Study: Banner Ads on Mobile Devices See Higher CTR Than On PCs

There’s been a lot of debate regarding CTR for banner ads on mobile devices.  Many argue that mobile users click on banner ads by mistake and therefore can’t compete with traditional banner ads viewed on PCs.  A new study out by MediaMind, however, aims to debunk this myth.

                                         

The company analyzed 230 million impressions of the same banner ads on both mobile devices and traditional browsers and found that the average CTR for mobile ads was .61% compared to .07% for browsers.  MediaMind disagrees with the notion of errant clicks on mobile devices and instead says that mobile is simply “experiencing the same kind of new and fascinating curve that banner ads had when they first asked people to punch the monkey.”

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Google Adding +1 Buttons to Mobile Web, Mobile Display Ads

It was announced today that Google will begin adding +1 buttons to their Web and mobile display ads in early October, adding user photos and recommendations to the ads themselves.  The buttons were recently added in the same way to Google search results.

                              

On its “Inside AdWords” blog today, Google said that +1 buttons have been installed on over a million Websites across the Web with more than 4 billion daily impressions.  By adding the buttons to display ads across both the Web and mobile, advertisers have the ability to run social-enabled ad campaigns that work across millions of sites on over 40 countries around the world.  The new feature is being added to display ads by default, though users can opt-out manually via their AdWords account.

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Today’s mHealth Industry Gets a Boost From ‘Tomorrow’

Tuesday marked the launch of the first mobile network for healthcare – Tomorrow Networks.

                                           

According to a press release issued by the network’s founders, Physicians Interactive Holdings – a provider of health care information and mobile clinical decision tools for medical professionals – and Remedy Systems – a mobile app company focused on healthcare – have announced the creation and availability of their mHealth platform, Tomorrow Networks.

The platform lets developers market and distribute their applications to the growing population of medical professionals who are searching for well-built mobile applications as a tool to improve both the quality and efficiency of care. Through the platform, advertisers can also deliver targeted marketing messages.

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Google Says Local Now Accounts for 40 Percent of Mobile Searches, “Distance” Now an AdWords Ranking Variable

Google today announced new mobile ad-units along with some interesting new stats in regards to mobile search.

                                 

According to the company, 40% of all mobile searches coming to Google are local in nature at this point, which continues to trend upward.  As such, the search giant also announced that “physical location,” or the proximity of a local business to a user’s location will become a targeting variable when serving ads to mobile users.

We reported yesterday that Google is now on track to bank over $2.5B in mobile ad sales this year, and it looks like the company’s “Click-to-Call” ads are driving a large portion of this total.  Google’s Surojit Chatterjee said that Click-to-Call is now driving “millions of calls per week” globally for the company.

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Millennial Media Details Successful RIch Media Mobile Campaign for Green Lantern Debut Across Europe

To gear up for the pan-European release of the movie Green Lantern this summer, mobile advertising powerhouse Millennial Media teamed up with Warner Bros. and their agency, Odyssey Mobile Interaction, tocreate a unique rich media mobile campaign to drive engagement and mobile views of the film’s trailer.

                                              

It was determined that Millennial wanted to give consumers a visual experience that was reflective of a superhero film like Green Lantern, and decided to deliver an expandable rich media banner that let consumers “imprint their fingerprint” on the ad to bring up an HD trailer for the film.  Since the film was released across Europe at different times during the summer, it required staggered and localized campaigns to support the unique release schedule.  As such, the initial campaign launched in the UK in mid-June, and crossed Germany, France and Spain before ending in Italy at the end of August.

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