Ads On Android blog

Mobile Advertising Picking Up

May 23, 2010 – 12:00 am

Given all the recent attention about Android from Google I/O, the new Android 2.2 Froyo and interesting ads from AdMob and Adsense, I thought it was worth mentioning the recent momentum.

Food for thought, Android ad requests are growing: http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/millennials-android-ad-requests-grow-77-month-over-month/2010-05-21

It’s amazing to think that back when Android started there were no ads on it beyond just search engine ads in the mobile browser. Now we’re going to have many types of rich ads formats in apps: expandable image ads, expandable video ads, click to call ads, and interactive ads in apps. These sound great, and I’m also looking forward to the day when dynamic ads are shown in the mobile browser just as dynamically as they’ll be shown in the apps.

Here’s a snippet of video from Google I/O 2010 about the latest approach to advertising on Android: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8unC9bA4O8#t=5m50s

Here’s more broad info about the latest mobile ads info from Google: http://www.google.com/mobileads/

Posted in Google, advertising, android news | No Comments »

New AdSense Formats for Android

October 7, 2009 – 9:57 pm

Earlier this week over on the Official Adsense Blog they made a post about new ad formats for mobile publishers. At first this flew under my radar and felt like not a big deal, but it’s actually worth noting that there are now special ad formats for iPhone / Android web pages. You can *only* take advantage of this if you are using the specific mobile ad units. The mobile ad units are separate from the standard “Adsense for Content” units that you find under the “Get Ads” section.

The reason this is interesting is because most developers and site owners of high-end phone optimized sites are probably not using mobile ad units since the old units didn’t look as good as the standard units. Also the standard units showed up nicely on the site anyway (if a bit small). The new versions are good looking, sized better for mobile viewing, and worth implementing specifically for Android or iPhone optimized web sites.

You might ask, how do you serve a different page based on whether it’s a mobile browser vs a standard browser? I would use scripts like this.

Posted in advertising, mobile ads, mobile internet | No Comments »

Get the Official T-Mobile Visual Voicemail on the Android G1

August 1, 2009 – 1:10 pm

I’m not sure if this has been covered in the blogging world, but I wanted to blog about it since I now know that Visual Voicemail is possible on Android through T-Mobile. No missed call forwarding is necessary. It uses your current T-Mobile voicemail inbox and same setup remains intact. I have it set up on my own phone so I can confirm that it works. I can only confirm that it works in the USA, as I’m in Chicago. Here are the steps:

1. Call T-Mobile support and request them to activate the “Android” data plan. All G1 phones have been on the older data plan. This new data plan does not cost any extra, and the only difference (from what the T-Mobile rep told me) is that it allows for visual voice, which completed for the roll-out of the myTouch 3G, but G1 users are also free to use it.

2. Go to the Android Market and search for “visual voicemail”. Several apps will pop up, but you just need to download the one by T-Mobile.

3. Once the app is installed, run it and it will sync with any voicemails you currently have. You now have visual voicemail on your G1!

I’m pretty pleased because when I first got the G1 back in October 2008 I was a little disappointed that they didn’t include visual voicemail. Enjoy!

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

The easy way to get your ads on Android

May 4, 2009 – 8:17 pm

I realize this news is a few months old, but I’m using it to kick off a revitalization of the blog - there are finally business oportunities to be had on Android! (Apart from selling apps on the store… )

Google updated AdWords back on December 8, 2008 to target full HTML mobile browsers, which brings advertisers the first and most simple option to target Android phone users (albeit, only searchers). There are now over 1million of them! Now we can see what people are searching for when using mobile devices, whereas previously all data was lumped together in the AdWords reporting.

To gain visibility to only the Android / iPhone users, you would just build campaigns to target only full HTML browsers (set at the campaign level).

The mobile community of developers and entreprenuers still awaits the first mature Android ad network (at least to my knowledge, I did just see AdMob has something going, but their ads seem to be pure interruption ads). This will develop with time. Our network, Ads On Android, is still in the developing stage, but we are accepting inqueries from interested parties, both developers and businesses.

The key is to not let privacy and intrusion get too out of hand like this article fears. In time, I believe the community will produce an ecosystem that creates value for all, especially the user.

Posted in advertising, android news, business, mobile ads, mobile internet | 4 Comments »

Keeping the faith in Android: thanks Nola!

August 29, 2008 – 5:52 am

Nola if you’re reading this, thank you!

A month or 2 ago I was extremely close to buying an iPhone. The price was acceptable (except for ATT’s plan), everything was improved. Nothing really exciting was being said about Android.

But a conversation I had with a friend kept me at bay and now (with all the recent exciting news) I’m glad I waited. I’ll soon be a Tmobile customer (assuming Sprint doesn’t come out and announce anything imminet soon) and I’ll be working on the Android platform.

Give me a shout out in the comments if you read this!

Posted in Devices, Google, mobile internet | No Comments »

Part 1 (of 2): How to Advertise Your Business on Android

June 9, 2008 – 7:12 pm

This first part will discuss Android and mobile advertising strategies and how a business can get ready for the new environment. This series is intended for both application developers who want to know how businesses will view their productions from an aggregate agency level competitive point-of-view and businesses wanting to get in front of the Android wave. Surfs up!

The two problems we have as of the date of this writing are: 1. Android isn’t released yet so there is no network to test advertising on, and 2. the mobile web concept is so new and early that businesses don’t yet have the broad desire to buy ads or know how this will work.

