Next week advertising auctions for cost-per-click (CPC) placements on Google’s AdMob mobile ad network will take quality score into consideration.

Specifically: on Wednesday, February 15th, ads will be displayed based on their quality of the ad and the bids of that impression. In addition, Google is removing minimum bids and targeting fees, instead letting the pricing be determined solely by market forces.

This is part of Google’s strategy to move AdMob closer to its core AdWords product. Previously, the highest bidder won the impression on AdMob.

More to Come?

Marketing Land thinks the move may presage an even further integration into AdWords, as Google continues to bring the products closer together.

A Steady Change

This is not the first change Google has made to AdMob since it closed its acquisition.  Last year, the company introduced new formats for the tablet. It also tightened integration with DoubleClick and introduced house ads in apps for developers to promote their own apps.

The tablet formats include interactive videos and 360-degree images that are now standardized templates. The 'Ad Network Mediation on the AdMob Platfom' - that is, the house ad product - was based on an upgraded version of the AdWhirl mediation platform that AdMob acquired before it was itself acquired by Google.

The move also allowed publishers/developers to run ads from any network, including iAd, Millennial, Jumptap using AdMob's mediation tools.