Google Maps lets advertisers promote locations

Google executives announced Tuesday that the company is adding more features and updating its mobile search and display ads, as marketers continue to shift spending from desktop ads to ones built for smartphones.

Google said advertisers can pay for promotional pins, or markers, placed on the routes of Google Maps users, so that a user who likes drinking Starbucks may see a discount on a Frappuccino on the way to her destination.

Search ads on Google Maps will also have more detailed information, so when a user looks up a nearby electronics store, for example, it will list what items the retailer has in stock.

“It’s very clear to us and to all the advertisers that we speak with that mobile is something that is already here,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, a senior vice president of ads and commerce.

The amount of revenue Google makes in mobile search ads is expected to grow, as its sales in desktop ads decline, according to research firm eMarketer.

The advertising announcements, made at a press event at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, had a different feel than last week’s I/O conference for developers in Mountain View, where Google CEO Sundar Pichai talked about the potential of machine learning and Google’s technology to cure diseases like diabetic retinopathy.