Will King Kong Google Mobile Crush Admob?
by Debi Jones
One of the criticisms that I’ve heard again and again from mobile publishers is on the scarcity of inventory for mobile ads. Now, that Google Adsense is entering the game that issue should be settled. Google’s Adwords already has a released mobile ads program. And with the upcoming release of Adsense for mobile, the game changes for smaller players including, Admob, who claims to be the world’s largest mobile ad network. Enjoy it while it lasts boys.
Inventory isn’t Admob’s biggest problem with King Kong Google. Admob’s ads are not contextual. Google Adsense has peeled that banana on the web, so one must expect the contextual ad service for mobile, as well. The absence of relevance in Admob’s product strategy leaves them extremely vulnerable. Web surfers using mobiles will have less tolerance for irrelevant advertising taking up precious real estate on their small screens, and interrupting, rather than, engaging them on their personal device.
Admob’s one year head start won’t mean much when Google turns on Adwords, Adsense and their new content search for mobiles. Admob’s attempts to leverage the long tail via sharing video ads seems ill conceived. I can’t really see spending on MMS for sharing ads with individuals. However, if those MMS were directed to a web-based social networking site where one message is viewable by all of one’s friends or the world, then, maybe. YouTube certainly has it’s share of ad sharing and ad mashups. Not always to the delight of the advertiser, though.
Another point of comparison is the appearance of ads from Admob v. Google Adsense.
Admob ads examples from their website.
Google Adsense for mobile
The Admob ads are difficult to discern as being ads. Whereas, the Adsense display is clearly an advertisement. Publishers should take care that their audience doesn’t feel dupped into following ad links. It’s just something to consider.
In addition to using MMS for sharing video ads, Admob also employs SMS to deliver ads. Their partnership with VoiceSignal, a voice to text search service, embeds an ad with the SMS search result delivery. On the Google side of advermessaging, a short code based search service is already in their mobile product portfolio, and in keeping with Google’s search placement sales, one would expect this search to be monetized similarly. And finally, we shan’t neglect voice in the advermessaging lineup which is instituted via “click-to-call” by both companies.
The future of messaging for mobile will not escape advertising and in many cases we will find the ad is the message. However, in this Indy world (others would have written user generated content world, but I digress…) ad networks continue to be the primary resource for revenue across all platforms and across all media. So? Get ready for advermessaging as a primary component of the future of mobile messaging.
Does Admob have anything working in it’s favor over The Goog? The tiny company discloses it’s revenue splits with publishers. This is a topic that has been a concern for many of Adsense’s web publishers. Google does not provide revenue split data despite many requests and demands to disclose and be transparent.
Some of our readers are aware of my recent comedy with Google Adsense support, and some may be not be. The outcome of my experience with Adsense support was to close my Adsense account. So, my bet is that Admob’s opportunity against King Kong Google comes from their transparency and their superior customer service (they need to get it, if they don’t have it). Admob can’t take on Google in the arenas of technology or features, so if their focus is on those fronts - it’s lights out time. If however, Admob can develop a superior customer service offering, then we can anticipate advertisers and publishers will reward the company handsomely.
Advermessaging - coming to a phone near, um, in your pocket.
