If you’ve been scratching your head about how to advertise your business to the millions of people who use smartphones and tablets, then stop scratching and take a look at the new Google Mobile Ads website.

With a fresh look and new content, it is the place to discover how Google can make mobile advertising work for you. On the site you will find:

• detailed information on Google’s search and display ad formats;
• research reports and useful tools to build your understanding of the mobile audience;
• best practices for performance marketing and brand awareness;
• oodles of new success stories from advertisers who have grown their business with Google mobile ads.

Try the new site today.



Posted by Mike Schipper, Product Marketing Manager

As part of Google’s ongoing GoMo initiative, we hosted two live webinars to help advertisers and publishers learn the benefits of creating mobile-friendly sites, hear tips and case studies, and tap into new resources get started. If you missed the live webinars, no problem! You can watch the recorded videos and download the slides for either (or both!) webinars.

Advertisers who watch the video will learn how to:

1. Mobilize your site.
Understand what it means, learn the benefits and get started with GoMo.
2. Maximize your mobile ads.
Hear why it’s important and learn practical how-to’s for making the most of your mobile investment.
3. Track, measure and iterate.
Get tips and see helpful tools you can use today.

Interested in learning more? Watch the recorded webinar and download the slides.

Publishers who watch the video will learn:

1. Why go mobile?
Your users have gone mobile in a big way, hear why you must follow suit.
2. 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’ve 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.

Interested in learning more? Watch the recorded webinar and download the slides.

Posted by: Suzanne Mumford, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads and Joseph Corral, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

Back in November we launched GoMo to help businesses “Go Mobile” and easily create a mobile optimized website. GoMo has helped thousands of businesses improve their mobile experience and today we’re excited to introduce a new initiative: GoRo.

Every day, dozens of Americans use rotary phones, but 100% of these potential customers have experienced trouble loading a business’ websites on their device.1 Despite this, a recent study predicted that rotary phone usage is expected to surpass smartphone usage by 2015.2

Go Rotary, or GoRo, is a new initiative by Google where you’ll find resources you need to learn about what makes a good rotary site, why optimizing for rotary matters and the latest data to help you prepare for the return of rotary.

This week, we’ll be hosting a webinar “Is Your Business Ready for the Return of Rotary?” and posting daily rotary tips and case studies to show how businesses across the country have already optimized their websites.

In a recent interview, industry expert Roger Thornhill noted: “Technology is cyclical. In a few years touch screens will be replaced by finger wheels and smartphones will become a way of the past.” It’s time to make sure your website it ready; it’s time to GoRo!

Posted by David Kaufman, Rotary & Morse Code Marketing Manager

1Haines-Fisch Research Institute. “Rotary Phones and the Web”, March 2012.
2Stein Insight Group. “Rotary Phone Engagement Study”, February 2012.

For developers who want to run ads in iOS versions of their apps, we are releasing an update to our Google AdMob Ads SDK.  This new version of the SDK is consistent with Apple’s reported decision regarding developer usage of the universal device identifier (UDID).  Our goal is to help all developers and publishers continue to reach users on mobile, grow their businesses and make money, in accordance with the policies of the mobile platforms on which they build.

Developers and publishers building their businesses on the iOS platform can download the new SDK here.  Stay tuned for more new SDK features and updates in the coming weeks.

Posted By: Mark Schaaf, Google Mobile Ads

Mobile devices are mainstream, 50% of consumers in the US have them.1 But many advertisers and agencies are just starting to tap into the possibilities of rich media ads on mobile and tablet devices. We created our Rich Media Designs for Mobile with them in mind. These ad templates empower creatives to build beautiful ads using existing assets (photos, logos, etc.) while removing the technical complexity of mobile rich media.

We are proud to have our hard work recognized by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). They recently named Google’s Rich Media Designs for Mobile a winning Mobile Rising Stars ad concept in their inaugural IAB Mobile Rising Stars competition. This makes Google’s mobile rich media products one of the first-ever mobile ad formats endorsed by the IAB.



