Mobile ownership has now passed the point of critical mass in terms of global ownership: In the US alone, more than half of the American population now owns a smartphone. It is therefore unsurprising that mobile advertising has taken a place center stage amid the advertising strategies of small and large businesses alike.
The driving force behind the growth of mobile advertising is the fact that it is a low cost strategy that yields high conversion rates.
New mobile-specific ad formats are being introduced every day, enabling marketers to engage with potential customers in new and innovative ways. As native, programmatic and location-based ads continue to roll out, could mobile advertising be poised to overtake other media?In a word, yes.
Mobile could well be the future of advertising. We’re already seeing the evolution: for many brands, mobile is no longer an afterthought; it’s becoming another important channel in the primary marketing mix, along with TV, web, and print media.
As the amount of time spent on mobile increases, the dollars will follow: it’s inevitable. So how will mobile evolve over the coming years and dominate the advertising world?
Here are two predictions about mobile advertising:
1. Programmatic will Mature
Innovators in the programmatic media buying space have been working towards providing a valuable, scalable solution for advertisers to best reach their audience – and we are just about there. Mobile programmatic ad spend in the US is set to hit $8.4 billion this year, surpassing online advertising spend for the first time, according to eMarketer.
Improvements in the use of first-and third-party data will allow marketers to buy mobile ad inventory at a low cost, proving to advertisers that more dollars should be spent programmatically. This trend is expected to grow, especially as we see rich ad formats such as video and native, being bought through an automated process.
2. Beacons and spatial mapping will change the shopping experience
Now that we are pretty much mobile-first in the way we consume content, more technologies are being designed to augment mobile creativity.
Two of the biggest are iBeacons and spatial mapping. iBeacons allow retailers to use location to enhance and personalize the shopping experience, enabling a store to send adverts and offers based on whereabouts in the store you might be standing, or what product you have in your hand.
Spatial Mapping is a newer technology, but has huge potential when combined with beacon technology, to create very precise interior location-based marketing – known as ‘microfencing’.
Because existing location technologies rely on GPS (which needs a mobile or wifi signal) or Bluetooth (which has never really been adopted by consumers for proximity marketing), neither of them are adequate, but these technologies offer new and exciting advertising opportunities for brands to revolutionize their customers shopping experience.
