Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is still the king in web advertising, and it’s going to stay that way according to a new report from JPMorgan. Despite companies like Facebook and Twitter coming online to challenge the Mountain View company, Google is still investing in making its searches better and improving the quality of its advertising.
The JPMorgan analysis, which draw on a call with iProspect Paid Search Director Jeremy Hull, indicates that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is still primed for growth. The report puts a price target of $1,015 on the firm’s shares and rates the company at Overweight. The piece highlighted the changes in the way that Google is dealing with advertisers and the company’s prospects on mobile.
Google advertisement improvements
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) introduced its new advertising method, known as Enhanced Campaigns, earlier this year. The move was met with some resistance from advertisers. There was notable deceleration in the first and second quarter according to Hull, but the money did not go elsewhere. Advertisers are now comfortable with the new advertising functions and they’re nearly ready to get back in the business.
There is still mixed sentiment around enhanced campaigns, however, according to Hull and the JPMorgan analysts. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) should see strong growth returning in the fourth quarter of the year. Hull is expecting 20+ percent growth to return in the last quarter of the year. He thinks that some of that growth will be pushed from this quarter into the next.
Google mobile strategy
The report dedicates a good deal of paper to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) efforts on mobile. The company introduced a new feature recently that will track purchases across platforms. This should help to increase the company’s mobile monetization as the effect of mobile advertising on desktop purchases becomes more apparent to the company’s advertisers.
iProspect is expecting CPCs to be fairly flat in the third quarter, but the JPMorgan analysts think that the company’s mobile strategy should cause meaningful growth in the business in future. Google’s addition of time of day and location metrics in the company’s advertising should help to increase the metric along with the firm’s cross platform efforts.
A $1000+ share price on Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) would value the company at well over $300 billion, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world. Google shareholders will be watching the company’s earnings report, due October 17, for more on the company.
