Google’s mobile search volume has increased fivefold since 2008 and the company’s click-to-call mobile ads do 6-8 percent
better than search ads without a number or URL associated with it. We re seeing lots and lots of search activity on smartphones, said Mike Steib, director of emerging platforms at Google.
Smartphone users used the search function 62 percent more in the first quarter of 2010 than they did in the last quarter of 2009. Search on Android phones has grown 300 percent in the first half of 2010, and Steib indicates that tens of millions of people make searches through Google on mobile devices each week, generating hundreds of millions of searches.
Click-to-call ads, which add phone numbers to ads, are becoming increasingly popular. Such campaigns with location extensions or URLs increase 8 percent in average clickthrough rates, and campaigns with phone numbers perform 6 percent better than mobile ads without an extension. Local advertisers were added to click-to-call ads four months ago, which is likely increasing their pull.
As for Apple’s iAd, Steib thinks that it will be a great potential option. While publishers will no doubt want to take advantage of iAd, they will want choices in a diversified mobile market.
Source: Mashable
