There was a time when mobile advertising strategies were scattershot. The same all-purpose ad banners were sent to everyone everywhere, in the hope that the right audiences would take note.
But those days are long gone - or they should be, given the UK’s digital spend grew 16.4 per cent last year reaching over £8.6 billion, with 78 per cent of this rise accounting for mobile.
Nielsen reports that mobile app usage now accounts for 89 per cent of consumer media time, with social media, email and news attracting the most attention. Despite this growth in mobile app usage, it seems that some brands and agencies are missing out on mobile advertising opportunities. eMarketer reports that last year mobile ads accounted for just 49 per cent of digital ad spending, meaning brands are failing to up with digital consumer behaviour.
Let’s look at how enhanced mobile metrics offer better results, transparency and accountability, giving brands and agencies the tools to become as mobile-centric as consumers are.
Desktop vs. mobile: A battle no more
When compared to desktop advertising, mobile is a newcomer. In terms of assessing audience reach and engagement, advertisers and audiences have grudgingly accepted browser cookies as a means to track an individual's online behaviour. These metrics play a role in selecting which message from the ad inventory will be pushed to which user. For a long time, there wasn't a similarly trusted method for mobile. But now that's changed and mobile advertising is no longer a guessing game.
We can gather information about our customers and prospects through mobile on a 24/7, 365-day basis, more so than desktop. In-app advertisers can take advantage of the flurry of touch points to learn more about their “always on” users, given that they carry and use their devices with them wherever they go. What’s more, the opportunities for metrics on mobile app advertising are far more exciting than the mobile web. According to comScore MMX MP and Mobile Metrix, 81 per cent of time spent on the internet via mobile in the UK was spent in-app.
Tracking solutions used to be one obstacle that prevented advertisers from fully embracing mobile. But they no longer need to worry - mobile tracking encompasses CTR, CVR, CPI, CPA, Cost per Engagement and Cost per Sign-up, as well as more established metrics such as impressions.
With in-app data becoming increasingly sophisticated through partnerships advertisers, tech companies and app developers, it's possible to now track several post-install events, which is crucial to measure the full effect of any campaign. As a result, brands and agencies are able to see exactly where their traffic is coming from and where it is converting. With sophisticated third-party SDKs and APIs to provide feedback metrics on a granular scale, we are at a tipping point where mobile signals can be transformed to optimise bespoke campaigns.
A new era of mobile innovation
Thanks to mobile’s coming of age, we are now seeing platform-specific, innovative campaigns that pivot around mobile. One example is Coke’s latest ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. By printing lyrics on their cans, the brand is encouraging consumers to sing and Shazam their karaoke skills. Coke and Shazam have embarked on this interactive, mobile-based partnership, which lets consumers use Shazam to scan the lyrics, record a lip-syncing video of themselves and share it on social media - which ticks off not only the engagement box, but the shareability one too.
By putting mobile at the centre, the campaign maximises the impact of an experience that consumers enjoy.
Brands are able to achieve this high-impact, high-quality engagement by partnering with experts in in-app advertising optimisation who can implement the latest ad formats. A recent example of such an ad format is AppLock. The format has helped to optimise performance for campaigns such as War of Games where results from the implementation of AppLock showed increased interactive engagement levels from 3 to 5 times higher than the industry norm.
With the wealth and variety of mobile metrics that are now available, brands can catapult their in-app advertising campaigns to the next level. Consumers are more mobile-centric than ever so brands and agencies should be too.
By Cristina Constandache, VP Business Partnerships, Americas & EMEA at Cheetah Ad Platform.
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