I’m still dubious about the effectiveness of mobile advertising, but Google AdSense, a heavyweight in the online advertising ring, has announced support for iPhone and Android applications. The big key to AdSense is properly targeting the audience, and since Google has pretty much your whole search history on file, odds are they can usually feed you ads that are actually interesting and relevant. Support for mobile will not only take into account keywords that you’re using with the app, but also your location pulled from integrated GPS.
My guess is ads will be even more accurate on Android since it requires your Google account credentials to work, and will be able to tap a wider array of your interests. It strikes me this is really good for free apps with a lot of users that are looking for a viable revenue model without going premium. Good news for developers, bad news for end-users who have been enjoying these apps ad-free until now. If you’re either a developer or a marketer, you can find more info at Google’s dedicated AdSense for Mobile Apps page.
[via Official Google Blog]