Admob's Mobile Advertising Platform for the iPhone has experienced a major meltdown that is effecting EVERY 'App Store' advert. Incredibly, Admob don't know this has happened!
Since September 12th, not one click on an advert that links to the Wireless iTunes App Store has reached it's intended destination. They're all broken.
Admob claim many iPhone App developers use Admob to advertise their apps, all of whom pay every time their advert is clicked.
The idea is that you and I browse around the various iPhone Webapps using the Safari browser on our iPhone. When we come across an advert delivered by Admob, we click it and it takes us directly to to the Wireless iTunes App Store to download or purchase the iPhone App or Game.
Remember, the App Developer is paying for EACH of these clicks. My own experience as an advertiser on Admob is that the cost per click is between $0.48 - $0.69 (£0.27p - £0.39p). This cost per click soon adds up to many thousands of Dollars being paid to Admob.
The Problem
The problem is that since the iPhone 2.1 software upgrade was released on September 12th, NONE of these links to the Wireless iTunes App Store are working.
It's not actually an Admob error. It's either a bug or security fix that came with the iPhone 2.1 software updgrade.
What's incredible is that Admob, a leading mobile marketing solution, HAS NOT NOTICED IT.
They're still happily chugging along, and for the last 20 days, been debiting App Developer & Advertiser accounts for clicks that didn't result in anything but a pop up window stating "Cannot Open Page".
The App Store developer hasn't received any return on their investment.
It's long been my opinion that Admob's iPhone Mobile Advertising Platform is entirely ineffective, I've been both an advertiser and a publisher, and it simply didn't deliver a satisfactory return on investment.
So does Admob know about this and they're keeping it quiet? No, I doubt it. It's my experience that Admob are simply often asleep at the wheel. So it's not fraud, just complete and utter incompetence on the part of Admob.
Refunds and compensation all round me thinks.
I'm no investigative journalist, so I've not approached Admob for comments.
At this point it's worth clarifying that this DOES NOT effect Admob adverts that point to webpages, webapps or the iTunes Wireless Music Store installed on the iPhone / iPod Touch. These are not affected by the 2.1 software upgrade and still work as intended.
Some of the current Apps being affected include:
- DayTracker - GL Golf - Movies - Solitaire City Deluxe - iTrans NYC Subway
Mike from AdMob here (I'm the product manager responsible for our iPhone ad network). Thanks for your post. You're correct that phobos redirects fail from Safari on the 2.1 OS, but apps are unaffected. We've filed a bug report with Apple and it's been acknowledged.
When the 2.1 OS launched on 9/12, we noticed the bug and implemented a fix to prevent AdMob App Store ads from appearing on our publisher's iPhone sites for users on 2.1 OS devices. All AdMob App Store ads continue to work fine in applications.
No advertiser spend has been wasted. Advertiser performance is extremely important to us, and we're building new tools and services to improve conversions and provide more detailed tracking to advertisers. Look for more announcements here from AdMob soon!
If folks have any questions, you can email me at mm -at- admob -dot- com. Thanks!
This is just not true, 10 seconds ago I just loaded an ad in safari on iPhone version 2.1, clicked the link, and got the error message.
Mike, I emailed your site on the contact page today, I'm sending you an email right now. I hope to hear back from you within a day, I feel like I just blew almost $1000 on wasted ads.
Hi Jake, after our conversation on the phone yesterday, everything is fine. One of your ads was misconfigured, and we've corrected that and credited your account for any wasted spend.
AdMob App Store ads can be seen in a number of apps today, including Tap Tap Revenge, PegJump, Speedtest, Knots, Box Score, etc. Feel free to verify that the App Store ads are working, and users are correctly delivered to the app’s info page in the App Store upon click.
Definitely let me know if you have any other questions!
It's very respectful that you'd come out in a public forum to address this issue. I think it says a lot about you and your company. It's refreshing in the current state of customer support and company transparency.
I am having the same issue. I did a marketing campaign for $200 and admob reported that I had over 1000 click but my sales actually went down for the day. I have been trying to contact admob about it and now one is returning my calls or responding to my emails. They seem to have a big issue on their hands.
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Hi Fox,
Mike from AdMob here (I'm the product manager responsible for our iPhone ad network). Thanks for your post. You're correct that phobos redirects fail from Safari on the 2.1 OS, but apps are unaffected. We've filed a bug report with Apple and it's been acknowledged.
When the 2.1 OS launched on 9/12, we noticed the bug and implemented a fix to prevent AdMob App Store ads from appearing on our publisher's iPhone sites for users on 2.1 OS devices. All AdMob App Store ads continue to work fine in applications.
No advertiser spend has been wasted. Advertiser performance is extremely important to us, and we're building new tools and services to improve conversions and provide more detailed tracking to advertisers. Look for more announcements here from AdMob soon!
If folks have any questions, you can email me at mm -at- admob -dot- com. Thanks!
-Mike
Commented on Oct 1, 2008 6:45:16 PM
This is just not true, 10 seconds ago I just loaded an ad in safari on iPhone version 2.1, clicked the link, and got the error message.
Mike, I emailed your site on the contact page today, I'm sending you an email right now. I hope to hear back from you within a day, I feel like I just blew almost $1000 on wasted ads.
Commented on Oct 2, 2008 4:08:07 AM
Hi Jake, after our conversation on the phone yesterday, everything is fine. One of your ads was misconfigured, and we've corrected that and credited your account for any wasted spend.
AdMob App Store ads can be seen in a number of apps today, including Tap Tap Revenge, PegJump, Speedtest, Knots, Box Score, etc. Feel free to verify that the App Store ads are working, and users are correctly delivered to the app’s info page in the App Store upon click.
Definitely let me know if you have any other questions!
Mike
Commented on Oct 3, 2008 4:18:26 PM
Mike,
It's very respectful that you'd come out in a public forum to address this issue. I think it says a lot about you and your company. It's refreshing in the current state of customer support and company transparency.
Chris
Commented on Oct 14, 2008 8:14:19 PM
I am having the same issue. I did a marketing campaign for $200 and admob reported that I had over 1000 click but my sales actually went down for the day. I have been trying to contact admob about it and now one is returning my calls or responding to my emails. They seem to have a big issue on their hands.
Commented on Oct 18, 2008 1:15:59 AM
Thanks Chris, we try to be as transparent as possible :)
Let me know if you or others have any questions that I can answer!
-Mike
Commented on Oct 20, 2008 11:49:36 PM
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