As part of our ongoing GoMo initiative, last week we connected with nearly 500 digital advertisers in a live webinar to share tips and tools on how to optimize advertiser websites for mobile.  This Thursday, we’ll be hosting a second webinar, GoMo for Publishers:  Mobilize Your Site and Maximize Your Ad Revenue, with an exclusive focus on the needs of online publishers.

Mobile web consumption is exploding.  For many publishers, mobile traffic represents more than 30% of total site visits, and the trends continue to point upward.  Despite this, 80% of online publishers don’t have a mobile-optimized website, and they risk losing their fastest-growing audience.  61% of consumers would likely never return to a site with a poor mobile experience.1  That’s why we recently launched GoMo for Publishers, to provide publishers with new tools to start optimizing for mobile.

Join Google on Thursday, March 22nd at 10:00 am PT/1:00 pm ET, to discuss why it’s imperative to build for mobile and delight your mobile users  We’ll show you all the tools you need to get you ready to go mobile. Sign up today and log on to learn:

1. Why go mobile? Your users have gone mobile in a big way, hear why you must follow suit.
2. 10 tips for building mobile sites   Mobile is different.  Learn 10 practical tips for building engaging, uniquely mobile experiences.
3. Best practices in action Hear from web publisher FindTheBest about the success they have seen from going mobile. 
4. How to get started Google is here to help. Learn about tools we’ve created to get you started on the path to delighting your users and maximizing your mobile revenue.

Sign up for the webinar today.  We look forward to seeing you on March 22th!

Posted by Joseph Corral, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads
Source (1): Compuware, “why the mobile web is disappointing end-users.” March 2011

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

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

Mobile capabilities launching today -- video coming this Summer

Cross-posted from the DoubleClick Publisher blog

Display advertising is becoming about much more than ads in web browsers. People are watching video, reading newspapers, magazines and books, and listening to digital music at an ever-increasing rate. They’re turning to a plethora of new devices—smartphones, tablets, e-readers and even video game consoles to consume information and browse the web.
 
In order to help growing publishers capture new monetization opportunities from these emerging trends, we’re continuing to evolve DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business to give publishers a complete solution that can deliver ads across all screens and formats—including display advertising on the desktop, video, mobile ad delivery and more.

Today, as part of this effort, we have fully integrated mobile ad trafficking, inventory management, forecasting, reporting and ad serving directly into the core platform you’re familiar with. Later this year, we will be integrating video capabilities into DFP Small Business so you can begin managing and selling your video ad inventory all from a single platform. If you’re a DFP Small Business publisher and are interested in early access to video functionality, please let us know here.

As part of today’s release, you’ll find mobile specific targeting options, creative types, and mobile-optimized ad tags built directly into the workflow you’re familiar with.

Mobile Targeting

In addition to helping publishers sell their mobile ad inventory directly to advertisers, the Google AdSense and AdMob networks are integrated into DFP Small Business to help you fill any mobile ad inventory you haven’t sold directly. These networks allow you to manage all of your mobile inventory, whether it is sold directly or indirectly, so you can fully monetize your mobile web content.

Over the next few weeks we will be enabling all DFP Small Business accounts with these exciting new mobile features. For publishers who require greater levels of customization and an advanced mobile feature set including support for feature phones and richer ad formats, we will be rolling out advanced mobile functionality into the premium version of DFP over the next few months. Contact us to learn more.

We’re committed to helping publishers streamline operations by offering a complete solution to manage, serve, and report across all sales channels, formats, and devices. 


Posted by Marcel Gordon, Product Manager, DoubleClick

Cross-posted from the Google Conversion Blog

This is the third post in a series on optimising mobile websites for conversions. The previous two posts covered Content Prioritisation and White Space.

In Summary: Buttons rule on mobile devices. The rule of thumb means that big, well spaced buttons with clear calls to action will likely result in more conversions.

Before looking at how buttons can make the mobile user experience better we must first understand the way mobile users navigate. Think about the way you hold your phone. More often than not it’s in just one hand and because your fingers are gripping the phone from behind, you are left only with your thumb for navigation of the screen. The thumb is far less precise than a mouse pointer.

As you can see from this image, fingers are behind the phone leaving the thumb to do all the work

The Mobile Rule of Thumb: If it cannot be done with the thumb, it cannot be done.

The hyperlink is a poor user experience on a touchscreen mobile device because it is very hard to use with an imprecise instrument like the human thumb. If that’s not all, mobile devices are often used by people on the move, so hitting a small point on the screen is just getting harder and harder. The best way to alleviate these issues is to build your links into big buttons which allow for greater levels of inaccuracy.

Here are are a few things to consider when building button links:

Buttons Should be Big
In a recent study of iPad users, Jakob Nielsen, the father of human computer interaction studies, recommends that buttons be at least 1cm x 1cm in diameter. That’s 28px assuming the standard web resolution of 72dpi. There’s a lot of debate around this area.

Apple is recommending 44x44 at a minimum for buttons in apps.

A very interesting introduction to designing for different screen sizes on Android can be found here.

This is something you really need to test when building your site. Without a mouse or even a stylus, buttons need to be big. Put simply, you should build buttons for thumbs. And err towards large thumbs. There is also the issue of light. Many mobile screens perform poorly in daylight or bright light environments – big buttons make it easier to perform tasks while visibility is low.

