AdMob, the mobile advertising unit bought by Google last year for a whopping $750 million, is upgrading its platform today. The company is launching new SDK’s for Android, Flash Lite and iPhone platforms and is also rolling out a number of new publisher tools, including a new publisher dashboard, an enhanced Reporting UI, a new Reporting API and Server Side SDK Controls.
The new Android SDK allows for expandable canvas and multi-panel banner advertisements on Android devices, with the updated iPhone SDK featuring performance enhancements and additional server side flexibility. The new Flash Lite SDK, which is in beta, enables monetization with CPC text ads. And AdMob is rolling out a new adaptive mobile ad unit, which allows for a banner sizes ad unit to remain a constant size as consumers pinch and scroll through a Web site that’s designed for a PC screen on their mobile device.
New publisher tools include a enhances Publisher Dashboard with a customizable interface for publishers to view all the key statistics for their mobile Web sites and various applications in one location. AdMob has rolled out a better Reporting UI and now allows publishers and advertisers to build their own tools and dashboards via a new reporting API. Other additions include Server Side SDK Controls, which gives publishers the ability to dynamically control the display and format of the ads in their applications; and AdWhirl (which AdMob bought) for iPhone and Android applications.
In a recent survey AdMob found that 31 percent of developers in its network are working across multiple mobile platforms today and almost half (47 percent) said they plan on developing on more than one platform in the next six months. Other findings from the survey include:
AdMob also released some interesting stats from the app developers the company works with. The advertising network says that more than 70 percent of iPhone developers plan to develop apps for the Android platform over the next six months and close to half of Android developers (48 percent) plan to develop for iPhone. Developers were most satisfied with the iPhone platform and least satisfied with RIM. And 58 percent of developers said they currently develop mobile Web sites.
Google is currently awaiting approval for its deal to buy AdMob. We recently heard Google has been reaching out to mobile companies for help in getting the acquisition cleared by the FTC. Specifically, they’re asking select companies to write letters in support of the deal, which Google will then forward to the FTC.