Steven Wastie is chief marketing officer of Origami Logic
By Steven Wastie According to a comScore report, 65 percent of the time spent on digital media was spent on a mobile device in 2015. It is no surprise that mobile advertising revenue is growing rapidly, with $20.7 billion spent in 2015 – an impressive 66 percent growth from the previous year. And that number continues to climb. Today, mobile is the engine of any successful cross-channel campaign. But as with any young, fast-growing segment, the mobile marketing environment can feel like the Wild West. As you blaze new trails and drive results, experimenting and failing fast with different approaches and channels along the way is critical. Let us take a look at the needed success factors to keep you on course: Target audiences strategically: Today’s average mobile user spends up to 90 percent of his or her time on just five applications. So when it comes to advertising, focus on high-traffic apps to get the most possible reach – think Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. From there, you can extend audience reach by executing large-scale run of site (ROS) or granular targeted campaigns. Remember that location is everything: Advancements in location-based targeting have created exciting new opportunities for brands to offer personalized, highly relevant information to customers at key decision points. Brands can test different types of location targeting, including geotargeting including setting a campaign to a target location by context, shopping apps that leverage beacons to track in-store customers and deliver ads for relevant items, location-aware apps that use GPS, cell tower triangulation or Wi-Fi data to drive in-store visits when a user is close by, and shopper data that can be harnessed to boost foot traffic and reach retail shoppers at precise in-store purchase points. Get social – but do not take a blanket approach: Sure, social media is a great way to engage with mobile audiences. However, not all channels are created equal. Social efforts on mobile need to map back to your campaign goals just like any other marketing initiative. For example, Twitter is less effective at driving conversions. Users are there to converse and exchange ideas – but are not typically in the purchasing mindset.
Instead, when conversions are the goal, it is best to experiment with Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest, since more users are searching for solutions and ready to purchase.Build creative assets with customers in mind: When it comes to mobile, keep in mind how the compressed form factor changes the ad experience. The traditional display approach will not work. In fact, it may annoy your audience or drive accidental clicks. Native mobile ads display advertising content in the same, unobtrusive layout as app content, so users respond better to paid messaging. When building creative, it is important to ask questions such as, “Does my creative convey my brand quickly?” or “Does the ad invite interaction?” and also “Can these interactions be tracked effectively?” Do not forget: If your ads are designed to drive traffic to your Web site, make sure that consumers will have a good experience when they get there. Hint: it is all about page load speed, and if you do not know about Google Accelerated Mobile Pages, now is the time to get smart about them. Bad mobile Web customer experiences destroy conversion. Build a measurement foundation: Mobile advertising adds a rich set of metrics across paid, owned and earned channels. To fully unlock these valuable insights from your mobile activations, it is critical to implement a unified, mobile-centric measurement system, along with a well-defined internal process, from the start. With mobile, you will need to learn fast and adjust quickly. Ad experimentation is key to figuring out which combination of ad units and ad channels will work well for your specific goals. In addition, you should keep pulse of your app or mobile Web site by closely tracking performance. Make sure you can capture in-flight campaign data so you can accelerate time to insights and optimize quickly. MOBILE MARKETING will continue to change as usage patterns evolve. However, one thing that will not change is the need for accurate and timely marketing performance measurement. By including mobile as part of an integrated, cross-channel strategy supported by a strong measurement foundation, you will gain deep insights into campaign and audience performance, enabling your activations to move as fast as today’s mobile customer. Steven Wastie is chief marketing officer of Origami Logic, Mountain View, CA. Reach him at steven@origamilogic.com.