With Google AdMob, The Economist garners new readers amongst young, on-the-go professionals

How does a 168-year old publication stay young? Continuous innovation.

The weekly newspaper was founded in 1843 by an enterprising Scotsman, the British publication has, right from the start, steadily served up business and political news, analysis, and opinion to both U.K. and U.S. readers.

The publication has embraced the digital zeitgeist with an archival-based website and web-only content that includes blogs, debates, and audio/video programs. It has also made editions available on Android, iPhone, and iPad. Users can download the apps for free access to the editor’s weekly selection of six must-read articles. Full access is available by subscription.

Mobilizing an app strategy

Determined to further broaden its readership and accessibility, The Economist turned to mobile  marketing strategies in order to tap into the burgeoning base of young, on-the-go professionals. Working with ad agency Neo@Ogilvy, the publication chose mobile advertising network Google AdMob to target a desired demographic: 25-to-35 year-olds exhibiting intellectual curiosity, thirst for current news, and a predilection for high-tech content delivery. The initial markets targeted were Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Phase I of The Economist campaign took place over 4.5 months from November 19, 2010 to March 31, 2011. Banner and text ads ran on AdMob’s network and targeted users of both Apple iPhone and iPad.




Reaching new market audiences

The campaign significantly raised awareness of The Economist among mobile consumers both within the overall group and amongst target consumers. Additionally, the campaign was significantly well received amongst those interested in news and current affairs where the campaign had a directional impact on awareness, brand favorability and purchase intention.

In particular, the iPad audience had an increase in intent to purchase a single issue/subscribe to The Economist after exposure, indicating that the campaign was able to positively change perceptions among this group.

Neo@Ogilvy also conducted a corollary study of 105 mobile-device users fitting the targeted 25-35 demographic. Of the group sampled, 47.1% of those exposed to the mobile ads indicated a willingness to purchase a subscription to The Economist on the iPad as opposed to only 32.7% of the control group not exposed to the ads. This difference in intent to purchase exceeded the 80th percentile confidence level, indicating a positive impact on branding, according to BrandMetrics.

Overall, the campaign was effective in reaching new audiences that differ in demographics and media consumption than the traditional core reader of The Economist. By demonstrating directional improvements in brand awareness, brand favourability and purchase intention, the campaign results show that advertising on the mobile web offers a new opportunity for The Economist, including targeting the fast-growing base of Android users in the near future. By enabling discovery, branding, and monetization on the mobile web, AdMob has become a critical media platform for a publication with a venerable past and a bright future.

Posted by: Christian Cadeo, Head of Mobile, Southeast Asia
 

Better together: new insights on display ad effectiveness across screens & multi-screen case study from adidas

Rich Media Display Ads Across Screens = Better Together
We partnered with Nielsen to measure the incremental impact of multi-screen advertising. In a study conducted at CBS’s Television City media lab run by Nielsen, study participants were asked to view related content across TV, PCs, smartphones and tablets. A 15-second video ad promoting Volvo's S60 sedan was shown to different groups of participants, with some people seeing no ads, and others seeing the ad on a different combinations of screens controlling for frequency.

The results clearly demonstrated the impact that multi-screen advertising has on branding. In the group that was exposed to TV ads alone, 50% of people correctly attributed the ad to Volvo. For groups that saw the ad across all screens -- TV, PC, smartphone and tablet -- the brand recall jumps dramatically to 74%.


Similarly, only 22% of the group that was exposed to just the TV ad correctly recalled that the ad was for a 4-door sedan versus 39% of the group that saw the ad across all screens.

 

We share this ad effectiveness research on the heels of our recently released internal data on multi-screen usage patterns revealing how users select the type of screen they are interacting with at different points in their day (New! Search data reveal that when the sun goes down, the tablets come out).  The multi-screen opportunity is looming for advertisers so we wanted to share these new insights and showcase examples of successful integrated digital display campaigns.

Smart advertisers are already running integrated digital campaigns.
We’ve worked with hundreds of advertisers who have translated their desktop search and display goals to mobile and now to tablets.  One example we’ve shared previously is the Animal Planet case study, and today we want to share a new example: adidas.  adidas, in partnership with Carat, worked with Google to extend their video brand message to digital. With Google’s unique cross-channel capabilities, adidas was able to extend its video creative across all digital platforms, adapting them for engagement across PCs, smartphones and tablets.

