eMarketer: Mobile display advertising is worth the money

Mobile display ads increase customer brand engagement

According to the latest report from eMarketer (Mobile Display Advertising: Wishes, Reality, and Frustrations), US advertisers will spend about $1.8 billion on mobile display advertising in 2012. Although this figure is more than three times that of 2011, it is still far lower than other digital media. Most advertisers believe that this year's mobile advertising investment is relatively successful, but a considerable number of advertisers still believe that the advertising effect is sometimes good and sometimes bad.

Mobile advertising metrics look good. Even after accounting for accidental clicks, mobile ad click-through rates are still higher than online ads. And user engagement with multimedia ads has been shown to significantly improve brand quality. These positive examples, coupled with the rapid adoption of smartphones (now available to most U.S. adults), have convinced marketers that they need to further increase their investment in mobile display advertising.

In order to find out the real demands of marketers in using mobile marketing channels, in April this year, marketing solution provider StrongMail interviewed more than 800 executives from various industries to understand their main performance goals in mobile marketing. Nearly 60% of the respondents said that they hope to increase sales through mobile marketing. This means that direct marketing will still be the main content of mobile marketing for a certain period of time. Of course, nearly half of the respondents said that their marketing goals also include improving brand awareness and customer service levels. In addition, a smaller number of respondents (about 45%) said that they hope to expand the market through mobile marketing.

To achieve these goals, advertisers began to run ads on mobile channels with experimental delivery frequencies and simple banner display methods, and were evaluated based on reach-related metrics (click-through rate and cost per impression).

In the early days, many advertisers questioned that the screen of mobile terminals was too small to create an immersive brand experience. However, advertisers soon discovered that mobile advertising has a positive effect on many aspects of brand quality, and that mobile advertising has a high degree of customer brand engagement.

Research company InsightExpress conducted a survey on 240 mobile advertising effects between November 2007 and June 2012. After analyzing 550,000 questionnaires, they found that mobile advertising not only brought higher brand awareness, but also clearly conveyed brand information, increased consumers' desire to buy, and created a more positive brand image in consumers' minds.

In addition to the above advantages, advertisers also hope to explore the ability of mobile marketing precision delivery and user tracking, which will become the elements to further develop the potential of mobile marketing.

eMarketer defines mobile display advertising as including: banner ads, multimedia and video ads on WAP sites and mobile Internet sites, and ads embedded in applications and games.

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