Buttons Should be Isolated
How many times have you tried to click a button on a mobile device only to find that you have inadvertently clicked something else? It can be a really painful experience and is also a sure-fire way of making a user give up in frustration and go somewhere else. One way to avoid accidental clicks is to ensure that buttons have a little space between them. Call-to-action buttons especially should be isolated. Where possible, leave a little white space around buttons.

Buttons Should be Reachable
The placement of your buttons is also important. Just as we need to consider big thumbs for button size, we need to think about what is comfortable for thumbs when placing buttons. The standard navigation button is across the whole page on mobile sites so it isn’t really an issue but many mobile sites have call-to-action buttons which are shorter and sit on one side of the screen or the other. If possible, these buttons should be made longer and centred more. Not only does that make them larger but it’s easier for both left and right handed people to reach the buttons with their thumb. If you must choose a side of the screen, contrary to the right side placement often found on desktop, it is actually more comfortable for a right-handed thumb (the majority of users) to click a button on the left side of the screen.

Kiddicare found button placement on the left side of the screen was easier for users than the right

Smaller Buttons Should be Padded
Padding refers to making clickable an area larger than the button itself. This can be especially useful for check boxes or buttons that need to be smaller so as not to draw attention away from the main call-to action. The trick is to make the area immediately around the button clickable as well. In the case of check boxes, it is important to leave sufficient space between boxes and then to make the text next to the box clickable too.

Buttons Should Look Like Buttons
This might seem like common sense but it is not unusual to find links on mobile sites which behave like buttons but do not look like them. Whether it is a link that looks the same as the text around it or a button that looks like a heading, the user needs some form of visual cue to help them understand where to click. Make buttons look three dimensional and they are more likely to invite clicks. It is also important that your site clearly indicates to a user which button they have clicked. Some sites do this really well, but others are a little patchy. Touching any part of a button should result in a visual signal for the user.

Why use buttons? Imagine the difficulty of picking the right link in the example above.

So does this mean we can never use hyperlinks? Of course you can. But you should use them minimally and don’t put lots of them into the same space. As a rule, try to have no more than one link per band of text. For example, In the point above about making buttons big enough, I have spread the points with links across multiple lines to make it easier for touchscreen users to tap them on the mobile version of this blog.

Of course when it comes to a mobile site which is trying to convert visitors into customers, try not to have much text.

In summary, buttons on mobile sites should be:

1. Big
2. Isolated
3. Reachable
4. Padded
5. Obvious
6. Prioritised
7. Descriptive

Buttons that have been well thought out and follow the guidelines above should help increase conversions on your mobile website.

Mobile Website Testing Tip: When you are building your mobile site, physically test it while you are in motion to best replicate the real-world user experience.

The next post will be looking at how to make conversions easier to complete on a mobile website. If you have feedback, please leave a comment.

Posted by Shane Cassells, Google Conversion Team

(6/23/2011) The links in this post have been updated.


With an average of 1 million new smartphones entering the market each day, it is critically important for content publishers to ramp up their mobile efforts if they have not already. According to StatCounter, the share of U.S. web browser activity originating from mobile devices more than doubled since May last year to 8.24%.   The good news is that some online publishers, such as Dictionary.com, started exploring mobile years ago to understand its potential and find new ways to engage their “on-the-go” user base.  

 

In 2007, Dictionary.com launched a mobile optimized website to provide the increasing number of users accessing their online content from mobile devices with a better mobile user experience.  Now Dictionary.com sees 9 million unique users on their mobile website and has over 30 million app downloads across Android, iPhone, Blackberry and iPad.  According to Dictionary.com’s President, Shravan Goli, growth in mobile usage is outpacing online usage by 4x and mobile users spend 2-3x more time engaged with mobile content.  In the interview below, we sat down with Shravan Goli to get his insights into growing a successful mobile business.

 

 

One of the key takeaways from Dictionary.com is the importance of adapting to the mobile context. Goli urges publishers to avoid just porting their online content to mobile and follow a few simple guidelines:

• Create a great user experience: This sounds simple, but is a challenge for many mobile publishers. Optimize for both mobile web and leverage unique capabilities of smart phone platforms for apps. User feedback directly impacts your app ranking, so listen to your users and be flexible to adapt quickly.
• Diversify your business model for apps: Free ad-supported apps provide extensive reach, but consider adding a paid ad-free version to give users choice.  
• Ad networks complement direct sales: Similar to their online business, Dictionary.com finds that ad networks such as Google’s AdMob make it easy to start monetizing both the mobile website and cross-platform apps from day one.
• Plan for the iterative process: The development cycle on mobile is more complicated than online so build in feedback mechanisms, monitor them closely, and evolve your products rapidly to meet the changing needs of your users.

After seeing such strong results with the Dictionary.com property on mobile, the company is now expanding its mobile portfolio to include a Flashcards and Spanish app to accompany their online versions.  Shravan comments, “on mobile, people are looking for content to fill the pockets of time in between activities.  Dictionary.com is providing tools for people to educate themselves on the go, wherever they are.”

 

For more details on Dictionary.com’s success, download the 2-page case study with additional insights from Dictionary.com’s GM of Mobile, Lisa Sullivan-Cross.

 

Posted by Keri Kandel, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads