Gmail have announced that they are soon rolling out new adverts for Gmail users. The 3 main changes are:
- Fewer irrelevant ads
- Gmail’s importance ranking applied to ads
- Offers and coupons for your local area
Fewer irrelevant ads is always a good thing for advertisers. It does pose the question – how are they determining relevance? More in depth peeks at emails?
What is most interesting though is the 3rd one, the Offers and coupons for your local area.
I assume that this means that if you offer a coupon in your Google Places page it is more likely to show up in the gmail of the area you are targeting.
A new local search optimisation tip methinks.
I am trying to think of a time that I may have actually clicked an advert in Gmail, and cannot remember ever doing so. I sometimes read the ones running above the entry box, never look at the ones to the right. I assume that adverts in Gmail currently convert very badly.
But, Why Are Google Really Doing This?
My hunch is that this is another “Social Circle” thing. Facebook generate their revenue through their in house advertising system, Google obviously plan to do the same. Facebook allows users to target adverts to specific users (gender, age, location, interests etc.). Google at the moment does not do this. I seems that this change is possibly another step in preparing for the big launch of the Google social networking wonder system!