Posted by:  Johanna Werther & Ben Chung, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Webinar Recap: "From Why to How?"

Last week, we presented a webinar,“Going Mobile: From Why to How?” on the five fundamental components to a mobile advertising strategy to help you get started. Google Product Marketing Manager, Sonja Lee and Mobile Specialist, Angela Sherman presented key statistics surrounding the current state of the mobile landscape, particularly looking ahead into the holiday season, and presented a deep dive on the five things that every mobile advertiser should do:

1. Mobilizing your web presence
2. Set up separate mobile-only campaigns
3. Think Local with Mobile
4. Utilize mobile-unique ad formats
5. Track and optimize your mobile performance

To learn more, download the Mobile Site Optimization webinar slides or watch the recording of the event on the Google Mobile Ads YouTube Channel or below.





Posted by: Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

New! Search data reveal that when the sun goes down, the tablets come out

Are you reading this post from your PC at work, from your mobile phone as you wait in line at a cafe or from your tablet at home before bed?  The screen a user chooses to engage with is largely driven by context and users are matching their device type to their situation.  At Google Mobile Ads, we’re interested in the way the proliferation of these screens is impacting user behavior, especially search behavior.  We looked separately at searches from tablets, PCs and mobile devices.  The data show that during the workday users are searching from their computers and they use smartphones steadily throughout the day with a lift during commute time and in the evening.  Tablet usage spikes dramatically in the evening.  While both tablets and mobile are portable devices that can be used in a variety of places, this data points to the fact that tablets are used primarily at home as “lean back” devices while sitting on the couch, whereas smartphone devices may be used in a similar way but are also used in the office and on-the-go throughout the day. 

Google Internal Data 2011. % of each platform's traffic shown hourly for one day. Does not indicate absolute or relative traffic volumes.

If you’re an advertiser, you might be wondering which is the best screen to reach your customers on. The answer is: all of them. These screens are better together. Each screen fills a specific need state consumers have for information at different, complementary points in the day.  Failing to invest in any of these three digital screens not only leaves the door open for competitors to engage with your customers, but also could mean a missed opportunity for brand awareness and sales either on the device itself or through driving potential customers into your place of business.  

Posted by Johanna Werther, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

Box drives awareness and acquires new users with Google Mobile Ads

Box, a Silicon Valley based start-up focused on providing solutions in online content management, has been growing exponentially since it launched in 2005. Box has seen success with their online advertising campaigns but wanted to ensure they were in front of all prospective clients, so they tested mobile as another way to acquire new users.  With Google Mobile Ads, Box was able to setup a mobile-targeted search campaign in just minutes. In the first month of running mobile search ads, more than 30% of Box’s overall conversions from Google came from their mobile campaigns, demonstrating the great potential for B2B businesses on mobile.

Hear more from Box below in the video case study about their experience on mobile and advertising with Google.



You can download the entire case study PDF here.

Posted by: Mike Schipper, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Mobile website optimization now factors into mobile search ads quality

The best consumer experiences on mobile devices happen on websites that are designed for mobile. We all know the difference that sites designed for mobile make in pure usability - they are designed for the smaller touchscreen, making it easy to find what you are looking for and interact with. We believe that giving consumers the best possible experience on their mobile device is critically important. A poor mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of a brand or company and make it hard for them to engage or make a purchase. A recent study which asked users about the performance of mobile websites found that 61% of users# are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone.  

Last year, we began to limit ad serving on high-end mobile devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content. This was an initial step taken to improve the experience for mobile users. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing the mobile optimization of a website as a new factor of ads quality for AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile search traffic. As a result of this change, ads that have mobile optimized landing pages will perform better in AdWords -- they will generally drive more mobile traffic at a lower cost.

We encourage you to visit the website for your business on a mobile phone, and experience your site as your customers do. If your site is not mobile optimized, we are committed to helping you get started. We recently launched a free Google Sites tool to help you create simple mobile pages. Here is a webinar that has useful best practices for mobile sites. There are case studies from businesses who created successful mobile sites, and a series of blog posts (1, 2, 3) with tips on how to build a mobile friendly site. These are some resources that can help businesses get started.  

