How to solve the mobile advertising problem
There are unavoidable failings of execution when it comes to mobile advertising – from bad links to bad optimisation – and in this ‘year of the mobile’, brands must think beyond the desktop past of digital advertising if they’re going to be successful. Campaigns need to be relevant and responsive to devices while respecting the consumer, and this can pose a real challenge for brands and publishers, explains Vibrant Media’s Sam Pattison.
A double thumb click and the ads are gone: today’s smartphones give consumers an incredible degree of control over the viewability of the ads around mobile content. For consumers this is great – they get access to free content without banner ads trying to distract them from what they’re interested in.
But for both publishers and advertisers, the ease with which consumers can make ads around the content disappear with a quick move of the thumb makes the viability of their mobile strategies questionable.
For publishers, the low levels of viewability of current mobile ad formats mean they can struggle to deliver effective ad campaigns for brands. If publishers can’t make sufficient revenue through mobile, there’s little incentive for them to develop mobile compatible sites.
Most of the UK’s premium publishers – 68 per cent of them from Vibrant Media’s research – still rely on websites and ad formats developed for desktop users to serve their mobile and tablet consumers. Those that haven’t built a mobile site often see any revenue they can get from mobile consumers as being down to luck rather than design.
For advertisers, the limited screen size and the ability to zoom in to mobile content and bypass the banner ads around it means the ads don’t make a true impression on the consumer – even though they’re technically “served”.
Moreover, the fact that the vast majority of premium publishers do not have a mobile optimised website means that both the pages and ads often render so badly on mobile they don’t offer an environment that enhances brands. In fact, poor display of ads is rather brand damaging. Ads often display as either huge and interruptive, or with creative so small it’s almost invisible. Even when ads do appear on mobile screens, they are often clicked by mistake, creating a negative digital experience for mobile consumers.
So despite yet another year supposed to be “the year of mobile”, one might be justified in questioning whether the media industry is currently working with the mobile medium most effectively. If mobile ads don’t work effectively for advertisers, they won’t commit their budget to the format.
If publishers can’t make sufficient revenue from delivering mobile ads, they might be justified in thinking that creating mobile sites isn’t yet worth the effort.
For some publishers, content apps are the solution. There are benefits to this approach – such as encouraging app users to pay for content more easily – but solely focusing on an app strategy for mobile content distribution generally means that the publisher only effectively serves consumers with devices compatible with the app.
For example, if publishers only develop an app for iPhone users, they’re only going to serve the estimated 31 per cent of UK mobile consumers using such a device. If the answer to this is to simply develop an Android app to serve the maximum amount of mobile consumers, research from Kantar Worldpanel suggests this won’t work: the fast adoption of the Windows Phone is eating into Android’s market share.
This means that the potential reach of brands’ ad campaigns via whichever format of app will be limited. Moreover, research from Lifehacker suggests that of the tens of apps each smartphone user is likely to download, most only use between six and ten apps regularly.
A huge part of the mobile content experience is driven by consumers’ use of search engines and social media shares. By focusing their mobile strategy solely on apps, publishers can ignore the more casual mobile consumer accessing content through such channels who often do not want to download an app for each news source they want to read. Hence an app only mobile strategy without a mobile optimised site can present a barrier to discovery of quality editorial by new readers.
The current technology available makes getting mobile advertising right pretty hard. Even when publishers offer mobile optimised sites, the ads are often displayed in the same banner format designed for the desktop, paying little respect to the different needs of the mobile medium and consumer.
One of the most difficult challenges for brands and publishers is achieving mobile ad campaigns that respect consumers. Mobile phones are on our person at all times and we interact with them regularly. They give us access to some of our most sensitive information: private text messages and emails; personal phone numbers; our web browsing history; and even access to our bank accounts.
The physical nature of a mobile device means that we are not used to anyone else seeing what is displayed on our mobile screen unless we expressly consent by physically putting the phone in someone’s face.
As such, mobile phones have become a fundamental part of our personal space. According to Orange’s Exposure research, 94% of teenagers say of mobile: “It’s my device, I am not sharing it with anyone.”
Any ads that obtrusively intrude on this new area of personal space have the greatest potential to offend and irritate.
Ad formats must also respond to the unique characteristics of the mobile environment – in particular the small screen display, as well as the functionality of mobile phones. Mobile ad formats must be compatible for each device and respond to native gestures, such as double-thumb-tapping or rotating the screen.
Such qualities aren’t just key for delivering a creatively compelling ad – it’s about giving the consumer control.
Vibrant Media’s research shows that 81 per cent of consumers prefer ads they can initiate themselves. Consumers are so used to a high degree of control over their mobile experience that this must be respected. Giving consumers direct control over whether they initiate and interact with ads on mobile devices means they can engage with ad content on their own terms.
This has major benefits for brands as consumers are far more likely to engage fully with an ad if they’ve decided to initiate it themselves.
Equally, ads must be relevant to consumers and the digital content environment they are in at the time the ad is served. Ads should deliver mobile marketing messages that actually enhance the mobile content experience – ensuring they are both entertaining and useful to consumers.
Seventy per cent of consumers we asked say they are more likely to ignore ads which aren’t relevant to the page content. Not only do consumers prefer relevant ads, but when ads are contextually relevant and reach consumers at the right moment, they deliver much greater impact and recall.
Finally, for ads to be effective for advertisers, publishers and consumers, they must be viewable – but nimble. Any ad format that can only be displayed around the content is immediately at a viewability disadvantage, especially on a mobile device where it’s so easy to focus in on editorial at the expense of the ads around the content. It’s just too easy for ads to disappear after a double-tap of the thumb or a quick scroll to make top banner ads vanish.
Our research and development has found that ads placed in-content and nimbly within the content maximise the viewability of brands’ mobile ads – and does so without obtrusively intruding on the consumers’ content experience.
The next-generation of mobile ad campaigns must think beyond the desktop past of digital advertising. Consumer demands for mobile content access have already progressed to a point that both the content delivery and the ad formats need to catch up.
To be effective, new ad formats must be adopted by both advertisers and publishers – ones that respond to the smaller screen of the mobile device, that respect the personal space that mobile represents to consumers, that enhance the control consumers demand, that are creatively compelling, and that can actually be seen on a handset.