AdMob, TapTap and now (wait for it) Analytics
First we have AdMob one very big ad network.
Two we have TapTap its attempt at mobile search and a place to deliver its own AdMob adverts.
Then we had some deal with M:Metrics for analytics.
Now we have AdMob Analytics.
Hmmmm.
From the press release:
AdMob Analytics will offer businesses a free, simple solution to maximize commerce, advertising and content on the mobile Internet and to improve the overall user experience.
“AdMob has invested heavily in user, device and carrier detection to fuel our statistical modeling and optimization efforts. We’ve been building some very sophisticated technologies for our own network and are now in a position to empower sites to take advantage of our engineering investments to optimize their mobile Web efforts. We hope AdMob Mobile Analytics will provide a further catalyst for the growth of the mobile Web,” said Omar Hamoui, Founder and CEO of AdMob.
What we think?
Is AdMob going pear shaped? Ok. Ok. I have been accused of bullying AdMob in the past and it’s not my objective to bully – but I will sign up for BETA (if they let me) and report back. My concerns about this is that AdMob seems to be doing what is in fashion and not what’s essential for its ad network.
Yes, its easy to set up AdMob. But education for consumers is essential in the part of finding and choosing adverts for the site and writing killer short briefs. That is where there mobile ad networks are failing non-agency clients at the moment.
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7 Responses to “AdMob, TapTap and now (wait for it) Analytics”
Ahhh it’s nice to be a market leader and have imitators try and keep up, imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery.
Being first to market in October last year we are in a position that since having launched Amethon Mobile Analytics there have been 6 other vendors who have now launched mobile analytics applications in one form or another.
They all have their strengths and weaknesses (check out an independent review by Bryson Meunier of Resolution Media http://www.brysonmeunier.com/the-mobile-seo-s-guide-to-mobile-analytics if you want a list of vendors).
It’s important to point out that Amethon are still the only vendor to use Wireline Capture – so we see 100% of the traffic from the cellular phone browsers to the mobile content webservers, importantly this also means that there is no additional ‘weight’ added to the content pages through the use of page tags or pixel beacons which whilst not an issue on desktop analytics is a heavy burden on limited mobile bandwidth.
It’s great to have more competition from Admob but as was discussed at the New York Mobile Monday panel earlier this week the real issue with using an advertisers networks analytics is you are then stuck with them. You are tied to relying on their platform to tell you how much money you spent with them, and you are also not able to track alternative competing ad network providers.
It’s a great solution when it’s free but free always has strings in one form or another.
If you want a truly independent view on what’s happening with your mobile content come over and check out http://www.Amethon.com
Regards,
Comment made on April 30th, 2008 at 8:30 amDean Collins
http://www.Amethon.com
Dean.Collins@Amethon.com
Phone: +1 646-240-4043
Does seem a bit odd that they are spreading themselves thin - but I suspect that ads are increasingly hard to sell, and Admob wants to provide data free to convince people they work.
Interesting to see how it compares with mobilytics (a more focussed company) and http://www.bango.com analytics - which has been out there for the longest and probably has the most customers.
Comment made on April 30th, 2008 at 9:43 amSurely this is a natural extension of their ad platform in the same way as Google analytics complements adsense/ adwords? Taptap is hardly sucking in resources at admob - I think they just built it as an experiment. Plus they continue to invest in improving the core ad platform.
Dean - as far as I can see Amethon is not a solution for the mass market of small developers, site owners out there - it’s an expensive system for the big boys. Is that fair?
Comment made on April 30th, 2008 at 10:17 amI suspect that Admob’s customers have been asking for analytics for some time, so they can measure the results they get. Bango saw this demand back in 2006, an dthats why we added the “Bango Vision” product with basic analytics last year and launched the “full on” Analytics ( http://www.bango.com/analytics ) in early 2008.
Admob’s “in-house” analytics will help keep their customers interacting with admob, and will give Admob valuable intelligence about the success or otherwise of their customers - even if they start to buy advertising from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft etc. As with Bango they have a powerful platform that can be leveraged into analytics.
I suggest that if you are curious about your site activity, and want real results now, you sign up for Bango Analytics now at http://www.bango.com
Also, watch out for some exciting new enhancements to Bango Analytics in the coming weeks … Got to stay ahead
As we read the landscape its:
Bango: Thousands of customers, released product based on established systems / platform. Powerful real-time API to allow site adoption. Advertiser independent.
Amethon: A handful of customers. Wireline tap (no extra info available). Suited to big boys that are looking for a big tool.
Mobilytycs: Under development. No known customers.
Wapalizer: Small scale, live tool. Inaccurate results. Lag.
Google Analytics: Does not work on most mobile browsers.
Comment made on April 30th, 2008 at 9:47 pmyikes - I thought I was the competitive analyst. But I have taken the gauntlet - will test Bango and sign-up.
Comment made on April 30th, 2008 at 11:35 pmWell since all the other Mobile Analytics vendors commented, I suppose I should chime in as well.
David Goliath said it well (great name when you are going up against Bango and AdMob)
We are building Mobilytics as a pure Mobile analytics platform. While we were considering giving it away for free by showing ads, we are possibly re-thinking that. It is not possible to focus on building useful, accurate, actionable analytics, and to get publishers and advertisers as well.
Any advertising medium needs a third party to validate and analyze the quality and performance of the ad networks. This goes for both publishers and advertisers.
For years Google has been paying publishers without giving them details of how they came up with the amount. AdMob has also been as transparent as a brick wall. As an advertiser, I have seen clicks to my site that are more than questionable, with no way to verify. Do I want to use adMob analytics to verify their numbers??
With all due respect to Bango, they are doing the same thing. They have become a leader in one thing, and have delivered a less than adequate product in an industry they do not belong in.
Both companies figured that since they have data coming in, that it is natural to add on analytics. They are acting as if it is ok for analytics and campaign tracking to be an afterthought. Tell that to Omniture, and Urchin.
Google did not add analytics, they purchased a company that had all the expertise and technology specifically built for analytics. They didn’t just take data they had and claim to be able to use it for tracking by adding on some features to an existing product.
Also, why is it you thing that Google is free , yet Omniture and the other analytics products still thrive??
As for Ray’s comment above about no known customers for Mobilytics, let’s see how many of adMob’s beta testers they publicize. If all we had were the features that Bango has, we would have launched months ago. Tell me again how Bango tracks pageviews? I have taken it easy on Bango as to not appear to be an evil, resentful competitor. But the fact of the matter is that no one who wants REAL analytics is going to ever use Bango.
We are painstakingly sifting through data every day to improve the accuracy of our stats, and will not release it until we are satisfied. If all we were doing was tracking landing pages, it would be simple.
Look for Mobilytics to be a stand-alone complete mobile analytics package that spans across the mobile web, sms, in-game advertising, video, bluetooth and email.
Look for an API that integrates into Omniture and provides all analytics data to our customers.
This is definitely getting interesting. I can’t wait until we can actually compare the stats between vendors and see how they line up.
Greg Harris, CEO
http://www.mobilytics.net
Comment made on May 2nd, 2008 at 4:53 amGreg, wow. Thank-you. I think I agree with you. Would love to find out more about what you are doing and get a demo. Thanks Bena
Comment made on May 2nd, 2008 at 6:07 amLeave a Comment