UPDATE: On Friday 25th August 2008, AdMob have launched a new set of iPhone Advertising Tools. The tools themselves are very nearly brilliant, but the AdMob business model remains a sham. You can read my atricles about the launch and my 8 day experience of the new tools. iPhone Publishers and Developers be warned!

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1.
AdMob Launch New iPhone Developer and Advertiser Tools
2.
AdMob’s $1,000,000 Promotion Doesn’t Stack Up
3.
AdMob Still Not Delivering Value To iPhone Developers & Publishers

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[Original Article]

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Regular readers will know that I’ve put together a number of iPhone webapps for the iPhone and iPod Touch users. I’m working on number 14 at the moment, and one of my key considerations is getting the balance of content and advertising right for the end user.

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The user needs to find value in the content of my webapps, and I need to present them with just enough advertising to generate revenue to make it worth my while.

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The beauty of iPhone webapps is that they’re essentially just websites that have been optimized for viewing online browser that’s installed on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This means I have the ability to use almost any of the advertising networks top fill any empty advertising inventory space.

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I’ve mostly used the Google Adsense advertising network to fill empty advertising space inventory on my iPhone webapps, but back in Might I read some interesting articles on the
Admob Network. A bunch of press releases hit my inbox regarding their providing the necessary code for both iPhone webapp developers and advertisers wishing to target iPhone users.

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So, naturally, I dived in at the beginning of June and added the code to a number of my iPhone webapps. I also started an advertising campaign for one of my own iPhone webapps.

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I′ve the capability to report that both turned out to be a complete and utter waste of time and money. Seems to me that the PR was just marketing BS to demonstrate how “with it” AdMob are, without little consideration for the actual execution and performance of the services being offered to both the iPhone developers and advertisers.

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The code itself did everything they said it would. It was fast loading, contextual and easy to implement, but the commercial end just didn′t provide a return of any value.

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As a developer of iPhone webapps I was was earning an average of just 2 - 4 cents per click. Not just entirely unacceptable, but frankly it’s taking the piss!

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Then as an advertiser I found the ads for my iPhone webapp showing up on wml wap sites, which don’t work on the iPhone. So most of my advertising budget was spent interacting with people whose mobile/cell phones couldn’t even view the iPhone webapp I was promoting.

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What really f**ks me off about being an advertiser on AdMob is the that the poor execution of my ad campaign was despite my paying a premium to target just ‘Apple iPhone′ in specific countries.

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All that said, I′ve no idea how they perform for developers and advertisers of wap sites. You’ll have to investigate and make up your own mind.

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So for me, it’s back to Google Adsense. I′ll not be keeping my eye on AdMob to whether things improve, just as soon as I publish this post I′m making a start on removing the AdMob code from all of my iPhone webapps.

rnrn

I am really keen to hear of any experiences you’ve had with AdMob regarding the iPhone.

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