The mobile marketing space continues to expand and mature, encompassing everything from search engine optimization and marketing to text messaging to display ads. Many companies simply cannot afford to be left out in the cold when it comes to leveraging mobile outreach into their marketing strategy. Therefore, marketers need to learn how to successfully navigate the robust and ever-changing mobile landscape in 2019.
The numbers indicate this powerful phenomenon will only continue to gain momentum in years to come. According to recent statistics, currently in the U.S. 92 percent of millennials use smartphones, 85 percent of GenXers and 67 percent of Baby Boomers. The affordability of phones and data have lead to smartphones rapid adoption rates, which are expected to reach 3 billion users worldwide by 2021. The rise in smartphone usage has also lead to a yearly rise in mobile data traffic that is expected to increase by 500 percent from 2018 to 2024, according to Ericsson’s November 2018 Mobility Report
In turn, marketers have seen these numbers and gravitated toward the mobile market due to its continued increase in smartphone usage and commerce activity. Mobile app growth initially exploded as it started around $53 billion in 2012, and is now expected to reach $189 billion in 2020. Marketers have also taken to advertising on the mobile platform. Mobile is now expected to lead TV in ad spending in 2019. In recent years, digital has captured 50 percent of U.S. paid media ad spend with mobile seizing the majority of these ad dollars. Now, the expectation is mobile will grow to 70 percent of all total digital advertising.
You have to have the mobile conversation around those numbers, especially with senior leaders in your organization. They are the reasons your marketing plan needs to invest in mobile. Understandably every company’s budget is different and most tend to say theirs is limited. So let’s consider the various mobile advertising options available today, to help you choose how to spend.
Banner/Display Ads
The Mobile Marketing Association describes banner or display ads as an – ad unit, which is defined by display size such as 400 by 350 pixels. Banner ads come in all shapes and sizes and can use flash (not that popular anymore), be static/still graphics or be an animated GIF. They can be placed anywhere on a mobile website, within an app or via a pop-up and are clickable to the customer. They need to be designed to be responsive and resizable to customers’ mobile screen dimensions and capabilities. Display ads are the most common mobile ad format.
Text Messaging/Push Notifications
Sometimes this is a way to begin your foray into mobile advertising. It’s a basic way as in text-only to reach customers on a mobile platform. It needs to be built upon, but text messaging can provide conversions/leads with click-to-call or click-to-web options. Push notifications need to be shorter in length to ensure the main point shows up on a lock screen properly, where as a text message can be longer because the customer can open it up and read the entire message. Additionally, text message will bring the customer to their messaging app, while a push notification will bring the customer to whatever app sent the message. That’s why the quantity of push notifications being sent needs to be carefully monitored and used only for appropriate marketing programs, so they don’t become annoying to your customers.
Videos
We’ve talked about video as content quite a bit. Because social platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are built on this concept, your mobile ad efforts can and should include video. Video that is short, like 30 to 60 seconds short, and if you can get it to 15 seconds that’s good too. Videos help you connect with your audience and can be a fun and interesting way to show a problem that your product offers a solution to. And this is a mobile tactic that is expanding, so you need to know and look at 360 video, vertical video, and outstream ad formats too. Remember different lengths and formats for different platforms may be necessary.
Native Ads
They take on the look and feel of the platform they’re being presented on. They’re also expected to drive about three quarters of all advertising revenue by 2021, according to Business Insider. Native ads are designed with a mobile first approach because social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are mobile only. It’s a natural fit. And speaking of natural, native ads need to be created in an authentic manner to earn the loyalty they want to gain from their audience.
These are the four main types of mobile ad options marketers have to meet customers where they live. Next up, we’ll talk about some ways your company can enter the mobile landscape. If you already feel you need some help getting pointed in the right direction, contact Modern Marketing Partners.
