Google’s earlier stance that mobile users wanted a different experience from desktop users seems to have changed with the views of CEO Larry Page. He recently advocated the idea that mobile users in fact wanted the same experience as desktop users.
Mr. Page felt that increasing number of mobile users were using Google+ and were getting used to new experiences on different devices. On the same line, the company wanted advertisements on mobiles to be extremely simple due to limited capabilities of mobile devices. However, since creating different advertisement campaigns for mobile and desktop users was quite difficult, he felt that webmasters now needed to focus on creating optimized advertising campaigns suited for users that utilized different devices to reach a website.
One issue that has troubled Google after the rise in users accessing websites through mobile devices is cost-per-click rates. The company claims that advertisers on mobile devices are not ready to pay the same CPC rates as those for desktops. Google has already suffered a 15 percent drop in CPC as compared to the previous year.
Google’s decision to merge mobile and desktop rates seems to be a bid to arrest falling desktop figures while trying to cash in on the increasing trend of users accessing websites through mobile devices. However, it was Mr. Page himself that commented a short time back that mobile users viewed ads in a bid to act upon them instantly while using desktops to browse through reviews, contact advertisers, and take major purchase decisions mostly on their desktops.
However, an increasing number of mobile users now seem to be using phones, tablets, and other devices to view websites, check advertisements, and make up their minds. Google’s new thought process seems to be driven more from the point of generating revenues than actually merging two platforms to deliver a similar experience for mobile and desktop users.
Mr. Page stated that advertisers will no longer need to optimize different campaigns for different users. He expressed confidence that mobile advertisers will loosen their purse strings thanks to a sudden spurt in mobile users using their devices to browse and shop over the internet.
However, Google will certainly have a tough time convincing advertisers to dole out more money for their campaign while convincing investors that this is the best step forward. Investors would be focused largely on observing healthy financial returns on their investments and could be wary about Google changing its revenue generation model.
Google does seem to have second thoughts on how to handle desktop and mobile advertisers, and the changing stance of Mr. Page does not seem to help matters in any way. Only time and revenue figures will reveal if Google’s new idea is a hit or a miss.
