There are so many myths surrounding mobile advertising which leave companies wondering whether mobile advertising is just a fad that will soon fizzle out. AdSpruce, experts in mobile video advertising, is here to set the record straight by clearing up any myths which may be giving you second thoughts about mobile advertising…
1. Mobile ads are ignored
Let’s face it – mobile ads are quite hard to ignore when they appear on your screen whilst you are browsing the mobile web. Not only do mobile ads catch people’s attention, meaning they are great for brand building campaigns, but mobile ads also engage the user and gain mobile interaction. You may be surprised to find just how many clicks and conversions mobile ads actually get. If you want a mobile ad to be highly engaging, then rich-media mobile video is the ad format to choose. Research from Celtra also found that rich-media ads drive 1000 times more impressions and have a six times higher engagement rate than standard banner ads.
It’s a no-brainer. For a higher CTR – choose mobile video ads. These ads are engaging and attractive to the user, increasing the engagement and subsequently the CTR of your ads. Mobile video ads are also a great way to ensure that your ads resonate in the user’s mind and are great for brand building. With online and mobile video growing exponentially, video is a great mobile advertising format to use to ensure that your mobile ads are far from ignored!
2. Mobile web is under-used
People are quick to assume that the mobile web is not used enough to justify spending money on advertising. They would be wrong. Mobile web browsing now overtakes desktop web browsing according to research from ComScore, with people in the UK and the US accessing the web via their mobiles more than on PCs. It is therefore a very lucrative channel to advertise on with the potential to reach an extremely large user base.
Due to the rise in mobile web users, mobile optimised websites are becoming more and more common and quite rightly so. With so many people accessing the web via their mobiles it doesn’t make sense for businesses to not have already optimised their websites for mobile. Even Google have realised the popularity of mobile web browsing. From April 21 2015, Google are beginning to give preferential treatment to mobile-friendly websites in their search rankings. Basically, if a website is not responsive on mobile, this website is likely to see a drop in its rankings. With Google more or less punishing websites which aren’t mobile friendly, this clearly shows that surfing the web on mobile is becoming extremely popular.
Also, much against popular belief, mobile web audiences are in fact two times larger than mobile app audiences and are growing 1.2x faster. This was found in research by Morgan Stanley in September of last year. The research also found that 38 of the top 50 websites in the US saw the majority of their traffic come from the mobile browser rather than app. From this, it is fair to conclude that consumers are spending the majority of their time inside apps which they have brand loyalty to or have downloaded for a specific purpose. For example, many of the 12 websites which are mostly accessed through app are based on ‘daily habits’ such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, The Weather Channel and Yahoo Finance or social media sites.
Source: Morgan Stanley
Mobile web browsing is definitely more popular than we are made to believe.
3. Mobile advertising is losing popularity
Mobile advertising has been growing year on year and is expected to continue to do so. Considering the amount of people who own a mobile device and the way in which mobile tech has developed and advanced, this is not surprising. By 2017, there is expected to be over 5 billion mobile phone users worldwide which equates to nearly 70% of the world’s population. This allows for mobile to become an extremely beneficial advertising channel with huge potential and reach and explains why mobile ad spend is the key driver of digital advertising spend across the globe.
Mobile advertising will reach $100 billion worldwide in 2016. By 2018 mobile ads will account for over 22% of ad spend worldwide, making up 68% of global digital ad spend (eMarketer, 2014). Zenith Optimedia have said that it is the fastest growing advertising sector this year and is predicted to grow seven times the pace of desktop.
However, there are some aspects of mobile advertising that are losing popularity, such as standard banner ads. This is mainly due to new and better ad formats being created which focus on interactivity, engagement and user experience. One of the key formats being used which harnesses these three elements are mobile video adverts. Mobile video is becoming extremely popular with video plays on mobiles making up a third of all online plays (Ooyala, March 2014), with this expected to increase to over half of all video views this year (ZenithOptimedia, 2014). This has fueled the growth of mobile video advertising, with display and video being the fastest growing ad formats (Business Insider, 2014). AdSpruce are experts in mobile video advertising and offer a wide range of engaging video ad formats such as engaging video banners and attractive pre-roll video ads.
4. Mobile is only good for targeting younger consumers
It is fair to say that young people will use their devices more and for longer period of times – millennials spend over two hours a day on their mobiles (Experian Marketing Services, 2014) and are subsequently the heaviest viewers of mobile video content (eMarketer, August 2014). But it is also important to remember that it is not solely the millennial generation using mobile.
Think about it. Most people you know own a mobile device of some sort, whether it’s your child, parent or grandparent! People of all generations now use mobiles. This being said, certain generations use mobile more than others but we are wrong in assuming that just youngsters use mobile phones and are in turn influenced by mobile advertising. In fact, Nielsen reports that more than six out of ten adults aged between 55-64 own a smartphone with tablet usage among the over 65s growing faster than any other age group! (IDC, 2014). Mobile is therefore a platform where you can reach a large demographic – not just millennials – on the most personal of devices.
5. Mobile ads are hard to measure
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding mobile advertising is that you cannot measure the success of your mobile ads. With advanced technologies allowing for more sophisticated tracking and measuring of mobile campaigns, this is no longer valid. Advertisers can now track campaigns on whatever statistic they want to measure. An advertiser may want to just track impressions for a brand-building campaign (CPM), they may want to track clicks through to their website (CPC) or they may even want to track the amount of installs their ad has generated (CPI). Due to advertisers being able to track anything they want, this allows them to be able to measure their audience value and allocate ad spend effectively based on their ROI.
There you have it: our top 5 myths surrounding mobile advertising debunked. Can you think of any more? Let us know through our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ page. If you enjoyed this blog, then there are many more blogs surrounding the topic of mobile advertising HERE! Check them out!
