New Google Mobile Ads to Reduce Accidental Clicks

Google on Thursday announced a new type of Google mobile ad that aims to avoid “fat fingering” ads from a users smartphone.  The aim of the new ad format is to ensure that users taken to an ad actually want to see the site in question.

In the past accidentally clicking on an ad automatically opened the advertisement, leading to a conversion that wasn’t meant to occur. False ad clicks meant the user became frustrated and the advertiser lost money.

According to Jonathan Alferness, Google’s product director for mobile ads, Google built out its new product by attempting various mobile ad types. New ads now feature a large blue arrow that must be pressed to visit a website. If a users taps anywhere else a “visit site” button appears on the mobile screen, that button must then be pressed to visit the advertisers website.

Google actually tested the option several years ago but only recently decided to launch its own option after acquiring mobile ad giant AdMob and integrating its systems with Adwords.

While the confirmed click option has been used for several years this is the first time it has been implemented to in-app image ad banners. To avoid overlap the blue arrow only appears if a user accidentally clicks on the outside of a banner. Clicking directly in the middle of a banner assumes the mobile user actually meant to click the ad and they are delivered to the advertisers website.

The ad was in beta until Thursday but has now fully launched.

In a Google blog post the search giants“confirmed clicks notably improve mobile conversion rates” while also causing “a slight decrease in clickthrough rate as accidental clicks are avoided.”

Google claims that both text and in-app image banners have performed better than expected since being implemented in full and beta modes.