Counterpoint: Google’s Huge Mobile Revenues Point to Mobile Advertising’s Weakness

“The challenge with ‘ads’ on mobile — real ads, not search text links — is they interrupt consumers in an intimate space, amidst limited screen inventory, and are too easy to bypass with the scores of apps we each load onto our phones for one-click sports or weather information,” Kunz writes. “The app user experience has made tertiary advertising unwanted, unneeded, and unnecessary.”

There’s little doubt the mobile display business still faces a raft of issues. On a panel I moderated yesterday, Digitas mobile ad executive Ryan Griffin told me that the fragmentation in mobile made agencies mostly dependent on networks for any kind of scaled buy. What’s more, the critical infrastructure — serving, reporting, etc. — remains a high barrier. Then there’s the targeting and uncertain return issues. In his view, the industry’s grown quite a bit from its novelty factor. Agencies and their clients recognize the obvious consumer phenomenon and want in. But that enthusiasm will wear out of networks and publishers don’t ultimately show that this stuff works, he said.