AdMob Review.

I get it that not everyone owns an iPhone or smartphone, but there are a lot of people who do, and they’re using their smartphones for business and pleasure (as well as making the odd phone call).

With the proliferation of iPhone ‘apps’ available from the itunes store, many app developers have allowed space for advertisements to help generate some revenue from their development work (especially for the free apps).

The company which dominates the placement of these adverts on apps is AdMob, which by the way, was recently purchased by (who else but) Google for $750 Million dollars late last year.

I’ve kept an eye on AdMob for a while and have decided that for the next few weeks we’ll run some ad’s and see how it works – and try and see if it’s an effective platform to advertise on.

I’ve seen Telstra Ads, McDonalds Ads and Coke Ads advertising on various apps, so the ‘big guys’ are giving it a go (probably after been talked into it by their respective agencies!). But hey, it may actually be effective as an advertising platform.



It is funny though when you see an Ad for McDonalds on a sports app (in my case, RunKeeper). And from my experience it does seem that the targeting of AdMob ads by advertisers is pretty ordinary.

It’s been possible to advertise on mobiles using Google AdWords, but frankly, it’s rubbish as a platform. It’s all mystery and no transparency in my opinion.

Looking at the back end of AdMob’s system, so far there’s a lot to like as an advertiser.

There’s a bewildering array of device targeting; you’ll have no shortage of options in terms of which phone you want to target your ad’s towards. Mind you I haven’t figured out why you’d want to target just people who own a certain brand and model number of a mobile phone, so if someone can give us an example scenario, that’d be great. Maybe it’s got something to do with advertising games or ringtones?

You can create short, text ads (usually only 25 characters long mind you), as well as upload graphical banners in various sizes for display.

In addition, you can also target demographically; there are similarities between Facebook ads and AdMob ads in this regard.



After you’ve selected the ‘what, where and who’ elements of your campaign, all you need to do next is get creative and either write your own text ad or upload a banner to fit.




You can upload your own icon, then pick which app’s you’d like to advertise on. The final thing to do is set your budget and you’re away.

Should be interesting to see how they perform.

Stay tuned.

What kind of offers should I make on my site?

Offers help you sell more stuff. They’re most often used just to get people to put something in a shopping cart!

But used judiciously through an ecommerce process, strategically placed offers can also be used to increase the Average Order Value (AOV) of your customer’s shopping basket which is a good thing for your bottom line.

Let’s look at some common website offers...

• a one-month free trial
• buy-one-get-one-free
• free shipping
• extended warranty
• pay in instalments
• buy now, pay later
• first one free
• automatic renewal

The idea behind these sorts of offers is to incentivise your visitor to take action, whether they put something in their shopping cart or call you. This is all about getting the trust and getting the sales process started.

OK, so someone’s popped something in their cart, and they’re heading towards the checkout... The question is how can we use another offer to encourage them to put something else in their cart?

A “Spend $X and get free shipping” offer is one of the most commonly used; and the reason for this is that it usually works a treat!

Here’s an example from local Melbourne-based online (and offline) retailer Sam Bear.



Sam Bear use a “Spend $120 and get free shipping” offer which I really admire. If you look through their online inventory, they have dozens and dozens of products which cost less than or close to $120, so there’s a good incentive to add more products to your cart to get the free shipping.

As regular “levis jeans shopper” that’s precisely what I end up doing every time!

It’s great to see some ‘smaller’ online retailers adopting tactics the big guys use in the US.



I guess the basic rule of thumb is, if huge online stores in the States use these tactics, they probably work!

I often say it’s always a good idea to test, because obviously Australian’s might react differently to certain types of offers than Americans.

Some additional type offers you might consider include:

• Cashback offers (apart from helping you get the sale, I’ve heard that these can work even more in your favour, as many people just never get around to applying for the ‘cash-back’)
• Cash discounts offered if a certain spend amount is spent by the customer
• Cross sell other products and accessories
• Create and offer product bundles