New AdWords options for iPhone and G1

Monday, December 8, 2008 | 7:00 AM

Today, the Google mobile ads team is announcing a new campaign-level option that allows those of you who are AdWords advertisers to show your desktop text and image ads on the iPhone, the T-Mobile G1, and other mobile devices with full (HTML) Internet browsers. The ads can point to desktop landing pages so you don't need to create mobile landing pages or ads in mobile formats. The ads will have many of the same benefits as our standard mobile ads, such as the delivery of mobile-specific calls-to-action and reaching mobile users that are searching with their phones more than ever -- especially during the holiday season.

You may have seen ads running on the iPhone and G1 already. That's because Google Search on these devices used to show desktop results pages modified for these phones. Recently, the Google mobile team launched new results pages formatted specifically for the iPhone. Now, advertisers will be able to display ads exclusively on these mobile devices, create campaigns for them, and get separate performance reporting. If you prefer not to show your desktop ads on these phones, you can opt out and show ads only on desktop and laptop computers.

To target ads for G1 and iPhone, go to your campaign settings tab in your AdWords account. Then for the "Device Platform" option under "Networks and Bidding," select "iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers." As additional devices that use full browsers enter the market, your ads will show on those phones, too. You can visit the AdWords Help Center for more detailed instructions and watch my video below for a quick demo. If you currently have an AdWords campaign running, by default your campaign will show ads on desktop and laptop computers, as well as iPhone and G1.

Note that if you're currently running our mobile ads, this new option for desktop ads does not affect your campaign. You can still create mobile ads that show up on other mobile devices like before. For a refresher on our mobile ad formats, check out my past posts on the Google mobile blog and past videos on the mobile blog YouTube channel.



8 comments:

Portable? said...

Have you ever actually tried using a "full html / desktop site" on an iPhone or G1? Does your site have flash? Does it run Javascript? These are just some of the problems you will run into.

Plus a good mobile campaign considers context and the use case of the end-user. In many cases, a full web site would be contrary to that goal.

IMHO, it is a TERRIBLE user experience to drive someone away from a mobile optimized experience to a wired-web experience when they are on a mobile device - Even the iphone and G1.

jragon said...

It's true that the iPhone doesn't play Flash, but it does the rest quite well.

As a developer, webkit specific sites are my favorite to build for because they support so many advanced technologies.

Best: webkit sites with html5 support
Next best: traditional browsers
Next: a pile of dirt
Dead last: mobile sites

Unknown said...

Now I'm just waiting for an iPhone version of Adwords Editor, then I'll never need my desktop again!

Jamison said...

Is there something I need to do to see the iPhone formatted search results?

I see the standard results page, formatted for a desktop browser, not this one in the post.

spookiewon said...

@Jamison
the easiest way is to use the Google Mobile App from the app store. It's faster than typing in the url and has other great mobile features. For instance, you can speak your search terms. It has very good voice recognition.

You can also get the iPhone formatting by using m.google.com, rather than www.google.com, then choosing search when you get the mobile apps page.

Unknown said...

I think Google really missed the boat here. I'm EAGER, READY to target iPhone users to promote an iPhone app. I just looked at where you set your campaign settings. It says "iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers". It targets ALL smartphone users, NOT iPhone users. I don't want all smartphone users. I want iPhone users ONLY. I confirmed this will Google's account team. Is this really true? If so, how could such a big company, make such a simple mistake. Small mobile ad networks like Admob, Decktrade, and Quattro are ahead of Google at this point.

Unknown said...

What compatible phone for mobile google ?

Maxim said...

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