"The judging panel, consisting of over three dozen agency mobile experts from the creative, strategy, ad ops, and media ranks, were a tough crowd," said Peter Minnium, Head of Brand Initiatives, IAB. "They wanted formats that were elegantly simple in design, but also featured robust capabilities. Those two qualities rarely co-exist. The judges found them together, though, in Google’s Rich Media Designs for Mobile and scored their ballots accordingly.”



All signs point to the explosive growth in mobile continuing well past 2012.  As the ecosystem matures, we are determined to continue building the tools advertisers need to capture the full strength of the mobile opportunity with ease.  Stay tuned to the Google Mobile Ads Blog, more to come.

Posted by Joseph Corral, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads

Source (1):  Pew Internet, March 2012

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

It’s been four months since Google and its technology partners DudaMobile and Mobify provided over 500 Mobile, AL small businesses with free mobile-friendly sites.  The event was part of Google’s GoMo initiative, and provided small business owners with an opportunity to build sites made for the small screen complete with mobile-friendly features like click-to-call and click-to-map.  The Google team followed up with some of the business owners to see how the new mobile-friendly sites have helped their businesses grow.  Simply put, mobile-friendly sites drive results.  Check out how mobile-friendly sites helped to improve sales, site traffic and calls for five small businesses: Distinguished Young Women, Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center, Spring Hill Medical Center, USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park and Knotty N Nice.  

Stephanie Bradford, Communications Director for Distinguished Young Women, the largest and oldest national scholarship program for high school girls, commented on how the new mobile-friendly site is helping to raise nationwide recognition, “The stats we have seen further confirm the effectiveness of our new mobile site in reaching and engaging our target audience. With more than 85% of visits to the site from new visitors, we are confident that the mobile site is allowing us to realize greater awareness across the country. As we work to encourage participation in the Distinguished Young Women program, our mobile site is allowing us to connect with our potential participants, teenage girls, in a way they are familiar with and have come to expect from companies and organizations to which they are loyal.”

Kirsten Conley, Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center, talked about how she’s changing her marketing mix, “We're able to give our guests and potential guests the information that they're looking for on the go.  We were stunned by the sheer volume of phone calls that came from the mobile-friendly site and reevaluated our phone system to keep up with the increase in incoming calls.  Lastly, we've begun placing more mobile advertisements as part of our marketing mix.”  The mobile-friendly site has brought 40% more calls and 20% more sales and site visits.  


Glenn Geiger of Spring Hill Medical Center, a full-service hospital, had this to say about his GoMo experience, “Once the site was running, the reports from DudaMobile were very eye opening.  The best thing was the tracking of actual phone calls placed to our hospital. Something we have never been able to track was delivered to us instantly, on a silver platter.”  Overall, calls to Spring Hill have increased by 80% since optimizing the site for mobile devices, with visits to the site and hospital increasing by 20%.

Karen Conner, Director of Sales & Marketing for the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, encourages other business owners to get started on building their sites if they haven’t already, “We are a military attraction and our potential visitors are most interested in just a few things, mostly admission prices and directions.  The new mobile-friendly site gives us that edge by making our information right at their fingertips.  No more zooming in to find the information and then potentially losing the customer due to their frustration.”  Conner said that sales, calls and site visits have increased by 20% since creating the mobile-friendly site.


Janna Peterson of Knotty N Nice, an informational site about natural styles for African Hair,
said that her mobile site has helped increase site traffic by 200%, “The business is growing and the mobile website would be to thank for that.  It's easier for people to access my site now and of course we have more traffic now.”  


Each site owner will continue to track their site’s performance by using Google Analytics or DudaMobile’s site analytics reports.   

Success stories like these exemplify how mobile-friendly sites improve sales and traffic for all businesses, no matter the size or industry.  

Let us know your mobile-friendly site success stories in the comments.  Visit howtogomo.com to mobilize your site today!

Posted by: Suzanne Mumford, Google Mobile Ads Marketing and Jessica Sapick, Google Small Business Strategy