The mobile advertising landscape is diverse, and includes opportunities such as standard display, paid search, SMS, geo-fencing, wi-fi hotspot ads, apps, and more. While many advertising plans have integrated mobile, which of these are most prevalent and most effective? Chief Marketer recently released their Mobile Marketing Survey for 2013 to help provide answers to these questions.
The study found, unsurprisingly, that over 60% of marketing campaigns include a mobile component. The majority of these use a form of mobile display advertising, but in a variety of formats. As shown below, the majority used standard mobile banner ads, whether purchased through an ad network or directly from specific mobile websites. Native advertising through sponsorship of mobile content is growing, with nearly 25% of advertisers including the format in plans. Though mobile gaming is wildly popular, only 7% of advertisers have taken advantage of advertising within or around mobile games.
Aside from display, paid search continues to be an efficient way to reach consumers on mobile devices. eMarketer recently took a closer look at the growth in this area, finding that impressions, clicks, and spending have all increased significantly in the past year. Though the increase is sharp, it shows no signs of slowing. eMarketer predicts over a 75% increase in mobile search spend this year, and expects U.S. mobile search to take over half of overall search spend by 2017.
In addition to these existing mobile opportunities, new technologies are frequently expanding the possibilities. For instance, the relatively new phenomenon of indoor location tracking has taken many by surprise. With the technology, retail store owners are able to track consumer movements through their stores from their mobile phones. For marketers, this can mean gaining insights like discovering where and when foot traffic was highest. For customers, this could mean an invasion of privacy. Even with these emerging technologies, studies show that for now, mobile search and display are here to stay.