I have just been killing time and played a game on my iPhone. A free one. One with little ads at the bottom, mainly asking you to download all sorts of apps and games. Powered by Admob. And what do I get? An ad in Dutch asking me to download Skype. Then one in French offering me a free game. To make it clear: I am in the UK and had been playing on a UK-sourced iPhone with an O2 UK SIM card. I am a foreigner in this country but I am neither Dutch nor French; in fact, neither the Dutch nor the French usually like to be thrown into one pot with Germans… 
.
Does anyone really think that this will work? And, moreover: what are ad “impressions” really worth when they only quite literally display, well, random stuff rather than ads people can also understand (for those unaware: being able to say “merci” with an even remotely foreign-sounding accent is considered a major linguistic accomplishment in this country)? In this context, AdMob’s recently reported numbers might be queried, I guess…
If advertising is to serve as a working alternative business model to paid downloads, then it is absolutely mandatory that advertising networks get their back-ends right. Depending on the ad model, simple ad fill might be enough for a publisher (if they are being paid by impressions; ECPM) but not if they are paid by click (CPC) but impressions of Dutch ads to Germans in the UK surely do not impress advertisers who are, after all, footing the bill!
I don’t know if this was a small glitch in AdMob’s systems or is more widely spread but I do hope it is the former.
