By now we have all realised the importance that mobile advertising plays (we hope!). With the insanely fast adoption of tablets and mobile devices still growing and advertisers expected to increase their spend in this medium even more next year, what are the trends in this space to watch out for?
1. SMS – it’s still important.
SMS is one of the most popular communication methods in the world. The rise of text messaging can be attributed to its low cost and ease of use. If you have a cell phone, you have the capability to text — no downloads or installations needed. And with the advent of unlimited messaging plans, texting has become the mobile communication option of choice for cell phone-toting teens, beating out e-mail, and phone conversations.
source: Comscore 2010 US Mobile Subscriber Market report
So what about the effectiveness?
The average CTR for text messaging is 14.06%, while the average conversion rate is 8.22%. E-mail brings in an average CTR of 6.64% and an average conversion rate of about 1.73%, and Internet display doesn’t even hit the radar with an average CTR of 0.76% and average conversion rate of 4.43%, according to the Direct Marketing Association’s 2010 Response Rate Trend Report.
According to digital trend publication Mashable, The response rates that marketers experience via texting campaigns are definitely attractive. These high action rates are probably due to the fact that texting is an opt-in marketing channel, in which consumers actively seek out information and sign-up for updates.
mashable.com August 2010
2. Rich Media
Google has recently acquired some mobile advertising platforms and according to Mashable, we’re going to see a lot of development around rich media in the coming year.
“engagement rates in mobile blow away the best of online rich media, and engagement times in mobile rival those of television [advertising].” … engagement rates as high as 33% on rich media ads, with rates consistently hitting above 20%. At the low end of the spectrum, simple, expandable ads reach 6-7% engagement rates, which is still high when compared to other advertising options in mobile and online. These rates are “unheard of in the online world,” mashable.com 20 August 2010
3. Mobile Sites vs. Mobile Apps
One of the biggest decisions for mobile marketers this year is whether they should build a mobile site or app — or both. And for advertisers, the question is whether to advertise on mobile sites, apps, or both.
But there is a bigger question here on where mobile is going. With Google betting on mobile web and search as the future, and Apple taking the app route, it is still not clear which platform consumers will prefer in coming years. Because of this fragmented mobile browsing experience, developing either can seem like a huge commitment to marketers, especially since mobile spending currently makes up less than 5% of marketing budgets in many organizations. Lets continue to track the developments in this space over 2012.
4. Geo-Loco
We’re looking forward to the evolution of location-centric mobile apps, and in terms of advertising, we’re excited to see how advertisers will utilize them. We’ve already seen a healthy usage of the popular location-based checkin app Foursquare by many brands, especially newspapers, magazines and other publishers. For advertisers, marketing within apps is as easy as creating an ad-campaign targeted to a specific audience and brands are seeing CTRs of 15%. Again more developments to come.
5. Mobile Video is on the up and UP
With the explosion of Internet video consumption, it is predicted that mobile video will also be largely adopted in the coming year. Additionally with the roll out of the NBN, many predictive stats tell the story of video’s increasing importance.
By 2013, some even believe that video will be so widely adopted that it will be a significant driver of mobile data usage — occupying an estimated 66% of mobile traffic, Cisco forecasts.
With video taking an increasingly important role in the mobile market, advertisers should keep their eyes open for opportunities to try out new advertising options.
