Brian Honigman
is a marketing consultant, a professional speaker and freelance writer. This post originally appeared on the Adknowledge
blog.
Many
marketers have experienced it: presenting a case to superiors for a larger
budget or defending how they spent the existing budget.
At times, it
can be a difficult process with lots of push back and discussion, while other
times it’s an easy conversation due to the success of your spending decisions
or widespread internal buy-in.
Either way,
budget management is a critical aspect of your role as a marketer, or soon will
be at one point in your career. Your marketing budget should be informed and
defended with facts and figures to support the channels you wish to market your
organization on and why.
Mobile, as a
marketing channel, can no longer be ignored and must be addressed in order to
succeed.
A mobile-first
advertising strategy is already in place by many companies looking to reach their
customers where they’re actually active. Whether you’re focused on Facebook advertising, banner ads, marketing your mobile
app or
looking to drive greater brand awareness on multiple mobile channels, it’s
important that a portion of your advertising spend is allocated to mobile
marketing.
Start now,
before your business gets left behind, as many of your competitors already have
active mobile advertising campaigns in motion.
To accomplish
this goal and defend your decision to apply some of your spend to mobile
marketing, use these statistics to support your budget allocations.
1.
Spending on mobile advertising will grow substantially year-over-year across
industries
In 2014,
mobile advertising is expected to grow 75.1 percent to $31.45 billion, which
makes up nearly one-quarter of total digital ad spending worldwide.
According to eMarketer, Google and Facebook are responsible for a
majority of this growth in mobile ad spend. Both companies saw their net mobile
ad revenue increase by $6.92 billion in 2013.
Takeaway:
This is a
strong indication that organizations allocating marketing spends to
mobile-focused channels are seeing a strong ROI from their efforts.
Although
these statistics are predictions, they rely heavily on the explosive growth of
advertising dollars regularly being allocated to mobile channels.
This most
likely indicates that these channels are working for these businesses to drive
measurable results or they wouldn’t continue to allocate their budgets to them.
Mobile ad
spending will continue to grow as advertising platforms like Facebook begin to
expand offerings to suit the needs of advertisers like adding call-to-action buttons
to their ads and the other constant improvements to both ad units and tools.
2.
Consumers are less likely to comparison shop when using a mobile app
According to comScore, 46 percentof shoppers say they are
less likely to shop around for other options when they’re using a company’s
mobile app. This data was compiled from a survey of more than 3,000 U.S. online
shoppers that asked them questions about their shopping behavior.
Takeaway:
It is time to
begin either spending advertising dollars on driving more installs of your
mobile app or developing a mobile app to begin with. Consumers are less likely
to abandon a shopping experience on your mobile app as they are on a mobile
website.
It’s
recommended that you drive mobile traffic to your app to decrease the
likelihood that your customers will shop your competitor’s products and
services.
Focus your
spend on the development of a mobile app or driving traffic to an existing app
using mobile app install ads
on Facebook, through the new Twitter app card
ads or
elsewhere on mobile.
3. More
than half of consumer time spent on the Internet is on mobile devices
Consumers today spend
nearly 60 percent of their time on the Internet on their mobile devices, as compared to their desktop or laptop
computer, tablet and other devices.
Takeaway:
There is no
reason why your business should not be focusing at least half of its
advertising spend on mobile channels because that’s where your audience is
active online today.
It’s
important to measure the ROI of
your mobile marketing through lifetime value, or LTV, since there are typically many touch points
when a customer converts on a mobile device and this must be taken into
consideration when understanding the cost of conversions as part of your
budget.
The LTV of
consumers is important to consider, especially with mobile, since they may
interact with your business on one channel, but not yet convert until
interacting with your business twice more on other channels until they convert
a few weeks later.
In other
circumstances, a one-time shopper can become a lifelong customer by simply
being re-engaged on mobile in the future.
Since
consumers are using mobile more extensively today, it’s important to understand
the LTV each customer can bring to your business if properly reached with the
right messaging on the mobile channels where they’re most active.
4. The
growing intersection of mobile and the retail experience becomes a bigger
priority
Alex and Ani,
a lifestyle and accessories brand, improved sales by
318 percent with a mobile point-of-sale (POS) system. The mobile POS system allowed store
associates at Alex and Ani retail locations to use iPod Touches to checkout
customers.
Instead of
having three POS terminals at a store location, they are able to checkout
customers at 25 locations throughout their stores using a mobile device
operated by store associates.
Takeaway:
Your mobile
marketing can potentially affect the success of your brick-and-mortar stores
offline, creating a cohesive and enjoyable experience for your customers.
Allocating
your marketing budget on mobile can help generate value and utility for your
customers online and in-person, which can lead to increased sales, customer
engagement and a stronger LTV from your customer base.
5. Mobile
traffic will grow significantly in the next five years with no end in sight
According to
the Ericsson Mobility
report,
growth in mobile data traffic between 2013 and 2019 will grow at a CAGR
(compound annual growth rate) of 45 percent.
With these
calculations in mind, it’s estimated there will be 10 times the amount of total
mobile data traffic by 2019.
Takeaway:
Companies of
all sizes have no choice but to start advertising and building an active
community on mobile in order to remain relevant and engaged with their
customers.
