Display advertising on mobile devices has more than doubled in the last two years, according to a study from research firm ComScore.
“Although mobile advertising is still in its relative infancy, it is quickly gaining importance as new advertisers come into the fold,” said Hans Fredericks, ComScore’s vice president, in a report on the study.
Display advertising on mobile devices has more than doubled in the last two years, according to a study from research firm ComScore.
“Although mobile advertising is still in its relative infancy, it is quickly gaining importance as new advertisers come into the fold,” said Hans Fredericks, ComScore’s vice president, in a report on the study.
“The acceleration of mobile media consumption, driven by adoption of smartphones, 3G/4G networks” are among the factors providing “a ripe environment for advertisers looking to reach consumers through a variety of platforms including mobile browsers, apps and SMS,” Fredericks said.
In April 2011, 689 advertisers used mobile display advertising campaigns to reach consumers, up 128% from two years earlier, ComScore said.
Mobile advertising is increasingly important, as cell phone adoption rates, especially smartphone adoption rates, soar. With a range of mobile advertising options, including SMS, WAP, mobile app display ads, search ads, rich media, video and push notifications, the landscape can be a bit complicated.
Continued Importance of SMS
With approximately 90% of the U.S. population owning cell phones, and 5.2 billion worldwide, according to CTIA’s semi-annual wireless industry survey, and 98% of those phones being SMS-enabled out of the box, SMS is one of the most popular communication methods in the world. The rise of text messaging can be attributed to its low cost and ease of use. If you have a cell phone, you have the capability to text — no downloads or installations needed. And with the advent of unlimited messaging plans, texting has become the mobile communication option of choice for cell phone-toting teens, beating out e-mail, and phone conversations.
The texting audience is large and still growing. eMarketer projects that the growth of the global market for ad support of mobile messaging will reach nearly $12 billion in 2011, up from about $1.5 billion in 2006. “SMS doesn’t get a lot of hype that the flashy apps do, but it works because it provides what all marketers seek — a one-on-one dialogue with a customer,” noted Jack Philbin, co-founder and president of Vibes Media, a mobile marketing company based in Chicago. Philbin explained that click-through rates (CTRs) and conversion rates for text messaging are much higher than rates for e-mail and Internet display, two channels that win larger percentages of marketing budgets than mobile. The average CTR for text messaging is 14.06%, while the average conversion rate is 8.22%. E-mail brings in an average CTR of 6.64% and an average conversion rate of about 1.73%, and Internet display doesn’t even hit the radar with an average CTR of 0.76% and average conversion rate of 4.43%, according to the Direct Marketing Association’s 2010 Response Rate Trend Report. The response rates that marketers experience via texting campaigns are definitely attractive. These high action rates are probably due to the fact that texting is an opt-in marketing channel, in which consumers actively seek out information and sign-up for updates. Philbin says that he looks at SMS as a funnel, in which marketers start with text interaction, optimizing their messages to drive traffic by including a link to rich media, video, or other marketing materials, where users then take the desired action. What’s perhaps one of the most interesting reasons to advertise via SMS is that “about 90% of all text messages are read within three minutes of their delivery, and over 99% of all text messages are read by the recipient,” according to a whitepaper on conversational advertising by SinglePoint. The immediacy of SMS is currently unparalleled by any other marketing channel.
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