But soon these problems will disappear. Android will be happily running on cheap phones for the masses, and businesses will want to interact with users in new, useful ways.

So what’s needed to get a business primed for advertising on the Android platform? The quick answer: scout applications where your business makes sense. Set up an agreement to advertise on them. Add value to users which turns them into customers.

But with all the long-tail publishers, how does a business pick and choose? Is signing up for AdWords Mobile Ads enough?

In an environment like this, many businesses will find it useful to develop a relationship with an ad network, and expect service from the network. First, it should be able to provide examples of how the business will interact with the Android users. If you don’t like what you see, then it isn’t good enough, and go somewhere else. Is the network simply pushing text pay per click or image / video ads onto a mobile browser through AdSense? While that’s one strategy, you don’t want to put all your eggs in the AdSense strategy. Surely you will need a mobile web savvy ad network to come up with the right keywords, creative, and be able to target mobile devices, but you’ll also want your ads to develop more useful, interactive experiences with your users. Consider whether you would enjoy interacting with your business in that way on the Android phone. Make sure you get a list of all the network’s top publishers and that you approve of the quality of those publishers and how they function.

After you establish a comfort level with the user experience the network provides, make sure that there are no strings attached to working with the network and that you have visibility to as much data and segmented reporting as possible. This foundation in the relationship ensures that details are easier to work out at every phase.

In Part 2 of this post, I’ll discuss the fun part for businesses - how do you make the ad relationship work for the business and generate return-on-investment, and how the movable web (mobile model) differs from the stationary web.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Google and Your Mobile Business Plan

May 28, 2008 – 7:50 pm

We don’t know everything about Google’s mobile strategy, but a recent Eric Schmidt interview on German website Faz is encouraging for those excited about upcoming mobile business prospects.

Highlights:

“By these products, the advertising gets more targeted because phones are personal. So targeted ads are possible. And that means the value of the ads will grow. The next big wave in advertising is the mobile internet.”

“Yes, mobile will be a larger business than the PC-Web. But it will take a few years.”

“…coming back to android: The kind of application that are now being build are not the ones I have seen before. They use GPS and mapping data to construct things that are positive surprises to me.”

“The advertising has to be more entertaining, more interesting, more immersive compared to what we have today. That is my opinion. We are not there yet but I am optimistic that it could work very well. What it needs to get there - trial and error.”

—–

Google will get a dominant position on the mobile web, and Android is the first step. But other companies will adapt and entire new other companies will sprout to fill out this market. Right now businesses (big and small, Microsoft, Yahoo, startups and old media) have to answer the questions -what role will they play? Where can you get a foot in the door?

Will you develop new applications that provide rich ad experiences? Will you enlist your company to participate in these programs? Getting in the game early will establish a strong position when it counts a few months and years from now.

Posted in advertising, android news, business, mobile ads, mobile internet | 1 Comment »

4 Most Desired Android App Ideas and Businesses

May 21, 2008 – 10:08 pm

Google says they got 50 times more searches on iPhones than any other mobile phones. No question that these new smart (brilliant) phones like iPhone and Android are game-changers for the cell phone and web industry.

Let’s take a look at what users currently look for and expect from their phones. According to this AOL mobile survey, users really want maps, camera, email, and messaging functionality. This is great, but it sounds like those surveyed by AOL were only thinking inside the box of their current low function phones.

My guess is that when Google got all those searches from iPhones, many of them were similar to the kinds of searches they get from desktops, but there had to be others which broke the mold. Mobile searchers might also be searching for a “restaurant” or “nightclub” but only want ones that are walking distance. iPhone couldn’t give that. Mobile search will train users to expect more from their search experiences, a big part of that being location relevancy on every existing vertical.

Free open software deployment is the revolution that Android brings. Developers are hard at work writing code, working on new ideas, revolutionizing how we approach the mobile web. They are defining the mobile web.

Here’s four ideas (and businesses, if you consider smart ad implementation) that I’d love to see:

1. A product search that only shows results within a defined distance of your GPS location. Ability to call vendor.

2. An event search that allows you to refine your search as “more like this”, “less like this”, determined by GPS.

3. A pure local business search - that allows you to get in touch with people and businesses that are offering products and services, within your location.

4. A social network that combines informational elements of Facebook with the real-time elements of Twitter and layers it with location and status - the ultimate short-term, real-time network. This should also be extensible and connected to a more grounded long-term network building system.

What programs will your Android or iPhone need most?

Be the first to kick things off in the comments!

Posted in Devices, Google, Ideas, business, mobile internet | 2 Comments »

Why did 4 of the Android Developer Challenge winners stay anonymous?

May 16, 2008 – 9:07 pm

Are they just that humble? Or maybe they’re keeping competitive projects under wraps? Why wouldn’t they want to share the project? Perhaps there are business implications that they are not ready to announce and want to let incubate before tipping off potential competitors?

Is there a killer business opportunity waiting out there for Android? Does it involve ads or something greater? How do you see yourself using cell phones to make purchases in the future - could your phone function as your credit card? Google filed a patent called GPay, basically Google Checkout on a cell phone. I’d use it.

Basically I want to get some ideas about these questions. If anyone has any musings, please comment or email me. Anonymous postings or hints from the silent winners will be honored and kept private.

Posted in Google, Ideas, advertising, business, mobile ads, mobile internet | No Comments »