Mobile advertising is exploding. The opportunities for developers and publishers to make money through mobile advertising has grown exponentially in the last couple of years. There are a lot of options to market and monetize apps, but when it comes to advertising, there is still just one company that dominates the ecosystem: Google.

We write a lot about mobile advertising companies. Nexage, Tapjoy and JumpTap have all made significant news recently. Yet, as Nexage president and CEO Ernie Cormier told us once, “it is a Google Market.” Yet, there has been confusion between what developers and publishers are supposed to use, AdMob or AdSense? Google clarified what each service is for last week.

In a post on its mobile advertising blog, Google stated: “Admob is for mobile app developers. Adsense is for mobile Web publishers.” That makes sense. It is not as cut and dried as it seems and Google is tweaking each service so that it fits the needs of its specific target community.

Users of AdSense for Mobile Applications beta were switched to AdMob earlier this year. AdMob is now the primary, specialized solution for app developers. On the flip side, Google is now offering Adsense as a specialized service to mobile Web publishers. As such, AdMob support for older WAP mobile websites will cease to work as of Sept. 30. AdMob for the mobile Web will be available longer for high-end devices but will eventually be phased out as well. Google suggests advertisers use its primary Web ad interface, AdWords, to reach older WAP devices across the Google Display Network.

“We know that these sorts of transitions can cause our customers some extra work, but we are absolutely confident that by having products to suit the specific needs of app developers and web publishers we’ll be able to offer the best technology and reporting, the easiest to use tools, the highest quality ads, and the most revenue possible,” wrote Clay Bavor, Google’s product management director for mobile ads.

There is going to be some confusion for mobile Web publishers and app developers as Google makes this transition. Developers and publishers are going to wonder when and how they can get paid from the service they are leaving as they move to the other. Legacy operations that have been on “set it and forget it” mode for older apps and WAP sites are going to need to change platforms as well.

Developers: what do you think? Does having AdMob specified just for mobile applications make it easier and more understandable to advertise through Google? Let us know in the comments.

Image: Google Display Network