谷歌能否阻止移动广告价格下跌颓势

    广告一直是谷歌（Google）的吸金大项。

    在关键词竞价广告AdWords等产品的推动下，谷歌的广告业务去年吸金437亿美元，惊人地占到了公司总收入的95%。广告业务持续盈利，让谷歌敢于尝试利润较低的项目，如安卓系统、自动驾驶汽车、谷歌眼镜等。不过就像大多数科技公司一样，谷歌在台式机到移动产品的转型过程中遭遇了挑战——如何从用智能手机和平板电脑上网的用户身上盈利。可以肯定的是：移动市场不容忽视。单就美国而言，移动广告的花费就可能从今年的70亿美元上涨到2015年的160亿美元，翻了一倍还多。摩根大通证券（JMP Securities）的分析师罗恩•乔希最近预计，移动广告如今占到了谷歌所有广告销售额的14%。

    谷歌赋予广告的一个重要指标是“每次点击费用”。这个指标用来衡量广告商为用户每次点击广告所付给谷歌的平均价格。上个季度，谷歌称将减少移动端搜索页面的广告数量以保证用户体验，并预计每次点击费用也将因此上涨。不过后者并未实现。相反，谷歌的每次点击费用比去年下降了4%，这也是该费用连续第六个季度保持下跌。

    实际上，移动广告的价格仍然比台式机的广告便宜，原因是人们更不愿意在手机和平板电脑上点击广告。（此外，许多用户可能会不小心点到它们。）位于纽约的数字市场调研公司eMarketer的副总裁克拉克•费德里克森解释说：“人们都说广告费是跟着眼球走的，不过情况并非完全如此。”公司可能会迅速反应，抓住机会在日渐发展的移动端兜售产品。不过，最终只有10%的电子交易发生于移动端。费德里克森说，至今为止，手机和平板电脑只是一个消费设备，因此许多广告商当前仍会着重于台式机的广告投入，即便台式机已经时日无多了。

    For Google, the money has always been in advertising.

    Propelled by products like AdWords, advertising generated $43.7 billion in sales last year -- a whopping 95% of Google's (GOOG) overall revenue. Its continually lucrative ad business has allowed Google to use its cash for other less-profitable ventures: Android, self-driving cars, Glass among many others. But like most of tech, Google has been challenged by the transition from desktop to mobile computing -- and how to make money from users browsing the web on smartphones and tablets. One thing is for certain: The mobile market cannot be ignored. In the U.S. alone, mobile ad spending is expected to more than double from $7 billion this year to $16 billion in 2015. JMP Securities analyst Ron Josey recently estimated that mobile ads now account for 14% of Google's overall ad sales.

    An important metric for Google tied to ads is called "cost-per-click." It measures the average amount advertisers pay Google each time a user clicks on an ad. Last quarter, the company announced it would reduce the number of ads on its mobile search page to preserve the user experience and predicted a higher cost-per-click. The latter didn't happen. Instead, Google's cost-per-click fell 4% compared with the same time last year and marked the sixth consecutive quarterly decline.

    In truth, mobile ads still command lower prices than desktop ads do, the argument being that people remain less likely to click ads on their phones or tablets than desktops. (What's more, many users may be clicking on them accidentally.) "The saying goes that ad dollars follow eyeballs, but that's not entirely the case," explains Clark Frederickson, vice president of New York-based digital market research firm eMarketer. Companies may be quick to tout growing mobile sales, but at the end of the day, just over 10% of e-commerce occurs on mobile. And until mobile phones and tablets become just as much a buying device as they are say, a consumption device, Frederickson says many advertisers will continue to focus their ad dollars on the desktop for the time being -- even if the desktop's days appear numbered.