It’s that time again. New Years is just around the corner and things, as always, will change considerably in the online advertising arena.
Mobile devices are continuing to take over this slice of the market pie. Before Christmas, it’s estimated that there are 7,200,000,000 people on the planet and anywhere from 7.5 — 7,700,000,000 mobile devices out there surfing the web at any given time.
Big numbers…
In 2016, advertisers are set to spend $100,000,000,000 on advertising. By 2019, it’s estimated that digital advertising will account for approximately 72% of all advertising spend — globally.
Mobile’s here to stay and we’re a long ways from it being merely an industry-specific decision now. If you’re not optimizing your ads and allocating a significant amount of your yearly budget to draw in mobile customers, your days in modern business are numbered.
And your plan can’t just be about thinking “mobile.” Businesses also need to niche-down now to accommodate for in-app ads versus mobile web advertisements. The majority of mobile users spend the most (90%) of their time using apps of all kinds, and they use the rest of their time on their devices surfing the mobile web.
In fact, surfing, from a mobile standpoint has now become the low-hanging fruit for smaller advertisers who find it difficult to compete with the big boys spending millions and billions in app development and advertising spend.
Here are 3 questions that need to be addressed as you start formulating a plan and budget for mobile advertising this year:
1. What channel is most practical for your sales model? (ie., where are they interacting with your brand?
Close to 90% of consumers who use mobile devices spend upwards of 3.5 hours daily just on their smartphones. Who knows how much they’re using their tablets when they get home? What you need to find out, as a business owner, is where specifically those customers are interacting most with your brand.
For most of you, the answer is going to be the mobile web via ads and (hopefully) the content you provide. And for most of you, one of your major goals for this coming year NEEDS to be developing an app so that you can interact with them on a daily or semi-daily basis. If you can’t think of a reasonable way to do this, you need to reach out to other brands and advertise your business through their apps.
If you’re using a flash sale type app to advertise daily deals and such, don’t get overzealous in trying to capitalize on the 10% of web sales you might not be driving. Instead, allocate the majority of your budget toward driving more downloads and providing those can’t-pass-them-up deals on your products and services. That is, only if you have an established app that’s banking for you right now.
Plain and simple: divide and conquer both the web and the in-app market for mobile sales domination. Don’t pull the trigger yet though; there’s still more to consider…
2. Where are you engaging them most?
Usage and sales stats for apps, and mobile ad conversions make for great data. After all, you need to know where your money’s coming from, correct? But, if you consult Gallop’s data and research on a regular basis (and you definitely should), business growth is most predicated on customer engagement. Bar-none. If you have a good product to sell and your customer service is in-line with the standards consumers expect, customer engagement will be the linchpin in your growth plan.
Engagement = Loyalty = Profits.
How to get more engagement? Content of course. A company blog, guest posts on relevant publications, and a solid social media marketing plan are all paramount to engaging viewers. Mix solid information, entertainment, current news and trends, and product/service information and comparisons and you’ll be well on your way.
Find out where you’re currently engaging the most customers. Hold fast on that platform, and then formulate a plan to spread your wings into other areas that you aren’t exploiting currently. Forums are an oft-forgotten method of engagement advertisers of today have forgotten about.
3. Where are your conversions coming from?
Ah, the one thing above all else that all brands care about equally. Profits. Mobile transactions in North America currently make up for around 30% of ecomm sales. In Japan and Korea, those numbers are near doubled at 50%.
I’ve mentioned spreading your wings a few times on this page. However, you need to put most of your eggs in the basket that’s going to support getting them from A to B (ie., continued business growth). If you’re still getting the most bang-for-buck out of mobile web ads, a larger portion of your ad spend needs to stay put in that area.
I’m not trying to be contradictory and say you should tread lightly in the in-app side if this is you, but rather you need to keep increasing revenue in the area that’s bringing in the most cash, so you can then continue to allocate more cash toward building and refining a company app and for ad spend on other brand’s apps also. Invest in both, but invest most in that which is currently making you big bank, so you have more cash to spend on that which isn’t converting, as well as tools and data that can help you further monitor and refine your approach for the most return.
*If you’re not touching your customers in the mobile advertising and engagement arena, another brand is, and your days are sadly numbered.
Plain and simple.
