Advertisements have always been and will continue to be the main source of revenue for search engines, however, it has been a particularly hard nut to crack even for network giants as Google. While speaking to Wall Street Journal at the ad:tech conference 2015 at San Francisco, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s Ad Chief confirmed that mobile search and mobile YouTube monetization still remains the top priority for the Mountain View tech biggie. However, he pointed out that mobile advertising is a lot harder compared to a desktop computer, because of the considerably smaller ‘real estate’ in mobiles for displaying the advertisements. He further added that completing online orders on the small screen adds to the problem and hence, most advertisers are not so forthcoming about ads on mobile devices. As a solution to the problem, Ramaswamy suggested the need of better and smarter ways to reach the customers and engage them, all of which would only be possible with devices with comparatively larger displays.
Google realizes the tremendous opportunity and momentum in mobile search and mobile YouTube and hence wishes to keep working on a lucrative advertising machinery. Ramaswamy voiced his support for smartphones with bigger displays, as according to him, it would solve the space issue for ads. He even brought out his Nexus 6 device and discussed how it works as a boon for the masses as well as for the advertisers.
Mark Ballard, Director of research at digital-marketing firm Merkle RKG, too revealed that in the last one year, there has been a surge in the mobile ad prices, which he believes to have happened because of the larger iPhones launched last fall, as these devices with larger displays make it far simpler for people to buy things post clicking an ad. Although Ramaswamy declined to comment on iPhones, he did say that Apple is an important partner for Google. He further revealed that YouTube only counts a view when someone watches a video for 30 seconds at least, thus questioning Facebook’s video view counts, which according to him are not engaged views.
It is to be noted that no Facebook spokesperson responded for a request to comment and that the deal between Apple and Google, for being the default search provider of Safari, is up for renewal this year.