The one area of mobile in which Google is kicking Apple’s as$ is advertising. Forget about the Android operating system; mobile search and display is where the money is for Google in mobile right now.

In order to make the most of the opportunity, Google has now changed the way they’re selling their CPC ads, introducing an AdWords-style quality score to the auction process.

This brings AdMob into line with their other offerings within which the most effective pricing algorithms have long been optimized. Additionally, Google is making the marketplace for CPC ads more efficient by removing targeting fees and minimum bids.

From the AdMob blog:

Advertisers will benefit from more efficient pricing and could receive cheaper clicks depending on the inventory on which they bid. High quality ads will be rewarded with an improved chance at winning the auction. This change will occur for all CPC auctions globally on Feb 15th. There are no changes to non-CPC campaigns at this time. Advertisers should monitor their bids to see the effect on their particular campaigns, and be prepared to adjust bids & budgets to ensure they are meeting their volume & ROI goals.

AdMob has been a huge success for Google since its acquisition two years ago, with over 100,000 websites and apps in the network and nearly 3 billion ads requested every day.