Stay tuned to the Google Mobile Ads blog for news of upcoming events and initiatives related to mobile site optimization.

Posted by David Nachum, Product Manager, Mobile Ads

France, Germany, United Kingdom, it’s time to Get Mobilized!

However you say it, Get Mobilized, Jouez La Carte Mobile, Mobil Werben or Get Mobilised, the time for mobile is now! With our Get Mobilized website now available in 3 new languages there has never been a better time for your business to join the mobile revolution. Don’t feel left out Japanese readers, you can モバイル最適化のおすすめ too! Your version is due to drop soon, keep your eyes on this blog for more information.

You just have to look around you to see how smartphones are radically changing the way consumers connect the real world with the online world. They are out and about, their smartphones are with them 24/7, they need your services and 82% of US smartphone users notice mobile ads. Is your business ready for them? They are searching more and more, in fact, at Google, we are seeing mobile search grow at an exponential rate, increasing five-fold worldwide in just the past two years - a rate comparable to the early days of desktop Google Search. No matter what your business size, you can get started with a few some simple steps to connect with your customers and grow your business with mobile advertising.

From tips on optimizing your mobile campaign performance to how to drive more calls to your business, there’s lots of getting started resources with short videos explaining the benefits of each key mobile ad solution. Want more clicks? Want more calls? Want more customers in your store? We’ll show you how.

Begin on the path to mobile advertising success by watching this introduction to mobile advertising video and don’t forget to Get Mobilized!

Posted by Jon Garwood, Google Mobile Ads Marketing Team

United Kingdom

Germany

France

+1 coming to mobile display ads

Incorporating social recommendations into display advertising will make ads more relevant for users and impactful for advertisers. Today the Google+ project is expanding to the Google Display Network.  

The +1 button will start to roll out on AdSense for Mobile Content publishers for both text and image ads by early October.

The +1 button will appear on the left side of the ad and recommendations will appear for several seconds, then  

fade out.

Advertisers interested in learning more about the +1 button can view today’s announcement or the AdWords help center for more details.

In the next several weeks, we will share the details of how developers can incorporate +1 ads into their mobile applications.  Mobile web publishers who prefer not to show the +1 button can opt out starting today by signing in to your account at google.com/adsense.

We’re excited with the broad consumer engagement with the +1 button throughout the web.  Find out more about the latest developments to the Google+ project here.

Posted by Neha Pattan, Software Engineer, Mobile Ads

Reminder: Sign up for “Going Mobile: From Why to How?”

We know that many of you have spent the better half of this year learning about how big the opportunity is to reach your customers on mobile. This Wednesday (9/21/11), we’re taking on a deeper dive of the five things every advertiser needs to have to get their business mobilized in a webinar, “Going Mobile: From Why to How?".

Are you ready to take your business and your clients forward with mobile? Sign up for our webinar today. To register, please visit this link: goo.gl/KFpeb

We look forward to seeing you on September 21st!

Posted by Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads

MTV Roadies connects with youth using AdMob mobile display

India’s wildly popular MTV “Hero Honda” Roadies emulates the tried-and-true reality genre that has existed in some form almost from the get-go in television programming. Now in its eighth season on MTV, the youth-based show—with multi-lingual participants conversing in a mélange of Hindi and English—has expanded beyond the borders of India to encompass seasons in Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Africa, and, most recently, South America. When MTV wants to pique interest and engender buzz about the latest series, they now turn confidently to Google AdMob—one of the world’s largest mobile-advertising networks—to reach their core show audience of 18 to 24 year olds.

AdMob reaches the roadie
Roadies’ Gen Y version features a mismatched group of guys and gals and their adventures as they dash around a country—on eye-catching Honda motorbikes no less—completing myriad tasks and challenges. These consist of “Money tasks,” “Advantage tasks,” or “Immunity tasks,” the third of which grants immunity from the dreaded “vote-out” at the hands of their team members. Tasks can be either individual- or team-based and the final surviving “roadie” happily pockets the cumulative cash.  
 

