their existing code. "Publishers who are already using AdSense for mobile content just need to update their AdSense code to start displaying mobile ads on their site," Kenin noted in the Wednesday blog entry.

Not Yet Available In All Countries, Starting With 27 National Markets

The mobile image ads are presently available to advertisers in the United States and United Kingdom, and to those targeting audiences in the following 27 countries:

	Australia		Austria
	Belgium		Canada
	Denmark		Finland
	France		Germany
	Greece		India
	Ireland		Italy
	Japan		Korea
	The Netherlands		Norway
	Poland		Russia
	Singapore		South Africa
	Spain		Sweden
	Switzerland		Taiwan

Google mobile image ads are only displayed on mobile carriers in these countries, the company said. "For advertisers, mobile image ads serve as a branding tool and have shown to have good clickthrough rates," Kenin noted.

Banners Offered In Four Sizes

Google has made banners available in four sizes, from the smallest at 167 pixels wide by 30 pixels tall to the largest at 305 pixels wide by 64 pixels tall, plus medium size banners of 215 by 34 and 192 x 53, all of which are likely to occupy a fairly large portion of the typical mobile device screen, which is 320 x 200 pixels.

Google's entry into the mobile display advertising fray is likely only the latest salvo in its mobile-based push toward achieving the same type of domination it has won in the personal computer-based online advertising market.