Google CEO: Get Ready for Cellphone Ads

Brace yourself for ads on your cellphone. Google's CEO, for one, is predicting that ads on mobile devices will overtake those on the conventional Web in a matter of years.

Eric Schmidt told a German newspaper that not only will the market grow along with the use of mobile devices, but the ads can be better targeted. "The advertising gets more targeted because phones are personal," he says. "So targeted ads are possible. And that means the value of the ads will grow."

At the same time, a survey suggests consumers are growing more open to getting ads on their cellphones. And again, the ads can be more valuable because they can be personalized to a phone and its owner, says Harris Interactive's vice president, Milton Ellis.

"No other advertising medium approaches the personal relationship consumers have with their mobile devices," Ellis says. "The key is to gain consumer interest by baiting the hook and providing them with something traditional advertising cannot."

The best incentive, of course, is straight cash. Some 80 percent of adults said the best reason to accept mobile ads was some sort of direct payment. Teens, on the other hand, could be bribed more than adults with free music downloads.