MTV Roadies ad opens to an interactive experience

 
Reaching a young, mobile-savvy customer
In debuting MTV Roadies 8—set in exotic Brazil—the producers based their marketing campaign on Google AdMob to generate online excitement in the imminent launch. Targeting their core demographic of young smartphone-wielding males and females with a predilection for reality TV, the marketers created compelling banner ads that appeared across screens of a variety of downloadable apps. Users who clicked through to the mobile-optimized Roadies website could either view show previews, download special content, or participate in a relevant contest with goodies and vouchers.
 
Because the targeted audience comprises the heaviest users of mobile handsets in India, MTV’s marketing team confidently expected healthy return-on-investment (ROI) for their advertising efforts. The data gleaned from Google Analytics exceeded their predictions. One quarter-million cellular users clicked through to the Roadies site and 80% of those, almost 200,000, then took the time to download show content or play different contests.

"We’re thrilled that we were able to capture so much attention during ourlatest mobile campaign and know that our Google mobile-ads strategy was instrumental in these results,” says Aditya Swamy, Senior Vice President MTV India.  “From the tremendous online interest garnered before the first episode, we’re now predicting that our eighth season could well be our strongest.

Based on these results, there will be no “vote-out” for Google AdMob as MTV plans its next mobile ad campaign for the popular show’s 9th season.

Post by Mahesh Narayanan, Google India

Smartphones at the dinner table? Smartphone trend-spotting "down under"

Here’s a question for all of you smartphone owners out there: If someone asked you whether you’d rather give up your phone or your TV, what would you say?

Earlier this year, Google teamed up with IPSOS Research to learn the answer to this exact question (and many others) by asking 30,000 people in 30 countries about how they use their smartphones, and where (on the bus? at the office?). It’s the first time anyone has asked this many people the same questions, for free: that means we can compare and contrast behaviour and trends across different age groups, different cities, and even countries.

So what did we learn about Australia? To start with, those of us at Google Australia were particularly proud to discover that Australia has the second highest smartphone penetration in the world -- ahead of the US, UK, and Japan. This is a recent achievement for the land down under. The majority of smartphone owners we surveyed had bought their device in the preceeding 12 months, which means that Australia went from lagging to leading the worldwide smartphone revolution in just one year. We estimate that each month, 1-2% of the entire population of Australia buys a smartphone.

Here are a few other fun facts we found when we took a look at the numbers:

• Not just on the go: You may think that your smartphoneis an “on the go” device, something you can use to kill time in line at thegrocery store or check email on the train. But our survey found that 81% of Australians used their smartphones at home during the past 7 days--compared to just 66% on the go. Nearly 1 in 2 use their smartphone while watching TV, while 1 in 3 use smartphones and another Internet-enabled device at the same time.
• Smartphones are good for business: 49% use their smartphone to research and then call businesses--while 45% visit a business they’ve found using their smartphone.
• We can now indulge our obsession with real estate 24x7: 1 in 5 Australians we surveyed had looked for an apartment or house with their smartphone--a figure 33% higher than the US or UK.
• Search is big on smartphones: 2 in 5 of Australian smartphone owners use mobile search daily--more than the UK or Germany, and almost as high as the number who use desktop search daily.
• Apps, apps, apps: our Australian survey respondents had 25 apps on average per smartphone--that’s versus 23 in the US & UK. They’re not just free apps, either; Australians averaged 8 paid apps per phone.
• And now, the answer we’ve all been waiting for... 1 in 5 Aussie smartphone owners would rather give up their TV than their smartphone.

So what does this mean (aside from smartphones at the dinner table)? First, Australians are buying more smartphones, faster, than the rest of the world--and they’re using them more, too. Second, as more and more of us embrace the smartphone revolution, we’ll be watching more videos, searching for more businesses, buying more apps, and sharing more via mobile. In other words, there are a host of new opportunities for developers, web publishers, video creators, retailers, and advertisers to build and grow their businesses on mobile.

Expand image

If you want to learn more, stay tuned: we’ll be making our global survey results public, in their entirety, for everyone who wants a closer look at the global mobile revolution.

