Live Blog – Mobile Ad Opportunities Today and Tomorrow

This is a live blog post from the Acquisio User Summit 2012. Everything that follows is a representation of what the speakers said and not a direct quote. I have tried to remain as accurate as possible, but if you feel like any point has been misrepresented, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Speakers: Alexandre Pelletier (AP), Crystal Anderson (CA) and Jeff Allen (JA)

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Alex Pelletier on Mobile Ad Opportunities

By 2012, there will be more mobile users than desktop users. And 56% of mobile users are looking to buy a product. Hence the importance of marketers engaging mobile ad opportunities. We also currently have 3 mobile ad opportunites:

  • Search – 50% of market
  • Display (including in-app and browser banners) – 33% but poised to grow
  • and Location Based Marketing – 17% of market

Mobile search is already further down on the funnel. By the time someone is searching on a mobile, they are that much more of a qualified customer.

Location Based Marketing, however, poses a number of challenges: you need an app, and the app needs to offer some kind of value so that users actually use it with some frequency.

Google, who relies on advertising for 96%+ of its revenue is betting on heavily on mobile with Android, admob, Motorola and Google Wallet.

Mobile Conversions Tracking includes:

  • in-store walk-in
  • in-store purchase
  • and bringing online advertising to an offline purchase in general

Jeff Allen on Mobile User-Experience

Mobile matters because most of us suck at it. Many sites do not have a mobile version, and their normal site is not user-friendly for mobile users. There are too many links, pages require too much zooming, and contact forms often have too many fields for a mobile user.

When running mobile search campaigns, device specific targeting will lower your CPA because mobile users will hit a landing page that mobile users can actually use. So marketers need to create experiences engineered for mobile that are oddly useful. This involves (1) a mobile site, and (2) speeding up your site — every 1 second of landing page load delay will cost you 7% of conversions.

So the big lesson for mobile marketers is to start today, optimize tomorrow. This means getting a mobile site (and landing pages) up right away, and then worry about optimizing them as they receive traffic and you get some insight into your mobile users’ behaviour.

Companies (or agencies) that get it include:

  • The Marines — very simple, with 3 clear and targeted funnels (enlisted, officers, parents & mentors)
  • Klout — they actually have a horrible mobile site, but they use Twitter and Facebook Connect, which makes it easier for their users to connect with them
  • Hoovers — this is a database of businesses and their mobile site allows you to do Location Based Prospecting

Crystal Anderson on Click to Call and Mobile Conversions

In December 2008, Adword introduced targeting full browser mobile phones through device targeting (iPhone, Android, etc.). In January 2010, Click to Call was introduced in Adwords, and in March 2010, it was rolled out to national advertisers.

When mobile sites aren’t converting , consider using Click to Call from the ad. It turns out that a lot of people want to use their phone to make calls.

Whenever you start a mobile campaign, test all your options and find out what works for your target market, including (1) a mobile site, (2) landing pages, and (3) click to call. So key lessons for mobile ad campaigns:

  • You don’t need a mobile site
  • Make sure your landing pages render properly (this will affect your Quality Score)
  • A mobile site does not automatically equal success
  • Use mobile website best practices (keep it simple, focus on conversion, page size and load times, etc.)
  • Know the mobile audience — do some research, understand how mobile users behave, and use that to inform your mobile ad strategy
  • Know YOUR audience — What are your customers doing on their phone? What do they want you to offer them through their device
  • Don’t forget the obvious (e.g. it’s a phone, so don’t forget that users might be in a phone call mindset)
  • Go against desktop best practices — focus on short tail, not long tail
  • Don’t assume you’ll have cheaper CPCs because the space is newer and less competitive– top 2 ad positions actually tend to convert better
  • Don’t set your budget too low
CT Moore

CT Moore

A recovering agency hack, CT Moore now runs Socialed Inc., an inbound marketing consultancy that specializes in SEO, content marketing, and social media strategies for ecommerce, media, and B2B companies. With over a decade of experience in marketing communications, CT has managed SEO, social media, and content marketing campaigns on both the agency and client side, for start-ups and multinationals alike. CT is also a widely published writer and blogger, and has spoken at conferences in Canada, the US, and Europe. You can read more from CT on the Socialed Blog.

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