The potential for marketers to use mobile to build brands is incredible, but to be successful, they must appreciate that everyone interacts with content, and therefore advertising, in their own way.

Brands must know how different segments within their target audience behave on mobile and how this differs to other advertising platforms.

Mobile is one of the few ad formats that people actively interact with as evidenced by its strong engagement rates and by using technology it can provide marketers with deep insights around time, date and location. Data reveals, for instance, that young women are more likely than men to engage with swipeable ad content, while 4% of all consumers are clickers.

With mobile now accounting for 43% of digital advertising spend and mobile commerce growing at nearly 40% a year, it has never been more important for advertisers to get mobile right.

Get it wrong and marketers risk damaging their brand and most importantly, their relationship with consumers. By using data insights, advertisers can minimise the impact of some of the challenges of mobile. For example, campaigns will struggle to be effective if brands treat mobile in the same way as desktop.

There can be no excuses for not making the most of mobile, and with more than 50% of digital searches now made on a mobile device the advertising pounds must chase the eyeballs.

When it comes to mobile, there remains a clamour for more personalisation but this is only effective if a brand has a strong understanding of the online path someone has travelled.

Savvy brands are already using technology to discover vital information such as how a person arrived at a mobile ad, where they are at a precise moment, which device they are using and what they are doing when they see an ad. For example, are they at home, work or travelling?

Someone’s individual journey on mobile will influence their behaviour and their level of engagement with a campaign’s creative, messaging and language. Most of the time people are on the go when using their devices so the message must be 100% relevant and brands must speak their audience’s language.

What is encouraging for marketers is that 90% of consumers claim they don’t mind advertising if it is pertinent to them. Irrelevant advertising, however, will encourage consumers to disengage from advertising and may even result in adoption of ad blocking software.

To really understand mobile behavioural trends and plan an effective campaign it is crucial to invest in conversion tracking and reporting. Marketers need to know how someone has moved from the landing page to registration, for instance, and what piece of relevant content or which ad ultimately persuaded them to take an action.

If someone has shown intention to buy, they may react positively to an action from the brand, such as an incentive or discount, ultimately resulting in the purchase. This is a technique McDonald's uses effectively during weekend mornings when it offers a free coffee or ice cream until 11am to people near its restaurants.

Similarly in Finland, burger chain Hesburger wanted to combine big formats with great awareness and tactical marketing possibilities. Hesburger created a passbook campaign on mobile where users downloaded coupons that also reminded people to use the offer when they passed by a Hesburger outlet. More than 25,000 coupons were downloaded and around 800,000 people saw the campaign boosting footfall across its 286-strong restaurant chain.

Brands such as McDonalds and Hesburger can then use this data to look at ad interest twins from a pre-defined target group across iOS and Android, as well as on mobile web and in app. They then use mobile technology to re-target and extend the reach of their campaigns to similar user profiles that might be interested in their products.

Mobile campaigns must be planned studiously to match the user journey. This means considering carefully the content created and the way it is delivered to ensure that different segments within the target audience are communicated with in an effective way to raise brand awareness and ultimately boost sales.

 

By Mikael Englund, commercial director Nordics & UK at Widespace

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