Google has integrated its AdMob mobile platform with AdWords, allowing purchases across both networks from a single dashboard.
The move adds about 350 million mobile users, 300,000 mobile apps and 12 countries to AdWords’ reach.
AdWords currently reaches two million websites, so the move is likely to make Google’s mobile ad services more attractive to advertisers as they have a broader reach.
The integration is also designed to make it easier to spend money on mobile ads, as they will now be managed in the same place as traditional Google ads (see example of the new dashboard below).
“This is about enabling scale for industry. Anybody that’s buying performance media through AdWords can now very easily add mobile display to campaigns,” said Google’s Jason Spero, head of global mobile sales and strategy.
Google bought AdMob for $750m in 2009, and the firm has been working for several years to amalgamate its various ad services, including the display ad platform DoubleClick, which it bought in 2007.
The firm’s mobile ads product boss Jonathan Alferness said: “As mobile usage continues to explode, businesses increasingly need to adapt their marketing strategies to mobile platforms and mobile-specific consumer trends.”
Facebook recently announced a similar move, by providing turnkey access to all platforms through its ads API.
Read the official Google blog announcement here
