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Google Goes After Mobile Ad Companies With AdWords For iPhone, GPhone (GOOG)

iphone-your-ad-here.jpgGoogle (GOOG) takes another swing at mobile ad providers like AdMob, AOL's (TWX) Third Screen Media, etc.: Its AdWords advertisers can now target text and image ads to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and Google's G1, the first phone running its Android operating system.

What's the point? Before, iPhone users were seeing Google's standard Web ads, which don't look great. Now, they'll be more tailored for smaller screens. And advertisers will be able to customize their ads for the phones, block them completely, get separate campaign reporting, and customize what happens when an iPhone or GPhone user clicks on the ad. For instance, it could boot up an app, load a YouTube video, etc.

iPhone-ad-screenshot-cropped.jpgPerhaps more important: A behavioral change. Offering iPhone and GPhone ads through AdWords trains advertisers to think of mobile more as a "feature" of their Internet ad campaign -- bought through Google -- and less as a separate ad campaign to worry about. This, over time, could benefit Google at the expense of mobile-focused ad networks.

Those networks, of course, have something to say about this. Last time we suggested that Google could eat up mobile ad networks' business, AdMob CEO Omar Hamoul told us we were dreaming.

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The gist: Even as mobile browsers get better, there will still be a need for mobile-specific advertising and ad networks like AdMob. (AdMob, for instance, has taken a lead in serving up special ads for iPhone App Store software, something Google doesn't currently offer.)

See Also:
AdMob Gets $15.7M, Sequoia-Led Round For Mobile Advertising
More Ads Coming To iPhone Apps: AdMob Expands iPhone Ad Network
The iPhone's Next Victim: Fledgling Mobile Ad Networks

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.

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