Many people are starting to raise the question of, “Should I be advertising on mobile sites and apps?” This a tough question and can really depend on how your market has reacted to the mobile world. As of the most recent study in March, 48% of Americans now own a smartphone. Here is how this breaks down:
65% of Americans between 18-24 years old own a smartphone
68% of Americans between 24-34 years old own a smartphone
60% of Americans 35-44 years old own a smartphone
When looking at this breakdown from a growth perspective, Americans between the ages of 35-55 years old have the fastest growth rate in terms of smartphone ownership. So with all of these facts out there what does that lead us to? Well all of these people have smartphones and many of them use them for internet and app usage. In today’s mobile world many local news stations and national outlets offer mobile advertising space on their app to generate revenue. With so many smartphone users checking the weather and news frequently, this is a great opportunity for you to advertise your business.
The elephant in the room that we haven’t discussed is Facebook. Facebook just recently crossed over 1 billion users of which 600 million are mobile users. Just today Facebook released their quarterly earnings and their stock shot up 20% based on higher than expected mobile earnings. Since Facebook is now public they have to focus on shareholders and monetizing pieces of their business to generate more revenue. So with that being said here is what I see coming. I think we will see Facebook changing their app and mobile site in terms of advertising. Currently they do not have any types of ad on either mobile medium giving them a big area of opportunity to generate revenue. I believe we will see the free Facebook iPhone and Android app start having paid advertisements. I also believe Facebook will offer a $.99 (or a similar price) paid app that will be advertisement free. So not only do they generate money for the ads, but they also generate money for those paying for an ad free app. This is a pretty common approach to apps and its only a matter of time before Facebook makes the move.
Another social media giant moving towards advertisement is Twitter. We are starting to see Twitter offer paid promotions and businesses are beginning to utilize this as of the last few months. Twitter offers the ability to make your account a promoted account making your profile appear at the top of the search results and in the sidebar. It’s a form of search engine optimization, but in a paid advertisement type format. With 80% of the 140 million users Tweeting via a mobile device, this is a great medium for mobile advertising.
So all of these facts look like mobile advertising is extremely beneficial, should I jump on the wagon? This is where I said it depends on your market. A recent study shows an average of 84% of internet users don’t trust ads. Many just ignore them and ones that click the ads are sometimes clicking on accident. Where I live (IA/IL Quad Cities), the market looks more toward referrals and past experience when we are looking for specific services. With communities like this it is hard to see a solid ROI on mobile advertisements. I am not going to say it is impossible, but it is difficult. The nice thing with Facebook and some other mobile mediums is you can tailor ads to a specific target market (18-35 year old females, currently employed, within 25 miles of Davenport, who like running). This helps to ensure only people you are attempting to target are seeing the ad and you are not wasting your money on others.
One success story that I had recently was with a couple of clients of mine, Crawford Company and Mel Foster. Both of these companies have an ad on the mobile site for our local news station, WQAD. The traffic they get to their website from these advertisements are great. Crawford also advertises on the main WQAD website on the weather widget and that seems to be their highest incoming traffic source. I think our local users trust these ads more because they are the local news station sites and each company is a local one.
So with mobile ads it takes the right mix on the right sites to really be successful. For the most part this may be more than a small business can handle on their own so hiring an internet marketing company will be a wise choice. If you have a marketing team that is well versed in this type of marketing, then you are all set!
68% of Americans between 24-34 years old own a smartphone
60% of Americans 35-44 years old own a smartphone
When looking at this breakdown from a growth perspective, Americans between the ages of 35-55 years old have the fastest growth rate in terms of smartphone ownership. So with all of these facts out there what does that lead us to? Well all of these people have smartphones and many of them use them for internet and app usage. In today’s mobile world many local news stations and national outlets offer mobile advertising space on their app to generate revenue. With so many smartphone users checking the weather and news frequently, this is a great opportunity for you to advertise your business.
The elephant in the room that we haven’t discussed is Facebook. Facebook just recently crossed over 1 billion users of which 600 million are mobile users. Just today Facebook released their quarterly earnings and their stock shot up 20% based on higher than expected mobile earnings. Since Facebook is now public they have to focus on shareholders and monetizing pieces of their business to generate more revenue. So with that being said here is what I see coming. I think we will see Facebook changing their app and mobile site in terms of advertising. Currently they do not have any types of ad on either mobile medium giving them a big area of opportunity to generate revenue. I believe we will see the free Facebook iPhone and Android app start having paid advertisements. I also believe Facebook will offer a $.99 (or a similar price) paid app that will be advertisement free. So not only do they generate money for the ads, but they also generate money for those paying for an ad free app. This is a pretty common approach to apps and its only a matter of time before Facebook makes the move.
Another social media giant moving towards advertisement is Twitter. We are starting to see Twitter offer paid promotions and businesses are beginning to utilize this as of the last few months. Twitter offers the ability to make your account a promoted account making your profile appear at the top of the search results and in the sidebar. It’s a form of search engine optimization, but in a paid advertisement type format. With 80% of the 140 million users Tweeting via a mobile device, this is a great medium for mobile advertising.
So all of these facts look like mobile advertising is extremely beneficial, should I jump on the wagon? This is where I said it depends on your market. A recent study shows an average of 84% of internet users don’t trust ads. Many just ignore them and ones that click the ads are sometimes clicking on accident. Where I live (IA/IL Quad Cities), the market looks more toward referrals and past experience when we are looking for specific services. With communities like this it is hard to see a solid ROI on mobile advertisements. I am not going to say it is impossible, but it is difficult. The nice thing with Facebook and some other mobile mediums is you can tailor ads to a specific target market (18-35 year old females, currently employed, within 25 miles of Davenport, who like running). This helps to ensure only people you are attempting to target are seeing the ad and you are not wasting your money on others.
One success story that I had recently was with a couple of clients of mine, Crawford Company and Mel Foster. Both of these companies have an ad on the mobile site for our local news station, WQAD. The traffic they get to their website from these advertisements are great. Crawford also advertises on the main WQAD website on the weather widget and that seems to be their highest incoming traffic source. I think our local users trust these ads more because they are the local news station sites and each company is a local one.
So with mobile ads it takes the right mix on the right sites to really be successful. For the most part this may be more than a small business can handle on their own so hiring an internet marketing company will be a wise choice. If you have a marketing team that is well versed in this type of marketing, then you are all set!
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