Mobile Text Ad User Growth 2010

Alexandra Hagler - January 22, 2010

Nearly half of mobile industry executives and analysts in a new survey expect mobile ad spending to double this year, while almost one-third expect it to grow by 200%. That’s quite a bullish outlook. The survey by mobile consulting and research firm Chetan Sharma on 2010 predictions also covered topics including app stores, tiered pricing and mobile payments.

Google has unveiled its new Adwords feature, click-to-call mobile ads for smartphones (previously this feature was only available for WAP devices). These ads will have a clickable phone number attached to an advertiser’s ad. If an advertiser is running local business ads and/or local extensions. The phone number will be displayed on the 5th line of the ad.

Local extensions can be setup at either the campaign level or at the ad group level. When set up at the campaign level, Google will dynamically match a campaign’s text ads with the most relevant address in the account to the user’s location or specific search terms. There are two ways to enter in your business addresses with Google; using a local business center account or entering addresses manually into an Adwords account.

Mobile Search and User Experience

Mobile search ads evoke one of three different actions:

1. The user clicking through to the advertiser’s site
2. A click that sends the “user” to a Google-supplied Business Page
3. A click that immediately and automatically dials the advertiser’s local business phone number

The click-to-call mobile feature is perfect for the following types of companies:

1. Retail businesses that do the majority of transactions by phone or people use on the fly, such as take-out/delivery restaurants, or taxi companies
2. B2B businesses where phone leads are their main source of business. Towing Companies, etc.
3. B2C companies whose aspects are a mixture of the previous two. Professional services: legal, financial, investment, etc.