The Mobile Web

Mobile Advertising continues to deliver better results and brand metrics than online advertising.   This might sound surprising because you are thinking of how small a mobile ad is in comparison.   While  mobile ‘real estate’ is restricted compared to a desktop website, it is exactly that ‘coziness’ that actually brings the superior edge to mobile.

Engagement is really the key to ad effectiveness.  Advertisements get our attention when we focus on them.  We notice ads when they are in-context of similar subject matter or when they are in an uncluttered landscape.  Today the average 10” to 15” website is often very cluttered with several ads trying to grab our attention.  Look at the Weather.com site for instance, (and I’m not picking on them it just happens to be snowing a lot today!) you’ll see a mix of brands from Pedigree to Weightwatchers – all on the same page.  Their mobile web page however has one, easy to read Hampton Inn ad.  So although size matters – attention and engagement matter more when it comes to effectiveness of ads.

Recently Insight Express published a report that found that mobile campaigns through the fourth quarter 2009 performed 4.5 to five times better than online ones against norms for measures including unaided and aided awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent.  Joy Liuzzo, senior director of marketing and mobile research at InsightExpress, said "the high levels of engagement, the explosion in technical capabilities, low levels of clutter and the novelty of mobile advertising all likely contribute
to increased brand impact."   Sites built for mobile devices really focus people on the content, inches from their face.  Focus works when it comes to ad effectiveness.



When you compare all of the options to advertise on mobile, we are proving out that the mobile web page is even more effective than SMS or in App ads at this point.  Mobile campaigns overall led to a higher level of purchase intent than online ads across key consumer categories including travel, auto, retail and technology. 

Publishers – it is time to realize that you will be able to make revenue on the mobile web from advertisements!  Build and manage a mobile website and most of all, understand your mobile audience using mobile web analytics.  Then use mobile ads to engage your customers and bring new revenue in 2010.