The current trend for mobile advertising is programmatic buying or real-time bidding. In a matter of seconds the availability, demand and placement of an ad with a mobile publisher can be established by one machine talking to another. Some of the trading desks at the largest media agencies (Starcom, OMD, MEC etc) have disclosed that their ad spend in programmatic buying has reached 15% of their total ad budget this year at a reported $20 billion.

And, according to the IAB 89% of media professionals believe that the RTB is the future of digital advertising.

Why? Because the model is extremely efficient - marketers can finally deliver the right message to the right person at the right time and at the right price. Moreover, consumers spend more and more time across multiple screens and a single programmatic campaign can target and optimise holistically across every popular device screen.

It sounds straightforward yet when stacked up against other digital channels mobile advertising remains chronically under invested. In her 2014 flagship report, Mary Meeker from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers once again highlighted the paradox of the mobile channel: consumers spend 20% of their time engaged with their mobile device yet it attracts just 4% of total ad-spend.

Four common barriers to mobile ad-spend

1. Media agencies tend to focus on precisely targeting ads whilst consumers are sat at their computer, mobile advertising is treated as simple filter screen targeting in digital campaigns and not as a media in its own right. This means that all too often the small screen is relegated to a sideshow where it could easily form the primary digital engagement channel.

2. Not all brands are geared up to pursue customer acquisition via mobile. They may not have a suitable mobile site or application for example. But they all (should) plan to as mobile becomes the first media touch-point- first in thing in the morning last thing at night, most permanent and the most personal.

3. Creative executions need to work in a uniquely mobile context and not just with the small form factor but also with how consumers use their mobile device. This means alongside designing for the small screen you need simple actions that work in a short conversion tunnel that is in the moment and based on contextual parameters (more in this below).

4. The ad-creative must emphasise simple messages in pursuit of a single goal, a short and optimised video, text, or repeating animation.

Programmatic and mobile

Beyond developing the right creative approach, programmatic buying deepens the opportunities to optimise campaigns against unique mobile parameters - targeting consumers at specific times in specific and precise geographic locations for example. Fast food giant McDonalds does this to great effect, broadcasting ads at mealtimes around restaurants, and only to the holders of its branded application.

So what is holding the nascent mobile programmatic ad channel back?

Generally media buyers don’t exploit the unique attributes of the mobile device which enables fine targeting because they fear a lack of profitability and low volume conversion. It’s also true that the majority of ad-spend is place on mobile internet inventory and not in-app yet the weight of app activity versus the mobile internet is 87% to 13%. The irony is that by duplicating mobile-web models for ad-targeting (which ignore much deeper parameters that are locked up within their app use data) the media itself is becoming devalued.

Four tips for programmatic success

1. Measure before you buy, with good performance indicators (KPIs). Beyond a simple impression or click it’s possible to get a much deeper view of the customer. Did that impression lead to a download? Did that download lead to repeat usage of an app? What engagement metrics are meaningful to you as a brand?

2. The strength of a digital lever is to measure the impact in real time and react according to the returns. Mobile tracking performance technology exists and can be used to control and measure the return on investment in real time.

3. Focus on KPIs that are meaningful. There is no need to buy thousands of clicks on mobile ad networks which could typically contain a margin of error of up to 30% (false clicks, clicks in error, poor network speeds making consumers abandon click paths).

4. Take control – measurement and optimisation of a mobile campaign in real-time is now possible. Advertisers can monitor and accurately measure all of their mobile ad spend across the mobile web and apps with a single tool. Whatever the format of the campaign and the media mix, it is possible to seamlessly link mobile ad spend against self-determined parameters or marketing objectives. Moreover, by looking at two or three steps beyond the simple click provides all of the meaningful data that is required to get a clear picture of the true return on investment.

Media planning and targeting a priori is evolving rapidly towards this level of insight by combining tracking, and optimisation in specialist trading desks meaning that you can eliminate much of the waste by hitting a much larger segment with the right message in the right place at the right time.

 

By Christophe Collet, CEO of S4M. 

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