Mobile Advertising: turning searches into actions

Consumers are finding your brand on the web through Mobile Advertising. Hooray! But that’s not enough. You don’t just want to be found, you want to sell your products and services. How can you make that next step possible? Target specific stages of conversion Consumers who search for you on their mobile device, isn’t necessarily looking for an aggressive sales pitch. Sometimes they simply want to learn more about who you are and what you do. Thus, always having a “call us now or else…” call-to-action isn’t necessarily the best idea – it makes people wary of clicking. Have different types of calls-to-action so you can target consumers in different stages of the buying process.  Keywords should reflect consumers’ needs Mobile searchers have a specific need – that is why they are searching the mobile web in the first place. This also entails that they are searching for specific keywords e.g. “diamond wedding rings.” Your job is to identify these keywords and use it in your Mobile Advertising so consumers can find you first.  Take your calls-to-action for a test drive There is more to a call-to-action than simply saying: “Call us.” There are other elements you can experiment with as well – remember, not all consumers react the same way to all advertisements. What might be appealing to one target market or work for a certain type of product, might not work for others. Give the following a try and see if it works for your brand: Include your business hours Experiment with different phrases that have the same meaning A phone icon that the user can just...

5 Mobile Advertising mistakes that can cost you

It is easy to make mistakes when you are working with Mobile Advertising – even experts sometimes get it wrong. Let’s look at 5 mistakes that you should best avoid if you don’t want to lose money. Not having measurements in place If you don’t monitor and measure the results of your campaigns, you won’t know if (or when) things are going south. If you are able to realise early on that your marketing isn’t working, you can do something about it. That is, instead of continuing to pay good money for poor or no results! Being obsessed with technology Although being obsessed with technology isn’t really a bad thing for a marketer, it could lead to him/ her losing focus on the Mobile Advertising itself. Instead of chasing the latest gadgets and apps, rather keep it simple. Don’t bite off more than you can chew because you want to outshine your competitors. Rather focus on what your customers want and understand. Trying to follow traditional advertising routes It is normal for Mobile Marketers to try the same recipes on mobile that are working on desktop. The problem is that these recipes don’t necessarily work. Think about it. On a desktop it is easy to click away a small ad in the corner of the page that is bothering you. But on a cell phone screen, that small ad might cover the entire display. Instead of clicking on your ad, consumers will click it away and hate you at the same time. Not being optimized for mobile Mobile Advertising happens on a mobile device – not a desktop computer....

3 Must-haves for your Mobile Advertising strategy

Having a strategy for your Mobile Advertising campaigns will go a long way to ensure that you are successful. Today we are looking at 3 must-have elements to include in your strategy. A Mobile Website Websites have always been developed for desktop computers, hence they don’t always display as well on mobile devices. Having a website that caters specifically for mobile users, is in reality Step Number One. All that a mobile website actually is, is a subdomain of your existing website. When a mobile user tries to access your site, he/ she is immediately taken to the mobile version that will display better on his/ her mobile device. Don’t overlook the importance of having a mobile-friendly website!  Mobile Advertisements This might sound pretty obvious, but you need mobile-specific advertisements for your campaign. In other words, you don’t want content that reads like an essay, or graphics that are so big it takes forever to download. The size of a mobile screen requires marketers to be savvy and thorough. So, get expert help with this one. Intarget is a good place to start. We offer mobile display ads, text tags, voice ads, bulk SMS etc.  Special offers Have deals and discounts that are available to your mobile subscribers only. This will encourage customers to sign up to your mobile list. You can do anything from giving away prizes, discounts and vouchers to products or free trials. It doesn’t have to necessarily be something extremely expensive – it is the thought that counts. Just remember to make it easy for the user to redeem – the less clicks/ effort, the...

The dream team: Mobile Advertising and Social Media

Mobile Advertising and Social Media are awesome communication tools on their own. But combine the two and you have a powerful way to engage your customers. Popularity and cost More people are checking in on their social media accounts via mobile than via a desktop computer. Use platforms like your brand’s Facebook and Twitter to create brand awareness and ultimately drive sales. Plus, social media is so cheap to use, that both brands and consumers absolutely love it – hence why it is growing at such a rapid rate. Everybody is using social media nowadays, which means your competitors are as well. Don’t get left behind! Participation Consumers love to participate on social platforms. Even after your Mobile Advertising campaign has ended, a good number of consumers will still stick around on your profile. All you have to do is make sure that you keep it interesting and don’t spam them with useless posts. Highly targeted Social media can help you figure out loads of interesting things about your target market that will make your advertising much more focussed. Not only can you see basic demographic info, but brand followers love to make themselves heard. You will receive complaints, compliments and suggestions that you aren’t to when using traditional marketing channels. Also, people who follow you on Social Media do so because they have a genuine interest in your brand. So unlike a television ad that targets millions of people but only impress a thousand, your Mobile Advertising will directly target that one thousand who matters. Clever and creative If you go about your mobile marketing in a clever...

3 Mobile Advertising metrics you should use

There are different ways to measure the success of your Mobile Advertising campaign. Let’s take a look at four of them that are a must-have for your next campaign. Click Through Rate (CTR) The Click Through rate shows you how many mobile users have clicked on your ad. Did you know? The CTR for a desktop ad campaign is as low as 0.05% to 0.1%? This means that about one out of every 1000 people who see your desktop ad, will actually click on it. Ouch! Luckily, the stats for Mobile Advertising are a much better – almost ten times to be exact. Here we are looking at 0.5% to 0.8% in clicks. Now it is true that people sometimes click accidentally on banner ads which could result in the figure being not all that accurate. According to one study, about half of the clicks could be accidental. Even so, it is still a way better proposition than desktop ads. Secondary Action Rate (SAR) This is when you give the user another action to do AFTER they have clicked on your ad. SAR is useful to help you get a more accurate picture of your CTR. It is seen as being more indicative of purchase intent than merely clicking on your ad. Just keep in mind that the very idea of Mobile Advertising is as few clicks as possible, so make sure that whatever you do for your SAR, is not an inconvenience to your customers. SAR could be things like: Viewing a map or your contact details, inserting a voucher code to continue, or browsing through images of...

Mobile Advertising: Banners and Smartphones

If you are looking to get Mobile Advertising in the form of Banner ads, your best target market will be Smartphone users. Banner ads work great for Smartphones. Brands who want to make use of this for their mobile marketing campaigns will be able to achieve successful results. It allows you to use colour and small images to your advantage, so it is much more than just a simple piece of text. What makes a Smartphone great is that it allows the user more functionalities and a higher level of interaction with the device. This will, from a marketing perspective, allow consumers more interaction with your brand as well. These phones aren’t simply used to send and receive calls and texts, but also to browse the Internet, download apps, stream videos, play games, shop and pay for goods online etc. Thus, brands will be able to build more elaborate campaigns that will entertain and entice potential consumers into becoming loyal customers. There are also thousands of websites out there that are banner ad friendly. You shouldn’t have a problem finding a Mobile Advertising Network that caters specifically for these ads. Now it is true that banner ads don’t work so great on ordinary feature phones, but there has been a significant rise in the adoption of Smartphones all over the world. Thus, it won’t be long until ordinary feature phones are no longer on the market. The reason for this slow adoption is due to the cost of a Smartphone. You could say that in South Africa it would be mainly consumers from higher income groups who own such...