Does Google's Mobile AdSense Make Sense?

While participating in one of my weekly “Scramble-off’s” on my iPhone against my father last month, I couldn’t help but notice a variety of banner ads that appear when I open up the word game application. Of course in an accidental panic to commence the next round with a 3-2-1 countdown, my finger touched one of these ads with an unexpected trip out of my gaming experience to a browser window. Although I may be annoyed by the placement and frequency of ads such as these while I’m trying to participate in a leisurely iPhone activity, I wonder if I could potentially find this sort of Internet advertising beneficial while surfing the Internet on my mobile device, especially with the implementation of Google’s newest Adsense format geared towards “high-end smartphones”.

Taking advantage of the latest cell phone technology, Google has created an optimized mobile ad format for its market-targeting tool, AdSense. The Apple iPhone, Palm Pre and Android phones are among the lucky smartphones chosen to operate this platform, which aims to place targeted advertisements from Google’s ad network in web browsers while users are surfing the Internet on their mobile devices. Companies will be able to earn money by displaying these Google ads on their page and collect money from click-throughs. But how much will these display ads affect the ease of my mobile web surfing?

Because Google’s intentions are to ease the interaction between business and consumer, experts have created a high-speed format that will load at a bearable speed for users. There is less bandwidth available on mobile networks so the Javascript snippet was written with fast code in order to ensure a speedy mobile display. These snippets are able to identify when a high-end phone user visits certain web sites. It sends a code to the site and then displays an advertisement on the mobile device’s browser page.

While I think some Internet ads are beneficial to consumers, especially when the messages are targeted, I find mobile advertising to be more intrusive because of the smaller browser window. It’s already difficult to read the text on some web sites without extreme zooming, but if I’m unable to see the information I intend to view because of a banner ad, I might get frustrated. This could cause consumers to view a brand in a negative light due to the inconvenience their advertising caused.

Mobile marketing is becoming more and more popular and is becoming one of the most effective ways for businesses to communicate their messages to consumers. Juniper Research has estimated a rise in mobile advertising to go from $1.4 billion in 2009 to around $6 billion in 2014. With a prospective increase in mobile advertising like that, it’s no wonder Google is hoping to take advantage of this shift from traditional marketing to interactive methods.

While I realize the time people spend with their phones is becoming more intimate than their relationships with their loved ones, I’m not sure how people will react to Google’s new AdSense format. I understand these ads will target niche markets, but I think it might be hard for consumers to maneuver around these ads on a mobile platform. The personalization of Internet advertising makes it bearable for users because of opt-outs, but I find mobile marketing to be more intrusive and harder to avoid, which could lead to frustrations by users. I agree that the mobile scene will be an important place to market to consumers in the future. I think as long as the platforms are manageable for users, they’ll be a success for both businesses and their consumers.

An internetnews.com article by Michelle Megna inspired this blog entry: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3842391