Mobile ad network AdMob has formally unveiled its exchange for boosting consumer awareness of iPhone applications. Through the AdMob iPhone Download Exchange, participating developers will trade a
portion of their ad inventory to help promote each other's apps and drive downloads. More than 1,000 iPhone applications advertise on AdMob's network.
To help improve conversion
rates, AdMob promises that exchange ads will only run on devices that don't already have the same app installed. It will also target ads according to the appropriate mobile operating system, device
and location.
AdMob Tuesday also launched download tracking for iPhone apps, allowing developers to monitor when someone clicks on an ad that leads to a download of an advertised application.
Advertisers can use the service to track multiple apps and conversion rates by specific ad and date.
Based on AdMob's testing of Download Tracking in December, it found that ads for free apps
had a conversion rate of 10% while those for paid apps were 1%. Games have generally had higher conversion rates than other types of applications.--Mark Walsh