If you aren’t
quickly moving to create an active presence on mobile, your competitors will
likely outpace you in the coming months and years with their existing mobile
campaigns as your business tries to catch up with the market and its explosive
growth.
6. Video
will continue to represent a majority of activity occurring on mobile devices
By
2018, mobile video will
represent 69 percent of all mobile traffic, which is an increase from 53 percent in
2013. Last year, users watched about two hours of video per month on their
mobile phones.
Takeaway:
The question
many businesses ask when tasked with using mobile to market themselves is What
should I actually be doing on mobile to market my company effectively? One
of the best answers is advertising with video in a variety of ways.
Video
advertising on mobile is a must in order to capture the attention of a majority
of users using mobile devices, whether through pre-roll ads, branded video
content or the effective distribution of video content with the right
publishers.
With the
right strategy, mobile video has a
strong ROI that can produce results in the long-term for your organization.
It’s all about creating and distributing video content with a goal of longevity
as opposed to focusing too heavily on virality.
Video should
already be a significant part of your marketing mix today, if not, here’s more
on the value of video for
your content marketing strategy.
Video is a
viable option for marketers to reach their audiences, especially at the scale
of mobile, since it caters to the different consumption patterns of users, it
develops messaging that can meet the unique nuances of various platforms, it
can add an additional revenue stream for your business and can help build a
long-term relationship with your customers.
7. Facebook
mobile users continue to exceed Facebook desktop users
Facebook
recently reported that it has one
billion monthly active users on its mobile apps, as well as 200
million monthly active users on Instagram.
Takeaway:
With
Facebook’s large network of all types of users, as well as comprehensive
targeting capabilities to reach them, it’s a no brainer that it will continue
to be a powerful channel for reaching your customer base on mobile.
Facebook saw a major
boost in advertising revenue from mobile app install ads, since it is working effectively at driving
users to the mobile apps of organizations that have difficulty achieving
visibility in the app stores.
Facebook also
introduced mobile app ads that encourage Facebook users to revisit downloaded
apps, which has helped to increase engagement with many organization’s app
offerings.
Take into
consideration the unique targeting capabilities
Facebook offers for reaching the right persona on their mobile phone, based on their
past interactions with your website or similarities to your existing customers.
8.
Redeeming mobile coupons is on the rise
In 2014, one
in four mobile phone users will redeem a coupon via a mobile device. According to eMarketer estimates, the number of smartphone
coupon users rose by 66 percent in 2012 and continues to rise year over year.
Takeaway:
Increased
mobile phone usage has made claiming coupons and offers on-the-go more
convenient for consumers looking for deals from their favorite brands. It’s a
prime opportunity to reach your customer base while they’re shopping online for
your offerings, or similar products from competitors.
One of the
best opportunities mobile coupons provide for your business is presenting them
to customers as they shop your brick and mortar stores in person. They are
already visiting your business, which makes it a prime opportunity to
incentivize them to make a purchase.
Finally,
advertising your coupons, deals and offers on mobile devices is still an
extremely new method of marketing to your customer. Therefore, there is far
less struggle with competitors to reach your audience with mobile coupons and
as a result, an opportunity to achieve greater visibility with your campaigns.
9.
Twitter was born on mobile and continues to offer opportunities for growth on
these devices
According to
Twitter, 76 percent of Twitter users login
via mobile devices. To date, Twitter users are sharing 500 millions tweets per day.
Takeaway:
This means
that advertisers should focus a majority of their spend on Twitter ads on
mobile as opposed to desktop. It is important to allocate a spend for both
desktop and mobile, but place more of your spend on Twitter mobile ads and
continue to adjust throughout the duration of the campaign.
According to
the Wall Street Journal, conversion costs can vary widely on
Twitter, depending on the vertical and your optimization efforts. Take this
cost-per-conversion into consideration when segmenting your advertising budget
and applying it to each mobile marketing channel.
With
proper management and
integration with the Twitter ads API across existing advertising channels,
businesses are able to actually measure the impact of their monthly Twitter
advertising campaigns.
10. A
majority of mobile searches result in immediate action
According
to iAcquire, 70 percent of mobile searches lead to
action on a website within one hour of when the search was conducted. The study
suggests that mobile users doing searches are more motivated to take immediate
action than someone searching from a desktop or laptop computer.
Takeaway:
First and
foremost, this statistic stresses how important it is for your organization to
have a mobile-friendly website to ensure a person is able to take an
appropriate action with your business.
If a mobile
phone user is visiting your website to find the location of your stores and
your website isn’t mobile-friendly, your business could be missing out on
attracting potential customers.
Second, this
speaks to the effectiveness of mobile advertising at helping to drive
awareness, app downloads, increase purchases and more since the intent of a
user to perform an action is much stronger.
There are
fewer distractions on a mobile screen, therefore certain actions taken on a
mobile device get more attention from a mobile user than they would on a
desktop or laptop.
As an
advertiser, there are many opportunities to gain the attention of a potential
customer with such a small screen, fewer opportunities for distractions and a
stronger intent, whether from a pre-roll ad on a YouTube video or an in-feed ad
in their favorite publication.
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