Posted by Jason Pellegrino, Head of Mobile Ads, Google Australia and New Zealand

Industry standards coming to mobile rich media

Mobile advertising is seeing rapid growth and today’s campaigns are richer and more advanced than ever.  However, a lack of industry standards has made it difficult to build and run rich media campaigns across different ad networks and mobile platforms at scale.

To address this challenge, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) brought together a broad group of industry participants and created the MRAID (Mobile Rich-Media Ads Interface Definitions) project. Google fully supports IAB’s effort to create mobile advertising standards and is actively engaged as a member of the MRAID working group.

Last week, IAB released the first public draft of MRAID v1.0  for comments and feedback. The document provides definitions to help standardize the interaction between mobile ads and mobile platform SDKs.  We invite the industry to review this draft and look forward to finalizing this important mobile standard.

The effort to develop standards on mobile is reminiscent of a similar process on desktop years ago.  On desktop, Flash emerged as a standard which enabled advertisers to create ads that would seamlessly run across different ad networks and websites.

Today, the mobile industry has rallied around HTML5 as the preferred language to create mobile ads, yet several challenges remain before this can be instituted.  A wide variety of mobile SDKs have forced advertisers to develop platform or network-specific ads as opposed to a single ad that works across multiple networks and devices.  Having to customize campaigns for each ad network increases cost and pain of ad creation and hinders the growth of the ecosystem.  Imagine if a marketer’s TV ads worked on one channel and one type of television, but not others - that’s where we stand with some mobile ads today.

The first public draft of MRAID v1.0  is a significant step in the rapid evolution of mobile and mobile advertising.  We thank the IAB for organizing the initiative and other working group members for passionately participating in this important project.

Wook Chung
Product Management, Mobile Ads

Going Mobile: From Why to How? Sign up today for our webinar on Sept. 21st.

We all know that consumers and businesses are going mobile. In fact, this was the first year that shipments of smartphone and tablets outpaced computers. This holiday season, we predict that mobile will become an even bigger part of consumer activity, with a predicted 44% of total searches in the US for last minute gifts and store locator terms coming a mobile device.

You’ve probably started to tailor your advertising efforts for mobile, and engage your users on these devices. But what’s next? How can you delve deeper in the mobile space? We want to give you the tools to get your business from the “Why?” to the "How?"

On Wednesday, September 21 at 11:00 am PT/2:00 pm ET, Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager and Angela Sherman, Mobile Specialist, will be presenting 5 key mobile advertising strategies for various marketing goals, including how to drive local traffic and mobile conversion volume, and how best to reach tablet users. They will also be showcasing the latest launches in Google mobile ads and discussing how to best incorporate them into your mobile strategy.

Are you ready to take your business and your clients forward with mobile? Sign up for our webinar today. To register, please visit this link: goo.gl/KFpeb

We look forward to seeing you on September 21st!

Posted by Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads

Leapfrog Online’s clients see mobile sales outpace desktop

Leapfrog Online, one of the largest digital marketing companies in the US, helps Fortune 500 companies build digital channels that capture new customers at dramatic rates. Their expertise, coupled with Google Mobile Ads, has seen mobile campaigns that drive quantifiable, high-volume sales for big brands in the telecommunications, financial services, automotive, home services, and education industries.

The mobile opportunity is significant and growing at an exponential pace and Leapfrog is seeing strong results: mobile sales range from 15-125% of desktop sales across their clients. That means that some clients are now seeing mobile sales eclipse desktop. Additionally, Leapfrog launched its first mobile optimized site for a large client in the telecommunications industry in 2009. With this new site, sales through mobile campaigns skyrocketed by 35% and led to similar results across Leapfrog’s portfolio.

According to Leapfrog, it’s not simply about developing a mobile app or site, it’s about smart integration. That means engaging the customer via mobile and driving them to an easy-to-use experience from beginning to end on their mobile device to close the purchase funnel. This includes smart, targeted marketing, focused call centers, data-driven messaging and promotions, and top-notch brand marketing.

“We are always testing new and different approaches to deliver a transformative sales channel for our brands. Mobile has demonstrated unprecedented growth – we have not seen another approach deliver this much volume over such a short period of time, with no end in sight to the opportunity,” says Cass Baker, Executive Vice President of Leapfrog Online.

