MSearchGroove

Regular readers will remember the exclusive podcast with AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui a few weeks back. The interview was an eye-opener (and one of the most popular downloads – ever) but my own cool meter pegged when Omar explained the idea behind his Ad Lab. It’s not just about a closer collaboration with Apple to “learn things …that are going to help our ads on all the other phones” (as Omar liked to put it). In my book it’s about dicing and slicing the data to push the boundaries of text-based advertising on a mobile phone. I was right and the first results definitely push the envelope.

We know the iPhone is game-changing because the touch screen breaks down usability barriers and will likely encourage users to interact with mobile data apps and services as part of their daily routine. But touch is more than an interface; it’s another clue the user leaves behind that clever companies will no doubt figure out how to interpret as time goes on. Right now, AdMob is the first one out of the gates, and its act will be a tough one to follow. Put simply, its new ad unit has learned to leverage the core functionality of the iPhone, specifically the mapping technology, to turn text links into richer location-aware advertising. As this example shows, a text link promoting Starbucks becomes an interactive space where a user can input their zip code and pinpoint the nearest Starbucks on a map. In this scenario, AdMob effectively hands off the ad through the browser on the iPhone, to the mapping application resident on the device.

Check out the YouTube video below, and it’s easy to imagine how AdMob could bring a similar locator experience to theatres, restaurants, retail stores, and so on, and that’s just the tip of iceberg.

Jason Spero, AdMob VP of Marketing, who shares this site’s passion for all things at the intersection of media and mobile, contacted me for a briefing to run through the real news: AdMob has effectively devised a way to tell exactly which words in a given ad trigger a customer response. The company is in the process of filing a patent as we speak.

Sure, it sounds a bit sci-fi at first, but it also makes perfect sense if we remember the iPhone is constructed to map where the finger touches the screen. AdMob has harnessed this resident technology on the device to gain insight into what elements in an ad actually capture users’ attention and interest. “We collect data on where the user touches the screen, allowing us to decompose an ad into its most effective elements,” Jason says. “And you can imagine a world in which we could test different colors, objects, images and terms.” Wow – a marketer’s dream come true!

Jason is humble and admits we’re talking about “only hundreds of thousands of impressions per day and week.” But it’s easy to imagine what advertisers can glean from this data going forward when they have insight into the exact terms that elicit user response. It’s early days, but we already know that nouns are the main attraction. They are 67 percent more likely to be clicked on than verbs and 71 percent more likely to be clicked than adjectives.

This is more than cool stuff. It’s data that will enable AdMob to create and orchestrate a new feedback loop in mobile advertising. AdMob is clearly a company that understands the importance of analytics in the mobile marketplace.

(After writing several business strategy supplements on behalf of Accenture and the Wall Street Journal I am a convert to the power of data and a huge fan of Thomas H. Davenport, professor and director of research at Babson College, who coined the term “analytics competitors”, to refer to a select group of groundbreaking companies that “deploy industrial-strength analytics” across a wide variety of activities to “wring every last drop of value from business processes.” Judging from AdMob’s current course, it is certainly gearing up to make the jump from data cruncher to analytics competitor.)

I asked Jason is he agrees with my observation. In his view, it’s not where AdMob is right now, but it is where the company is headed. Building networks and serving ads is just a part of what AdMob does. “Math, science and understanding user click behavior enable us to optimize ads and ad serving,” Jason explains. “When you’ve got the data, you can build better engines to serve advertisers and publishers.”

Like I said, it’s early days, so I’ll reserve judgment for when Jason comes back with more stats (which he has graciously promised to do). In the meantime, in a game where relevancy rules, it’s easy to imagine advertisers won’t be the only ones following AdMob’s next move. Mobile search engine providers could also benefit from an additional feedback loop, particularly if that technology could clue them in to the best way to position and present their results.

• Posted in
• Web 2.0, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising

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