There's good news in the realm of mobile for savvy marketers. According to surveys and customer reports, it appears that consumers aren't just tolerant of mobile ads, they're actually quite happy to be exposed to them. It seems that the average mobile user actually doesn't mind seeing an ad when they're browsing on their smart device, and about 50% of mobile shoppers consider ads to be both helpful, and informative.
Most companies are already aware that their consumers are using smartphones far more often than desktops and laptops today, which means that mobile advertising needs to be at the core of campaign planning. However, it can be difficult to determine what makes a perfect mobile advertisement - particularly if you're just getting started. The following five tips should help to focus your campaign.
1. Define Conversion Points
If you're in the process of developing a mobile advertising strategy, then the chances are that you'll want to not only inform your customers that your business exists, but also encourage them into further action. Think about what people can do using their tablets or smartphone that's beneficial to your business. Often, the answers are much more varied than you might imagine. For example, your consumers can:
- Submit contact information via an online form
- Email your customer service center
- Call you for information
- Make a reservation or appointment
- Sign up for a newsletter or text alerts
- Follow you on social media
- Purchase something from your online store.
Once you've defined your conversion points, you'll have a great starting point for your mobile campaign, as well as a useful opportunity to track conversion rate information.
2. Diversify Your Mobile Ads
When introducing mobile advertisements into your marketing strategy, try to develop an engaging and interesting experience for your consumers. For instance, an advertisement is bound to get boring if it's just the same old banner that appears time after time. Instead, use a mixture of display, video, and customizable options to prevent ad fatigue and keep your customer entertained.
At the same time, using a diverse number of advertising solutions will also improve your chances of appealing to a wider range of customers, because you're not keeping all of your eggs in one basket. Remember, engagement for different types of ad will differ according to user segment.
3. Segment and Personalize
Once you know how you're going to advertise your business, product, or services, you'll need to personalize the experiences that you dish out to your chosen audience. This will include creating placement guidelines and rules for each segment. For example, if you know that the majority of your younger audience members prefer to click on your banners when exposed to them when playing app games, you might introduce an interactive aspect to the ads you use within apps.
Just make sure that you take the time to A/B test the creative and copy you use across every segment. Even if something appears to be working relatively well, it's impossible to measure its success without something to measure against.
4. Use Location
Targeting consumers and audience members according to their geographic location isn't much of a new idea in the world of online advertising. However, geographic targeting can be taken to the next level within the mobile world. Instead of just imagining where your customers will be from a geographic perspective, think about where they're going to be browsing from a mobile perspective.
Determining whether most of your users visit your website when at home, traveling, or shopping can help you customize your advertising to your target audience. For instance, if you know most of your users visit your website when shopping, your ad copy could read: "Take a break from the sales and check out an incredible new offer!".
5. Incorporate Social Media
Finally, while mobile devices might have been created originally to give consumers access to the web wherever they are, and whenever they need information, the vast majority of mobile device usage today takes place when people desperately need to check their Facebook account, or update Twitter.
This makes it all the more important for marketers to consider the way they advertise themselves using social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These are the places where the average mobile user spends most of their time, so be sure that you have an active social presence, and plenty of opportunities for people to get involved through buttons and links on your website.
