Google introduces image ads for mobile phones

Google, the search-engine giant, plans to further enhance its stature in the mobile advertising industry by introducing brand-image ads for mobile phones. The company is keen on extending beyond that brand image largely associated with the Internet.

The company is going to step into the mobile advertising industry by offering mobile images, which are similar to the standard graphical display ads for desktop computer web pages. However, these images are reduced in size to fit on mobile-phone screens. Additionally, all mobile image ads are targeted keeping in mind the keywords that users type into phones to search for various types of information. These ads are priced on a cost-per-click basis, and are linked to web pages specially optimised to work on mobile phones. Only one image ad is displayed on each mobile page, which makes the page appear less cluttered on small screens.

The marketing manager of Google, Alexander Kenin, stated mobile image ads serve as a branding tool for advertisers and are noted to have good click-through rates. These mobile image ads are available in 13 national markets, including the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Australia, France, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the US and the UK.

Lawsuit filed against Google adwords

A federal class action lawsuit has been filed against Google for its allegedly charging customers for ads that they do not want to access, view or subscribe. Users, in the process for signing up for Adwords, usually specify the maximum bid for the PPC advertising programme, the complainant pointed out. There are two options given by Google to the users as to where they want their ads served. There is a box, which displays ads on its properties, whereas another optional box can be used by them to bid for ads served on Google’s partner sites.

The problem seems that if the second box is left blank by the user, Google still continues to display the ads on third-party sites thereby charging customers, based on the amount specified in the first box, when they actually should not be charged. This situation formed the basis of the lawsuit since customers were charged for the ads they were not aware of.

Google is hurting its customers on two fronts. It is not only taking money out of customers’ pockets but also derailing their advertising strategies as well

Said Brian Kabateck, lead counsel on the case at the US district Court, Northern District of Carolina in San Jose. He further added:

Ads on third-party sites are widely-acknowledged to be far less effective (and therefore less valuable to the advertiser) than ads on Google.com. Google, of course, still profits (greatly) from these ads.

MIVA Media signs U.S. and U.K. Pay-Per-Click Agreements with Greenlight Wireless

One of the leading digital advertising networks MIVA media revealed its UK and US pay-per-click agreements with the wireless technology compamy, Greenlight Wireless. According to the agreement, MIVA’s Pay-Per-Click ads will be made accessible to consumers visiting Greenlight Wireless’ portfolio of U.S. and U.K. partner sites from their mobile phones.

The network includes national news, entertainment and network operator sites, which generate approximately 30 million mobile searches per month. Plus, these ads will be made accessible to mobile users using Greenlight Wireless’ Skweezer service, a free service that compresses and re-formats web pages, thus, making them easier to view and navigate via mobile phones and PDAs.

With these implementations and using Greenlight Wireless’ proprietary contextual technology, MIVA’s Pay-Per-Click ads will be displayed alongside site content on users’ handsets. MIVA has been trying and testing mobile ad delivery with this company in the U.S. for the past six months. However, owing to these new agreements the campaign will now be displayed across the U.S. and U.K. According to Kevin Perkins, CEO, Greenlight Wireless, the company will now be able to get around three of the fundamental issues facing mobile marketing today – diverse technology, advertiser depth, and content availability. He also confirmed that these agreements will allow MIVA’s advertisers to market to mobile websites without the need to plan or buy campaigns separately.

Google to get more stringent in its enforcement of AdWords URL policy

Google has made an official announcement that it’ll start enforcing its existing AdWords URL policy in a more stringent manner from April 1. Even though this particular display URL policy is already there, a new post on the official blog of Google AdWords indicates that the Internet giant will no longer allow any exception to the implementation of its policy guidelines.

Though the enforcement will not have an impact on all advertisers, it’s still an important development. Advertisers, who fail to meet the policy guidelines, may face disruption to their advertisements and also the prospect of future disapprovals. Google’s aim is to initiate policies, which are consistent, adaptable and fair. However, there’s a speculation that Google would now have the scope to increase its revenue flow by charging them more when they’re not allowed to show a different URL.

It’s broadly being believed that the move is a reaction to increasing complaints of advertisers, claiming that their competitors are acting in an unfair manner when it comes to URLs. Now, all advertisers with display URLs will have to comply with Google’s AdWords policy. The stringent enforcement policy will become applicable invariably to all its advertisers, irrespective of past approvals and will comprise redirects as well as vanity URLs.

Google Launches Adsense For Video Program

Google is on the verge of releasing its Adsense for Video program. Adsense for Video allows advertisers an option to users to use video or text ads in their videos. These Adsense units will be superimposed on a small section of the video viewer, implanted on individual sites. Adsense for Video will be rolled out at first with Google’s 20 partner web sites such as Revver and Blip.tv (both of them are video aggregator sites, Brightcover and Yume (both are video technology companies) and others.

This program will formally pit Google in direct competition with companies like VideoEgg that is also known for running online video advertising. Like its conventional Adsense units, video ads will also be targeted depending on the content of the videos as well as the sites where all these videos will be show. This will ensure that we do not get distracted with inappropriate ads on the online videos that we will watch.

The new Adsense for Video will be primarily available to U.S. sites not considering of how much videos are actually streamed. For videos that belong to the advertisers who are outside of the U.S., this program can be put into practice if the site has the capability to stream at least one million videos per month.