Interest in mobile search ads is picking up, as companies that have tried mobile banners look for ads that can be more targeted to specific consumer requests, though revenues are still slim, reports the WSJ.com.

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According to JP Morgan, mobile search revenues will rise to $128 million this year, from $99 million in 2008. By comparison, mobile display revenues are estimated to top around $94 million this year. The growing interest—and sales—are good news for search companies Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG). But while Google VP of product management for mobile and local ad products Doug Garland said it was “seeing some nice, robust growth in mobile search,” the search giant’s revenues was still not “more than a rounding error”.

Still, advertisers noting that a similar shift happened on the PC, which no one ever expected to take off the way it did, believe it will be an increasingly important channel. Smartphone uptake, which is expected to grow, is driving more users to the mobile web.  Because search ads come up after a user has keyed in a specific request, they are seen as less intrusive, a good thing considering the limited real estate on cellphone screens. Plus, their effectiveness is apparently easier to measure. Moreover, search ads can be more targeted to the requests and made location-aware.

Interestingly, some advertisers, including ad agency RPA that worked on a mobile search campaign for Honda, are reporting that search ads on a cost per phone call or Web inquiry basis were cheaper than PC search ads for the same campaign. It also looks like advertisers are trying to push for much better deals for mobile display ads based on what they’ve done with search ads. Hotel chain Mariott and pizza chain Papa John’s International said they were trying to cut similar deals for banners ads as they do with search, that is, paying for only the banner ads that a user clicks on rather for each time an ad is shown.