To learn more about how Leapfrog is measuring ROI on every mobile campaign, download the full agency testimonial here.


Posted by Mike Schipper, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

Holiday Retail Mobile Insights

Now that the final days of summer have come to an end, retailers are in the thick of planning for the busy holiday shopping season.  As you start to plan your campaigns, it's important to take a step back and look at how consumers are using their mobile and tablet devices to drive in-store and on-device purchases.  Here are a few insights that may surprise you:

• We project that this year 15% of total “Black Friday” searches will be from mobile devices based on historical growth rates.
• Many advertisers do not realize that mobile users actively search for last minute holiday gifts and to locate stores to purchase these last minute gifts.  In fact, we project that 44% of total searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms will be from mobile devices this holiday season based on historical growth rates.  
• In fact, looking back on the past two holiday seasons, we see a “double peak” in search volumes for retail brands around first Black Friday and then the week before Christmas as mobile users locate stores for last minute shopping.  These shoppers may have missed the deadline for free shipping and are motivated to locate and shop at brick and mortar locations.  Here is the data from the holiday season in 2009 & 2010 showing this double peak:

• The important thing to keep in mind is that these mobile searches drive in-store purchases: 65% of high end device users report that they have used their device to find a business, and then made a purchase at that business in person according our holiday retail survey of users in the AdMob network.
• Retailers should be sure to plan for the tablet audience when it comes to driving on-device conversions.  Ebay has stated that tablet users spend 50% more than PC users, have higher AOV, and have higher or equivalent conversion rates.
• According to our survey, greater than 33% of both smartphone users and tablet users plan to start their shopping before Thanksgiving, so smart marketers will start their campaigns early this year to reach these consumers.

Whether your goals are branding or direct response, Google Mobile Ads can help you with strategies to reach and engage your target audience and drive customers to convert on tablets, on mobile devices, and in your stores.  Contact your Google Mobile Ads sales representative to learn more.

Posted by Johanna Werther, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

AdMob is for mobile app developers. AdSense is for mobile web publishers.

Between AdMob, which we acquired last year, and Google AdSense, we help mobile publishers make money and grow their businesses through ad-funded apps and web content. Some of our customers have asked us whether they should use AdMob or AdSense, since there's some overlap between the two. Our teams have been working hard to combine the best of both products and make life simple and seamless for our customers, while making sure we have a broad range of products and features to suit all our customers' needs.

Earlier this year, for example, all AdSense for Mobile Applications beta participants switched to AdMob, which is now our primary, specialized solution for app developers.

We're now pleased to offer a unified, specialized service for mobile web site publishers – AdSense, which we encourage AdMob mobile web publishers to move to. AdMob support for older WAP mobile web sites will stop on September 30. For sites and ads made to be viewed on high-end devices (like iPhones and Android phones), the AdMob product will be around for a little longer, but we wanted to give mobile web publishers plenty of time to start the transition.

The net result of all this is that if you're an app developer, AdMob is your solution for monetizing, measuring, and promoting your mobile apps. If you're a mobile web publisher, AdSense can help you monetize your mobile web content, and you can get started here. (If you're an AdMob advertiser who wants to reach users on WAP mobile devices, AdWords can help you reach hundreds of millions of users across the Google Display Network.

We know that these sorts of transitions can cause our customers some extra work, but we are absolutely confident that by having products to suit the specific needs of app developers and web publishers we’ll be able to offer the best technology and reporting, the easiest to use tools, the highest quality ads, and the most revenue possible.

Mobile advertising is evolving at lightning speed, and our engineers have been working at the same pace to help drive the growth of our clients' mobile businesses: we released new tablet user experiences, targeting options and creative formats; we announced integrations between AdMob and the DoubleClick products with rich media ad serving into apps and mobile support in DFP Small Business. We even tried to push the boundaries of what's possible with mobile rich media with our innovative "Uncover Your World" campaign.

We're excited about partnering with you on this journey, and have a lot more coming soon. Stay tuned.


Posted by Clay Bavor, Product Management Director, Mobile Ads