We’re committed to creating sustainable business models in mobile and one way we do it is by enabling new advertisers to take advantage of our platform.  We have seen a variety of new types of advertisers enter the market recently with diverse business models including mobile licensed apps, click-to-call for lead generation and much more. We want to enable all advertisers to experiment with the multiple campaign strategies AdMob supports and are lowering our minimum bid for several key targeting options accordingly.

Effective March 3, 2009, the following pricing changes will go into effect:

iPhone ads targeting all United States traffic
For iPhone ads targeting all United States traffic (i.e., all US with no further targeting options selected), the minimum bid will decrease from $0.10 to $0.05.

Ads targeting specific carriers
The minimum bid for targeting for big 4 US carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile & Verizon) will remain unchanged, ranging from $0.11 – $0.15.  The minimum bid for targeting for all other carriers will decrease from between $0.11 – $0.15 to $0.05.

Ads targeting all countries and carriers
For non-iPhone ads targeting all countries and carriers (i.e., no further targeting options selected), the minimum bid will decrease from $0.03 to $0.01.

The minimum bid pricing for all other targeting options remains the same.  It is worth noting that most AdMob inventory is sold above the minimum bid as determined by our auction system.

Starting on March 3, 2009 any new ads created will reflect this new pricing structure.  Existing ads will continue to reflect current bid pricing until edited, at which time new pricing will take effect.

We anticipate that this will increase advertisers’ ability to acquire more of their desired impressions and create lower entry points for new advertisers to join our network, overall encouraging market growth.

As always, if you have questions please feel free to contact us at support@admob.com.

Jason S.
VP & MD, North America