Google's ad strategy for new phone
Posted by David Culp in Advertising, Google
Another student posted about the new Google phone and one of the things I have been asking myself is why would Google be getting into the mobile gadget business, and trying to compete with the I-Phone? I think this article sheds some light on where they are trying to go with it.
Basically they are attempting to transfer their extremely successful AdWords model to the mobile phone, but instead of just the traditional pay-per-click, they are adding a "pay-per-call," as the ads will include business phone numbers and Google will charge when the number is called. As the article implies, they could potentially charge much more for these instances of calls than they could for and AdWord click, as this is basically automated lead generation that gets customers in direct contact with live salespeople.
I think this is one of the reasons Google is launching its own phone as well as licensing out its own Android mobile device operating system. They want as many people as possible to be using their device and OS to increase the value of advertising through them.
Of course this leads to the usual Big Brother privacy questions - is Google going to be listening for words to trigger specific ads? These days, it doesn't seemed too far fetched.