Once again, Google has made some people very wealthy. It was officially announced this morning that Google has signed a definitive agreement to purchase AdMob, one of the world?s largest mobile advertising platforms, for $750 million. Founded in 2006 by Entrepreneur Omar Hamoui, AdMob is backed by Venture Capitalists such as Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Northgate Capital, and DFJ Growth Fund. AdMob currently employees over 100 people in 6 different locations around the world.

If you are a Super Affiliate then you know about AdMob (if not, I?m sorry you?ve been missing out). AdMob has been the place to take your mobile offers and rock them out with tons of volume. Just last week, while meeting with several Affiliate Networks, I continued to press the issue that they need to invest a lot of time and money into bringing on more mobile offers. With the FTC cracking down on shady re-bills, the entire Affiliate Marketing industry is heading for a change. I was recently asked where I thought the industry was heading; well, here is my answer:

In the United States Affiliate Marketing is going to move back towards lead generation. While there will always be products that can be marketed via direct response, with ad networks, search engines, and other traffic sources cracking down on what offers affiliates are allowed to run, it is going to be essential to promote offers that enhance a user?s experience. As the complaints continue to grow, it is going to continue putting pressure on companies to move out of the re-bill business and refrain from using similar deceptive marketing practices.

Aside from lead generation, mobile is another industry we?re going to see blow up. Just a few years ago, several Super Affiliates promoted ringtones on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Once new regulations were put into place, they moved to re-bills, dating, etc. While the lucrative ringtone market took a tremendous hit, the amount of people with mobile devices only continues to grow. Affiliates, who were on top of their game, immediately began running offers on mobile ad networks such as AdMob and begin making healthy profits (I?ve heard of some guys making over six figures a day just on mobile offers). The mobile market is only going to get bigger.

With Google stepping in and purchasing one of the world?s largest mobile traffic sources, I look for regulations on the offers they accept to become much stricter. It was a nice run for awhile, but Google?s goal is to enhance their users experience (you can?t blame them; they want to protect their brand and image). Affiliate Networks that do not have several mobile offers, shame on you. While I?m sure you enjoy the astronomical profits affiliates put up with re-bills, it is essential for your long term business plan to bring us in some compliant mobile offers. Yes, right now you?re not going to get the average consumer to put their credit card number into their mobile device but there still lies a huge area for lead generation, co-registration, etc.

Today is just one tiny example of how big the mobile industry is becoming. One of the largest companies in the United States just made a $750 million investment that they expect to see a return on. We as affiliates must continue to adapt with changes on a day-to-day basis as what worked yesterday or last month won?t always work today or next month.