Andrew Alcock is chief product officer and chief technology officer of PocketMath
By Andrew Alcock and Yann Aïtbachir
As mobile phones and tablets have become an indispensable part of consumers’ daily lives, their attention spans have become increasingly brief.
Consumers are constantly being pulled in twenty different directions, whether it be to check out their friends’ latest Instagram posts, search for the best price for a flight, or beat a family member in a game of Yahtzee.
Slippery fish
According to comScore, mobile use has skyrocketed and is now the leading digital platform consumers use, with total activity on smartphones and tablets accounting for 62 percent of digital media time spent, and app use representing the majority of digital media time at 54 percent.
At the same time, a recent Microsoft survey found that the average attention span has dropped to eight seconds, which is less than a goldfish’s nine-second attention span.
Yann Aïtbachir is head of product research of PocketMath
Mobile is obviously a crucial market for brands to reach, but consumers do not want to deal with ads that are irrelevant or in the wrong format – they expect their mobile experience to be simple, intuitive and lightning-fast.
To capture their shrinking attention spans, it is critical that brands make sure that they are reaching the right person at the perfect time and place and in the correct context.
Milliseconds can separate stellar advertising outcomes from lackluster results.
To be successful on mobile, brands must think about instantaneous advertising to capture consumers’ attention on the fly when it matters the most.
Making sure that the following real-time components are part of ad campaigns will help brands see the best results:
Use a fast, high-inventory bidding platform
Brands should make sure that they are using a lightning-fast, real-time mobile bidding engine with instant access to a high number of worldwide impressions.
The more inventory that a platform can access, the more opportunities that brands will have to reach their target audience when and where they will get the best results. This will ensure that brands are connecting with the most relevant consumers with compelling messaging throughout the day, whether they are in applications or using the mobile Web.
Act instantly on results
Gone is the era of waiting days or weeks until a campaign is over to determine success.
Unlike email, television, desktop display, Web traffic and search campaigns, on mobile brands can now determine within milliseconds if a campaign resonates with an audience.
Brands can now view their ad spend, clicks and consumer conversions in one place for a holistic view of how their campaign is tracking.
Then, brands can leverage these instant consumer insights to make real-time adjustments to a campaign and ultimately get more value out of each dollar spent.
Rapidly retarget customers
Speed is critical to reach potential customers at the right time and place as they can quickly lose interest.
As such, brands must retarget with consumers on a global scale in real-time to inspire them to take action.
For example, brands can create trigger-based marketing campaigns, where customer actions can drive unique ads targeted to them. They can also re-engage shopping cart abandons within minutes with compelling offers to increase interest in a purchase.
Using these real-time capability will drive overall engagement, active use and brand loyalty.
Localize advertising campaigns
Instantly reaching customers where and when they are most likely to make a purchase will significantly increase the relevance of the ads that they view and their chances of buying.
Brands can make ads local and personal by connecting with people in real-time when they are in close proximity to specific events, business conferences or retail stores.
Mobile is a unique advertising platform in that it can use location to reach the right consumers, so brands should take advantage of these capabilities.
Location-based targeting can significantly increase the relevance of ads to customers, especially if the timing is right.
EVERY MILLISECOND matters in mobile and if brands do not implement real-time components into their campaigns, they are lowering their chances for success.
Ensuring that real-time is a major part of mobile campaigns will drive consumer awareness, enable brands to personalize the customer experience, boost conversions and retain customers.
Andrew Alcock is chief product officer and chief technology officer and Yann Aïtbachir is head of product research, both at PocketMath, San Francisco. Reach them at andrew@pocketmath.com and yann@pocketmath.com.
