Is The AdMob and Adwords Marriage a Win-Win for All PPC Advertisers?

Google recently announced that their past acquisition of the AdMob mobile advertising is now a seamless part of AdWords, which, in essence, will make it easier for advertisers to start spending ad dollars on over 350 million mobile devices and top mobile apps. Ironically, Google claims that they “made a big bet on mobile – and on mobile display advertising” but I hardly doubt it was much of a bet, just a good decision. In this post, I will discuss the benefits and drawbacks from this latest “Tech Marriage.”

Mobile Display Platform Details

• AdWords advertisers’ can get access to the entire inventory of mobile apps within the AdWords interface just like with display advertising.
• Advertisers will have the ability to create, manage and optimize mobile campaigns across multiple platforms
• Advertiser will have full transparency about where their mobile ads run. (interesting….)
• Advertisers are given a global reach with 23 countries
• Advertisers can now reach individuals by targeting specific smartphone or tablet device models or by particular manufacturer brand
• Advertisers can reach their desired audience by selecting from the categories available in the Google Play Store (e.g. ‘Games’) or App Store and search for individual apps

Here are some screenshots provided by Google:

Adwords Mobile Display Campaign Setup Example

Adwords Mobile Display Targeting Options

Mobile Display is Not for All Advertisers Even though Google now makes it easier for advertisers to spend more money with them, doesn’t mean that advertisers should. Google does a great job making it easy for advertisers spend money. However, agencies and advertisers themselves need to be very careful that this latest “shiny new object” in the sky could actually be a “Class A Thermal Detonator” (for you you Star Wars geeks out there). But seriously, there will be advertisers who will re-allocate budgets and/or just throw money at mobile and assume everything is going to be fine. That’s not the case, unfortunately. My advice would be to create a series of small testing strategies surrounding GEO, Demographics and detailed categories. I would also emphasize that Google has yet been able to provide estimates on the number of devices  and impressions.   In Conclusion: There is no doubt, that the AdMob and Google Marriage is a terrific addition to the Adwords platform and advertisers should embrace this enhancement to their online strategy. My only concern is for Advertisers who are new to mobile should be careful not to spend their entire budgets on it, as it may take away performance from Search and Display.