Ads On Android blog

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

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.

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Google and Your Mobile Business Plan

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 | No Comments »

4 Most Desired Android App Ideas and Businesses

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?

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 »

Article Roundup: Android Business and Mobile Ad Possiblities

Here’s some the best discussions I’ve found so far concerning the new mobile Internet:

How Will Android Make Money? The Mobile Advertising Market

Advertisements in Google Android Applications - Android Guys give their thoughts

First Ad Platform For Android Introduced - from a company called Relevantis

The Holy Grail - Tracking Offline Conversions

Geo-Ads and Mobile Internet Business Discussion - from Google-Phone.com

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

7 Ways Ads on Android Will Be Awesome

The strange thing about the mobile web is that it’s not even in its infancy yet, metaphorically speaking. Viewing Youtube videos demonstrating apps from the Android Dev Challenge is like watching the ultrasound of the mobile web.  Let’s spin this discussion back to the ads - here’s 7 ways ads on Android will be awesome:

1. The ads will feel even less like ads, and thus less intrusive to users.

2. They won’t have to be different than ads that currently flourish on the good ‘ole web. You could stick with simple text ads if Google’s basic search is your app of choice.

3. Independent Android developers will get to create trusted systems that outshine current ad platforms and make use of new mobile cornerstones: camera, gps, phone, and the new mobile user’s mindset.

4. Digital ad agencies will get to play with these new aps and become even greater wizards to their clients.

5. Digital ads will finally interact with offline conversions and track offline sales. Privacy question: Would you allow Nordstrom to track your phone’s GPS for analytics purposes to see whether your mobile search on Google converted to an in-store sale?

6. For those financially vested in the Internet (Google stock owners), this could bring the next phase of the web’s maturation, and keep up Google’s crazy market growth. Bonus: because of offline conversions, rest of ad industry also benefits.

7. Businesses and wannabe mobile gurus will stop pretending that WAP sites are worth anyone’s time.

Do these excite you, sound scary, spark any ideas for new apps?

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Another Android blog … with a purely ads twist!

The first Google Android programs are just being conceived, but it’s time to open this can of worms: mobile advertising on Android and the mobile web.

This blog won’t ignore the developer oriented stuff because it’s all related and central to what’s happening now in the industry. But I also realize that a lot of other blogs are covering that and you can get a better fix of that from them.

Whenever possible, I’ll cover the Mobile Advertising angle. Right now mobile ads are like the lazy good-for-nothing member of your advertising portfolio. But a lot of people expect that to change.

Check out Google’s current official write-up about their mobile ads offering. These days users land on a WAP enabled site or transfer to a click-to-call engagement with the advertiser. This translates into a pittance of advertising activity.

Imagine yourself using this new Android program called Scan (recently announced as a winner of the Android Developer Challenge). It returns reviews, information and shopping listings based on bar codes captured with the phone’s camera. The obvious advertising tie-in is to place product ads that relate to the item in the “for sale” section.

One of the challenges for Android will be determining where advertising is relevant and useful. Knowing Google and like-minded developers and business people, user response will most certainly help dictate the best implementation of these new mobile ads.

And that makes advertisers happy.

Posted in android news, mobile ads | No Comments »