Google is launching a pilot program that will allow app developers to advertise their apps at the top of search results when users search for apps on the Google Play Store.
The program, which was announced by Google on its Android Developers blog, seeks to broaden Google's advertising platform while giving its developers a chance to improve discovery and visibility on the Play Store, where more than 1 million apps are competing for the attention of more than 1 billion Android users.
"With more than 100 billion searches every month on Google.com, we've seen how search ads next to organic search results on Google.com can significantly improve content discovery for users and advertisers, both large and small," said Michael Siliski, product management director of Google Play. "Search ads on Google Play will enable to drive more awareness of their apps and provide consumers new ways to discover apps that they otherwise might have missed."
The Play Store ads will work similarly to the search ads. When users search for an app, say a "cooking app," sponsored app results will show up at the top of the list but will be given a small orange label to indicate that it is a paid ad. For now, the ads will appear only on Play Store for Android smartphones, with rollout to the tablet and web versions later. Google does not say for how long it plans to run its pilot program and whether interested developers can ask to join the testing.
Google is inviting a small set of app developers who are already advertising their apps on Google's search engine to participate in the program and show ads to a small number of users. Selected advertisers will not be asked to pay for their ads just yet. Instead, Google hopes to collect feedback about certain metrics that will determine the success of a future Play Store ad program should it roll out. Google wants to know what the best mix of ads is, what keywords are best used for certain apps, how many ads should be placed, and how ads affect the Play Store's Top Charts.
Advertising on the web is Google's bread and butter, so it's no surprise that the Internet company wants to expand its advertising channels, especially now that mobile is quickly becoming a threat to Google's main source of revenue. Yahoo-owned Flurry, a mobile analytics firm, reports smartphone users spent only 14 percent of the time browsing the web in 2014, down from 2013's 20 percent.
Meanwhile, Google also announced that it had paid a total of $7 billion to app developers in 2014. While that number is still less than the $10 billion Apple paid to its iOS developers, Google is closing the gap in ad revenue and is up from the $5 billion it paid to developers in 2013.
