We have been told “this is the year of mobile” for the last 5 years. With the ubiquity of 3G and 4G and now the emergence of 5G, 2020 is truly the year for mobile advertising.

Today’s mobile ads are far more diverse than static banner ads of earlier years. From new trends in augmented reality (AR) to more flexible design formats, mobile ads will have more influence than ever before.

If you’re a media buyer, it’s time to take advantage of the rich data points that mobile marketing can offer in terms of targeting, ROI, and a better ad experience.

What’s more, the coronavirus pandemic has led to a surge in engagement with mobile advertisements as people spend more time on their smartphones -- to both stay entertained and connected with friends and family.

In this article, we’ll explore the best practices for mobile marketing and advertising.

Don’t Just Hard Sell

Few people -- whether in the digital or physical world -- like being at the receiving end of a sales pitch.

With mobile ad campaigns, it’s important to slow down and spend time segmenting your audience. This will help you deliver more intentional, personalized advertisements depending on the phase of the buyer’s journey the consumer is in.

For instance, let’s say Starbucks wants to promote its loyalty program and incentive users to make in-app purchases to earn freemiums. The coffee chain would target these ads at long-time users who they know already consume their product, rather than at non-users who may not even drink coffee.

Adopt Mobile-Friendly Formats

Delivering creative that doesn’t suit its context increases the risk of alienating potential customers. Screen real estate on mobile is much more limited than desktop -- which means it is that much more valuable.

Instead of simply reusing desktop ads or TV commercials on mobile device screens, advertisers need to repurpose them with mobile-friendly features. For instance, mobile ads should be designed to be viewed vertically, as this is how the majority of people are using smartphones.

The use of video also largely differs between desktop and mobile devices. On a desktop or laptop screen, advertisers can afford to present longer video advertisements in the 30-second plus range. But when it comes to in-app videos, users -- incentivized or not -- are waiting to get back to their app experience. Mobile in-app videos need to deliver the same value as traditional videos -- just in a shorter span of time.

Leverage First-Party Data

With privacy regulations being more enforced in 2020, the hyper-specific, precise audience targeting that brands have used in the past will only become more challenging and costly. That being said, third-party data will become less and less accessible.

This means brands will need to understand how they can harness a branded campaign through contextual channels, like mobile apps and games.

Brands with their own mobile apps will have to leverage their own consumer data to build audiences, segment them, and target and retarget.

Correctly Use Targeting Parameters

Similarly to how formats differ on mobile and on desktop, targeting methods that work for desktop advertising do not necessarily translate well to mobile.

Let’s say you’re aiming to target vehicle owners. On a desktop, an advertiser would track a user’s browsing history to identify whether someone was a potential vehicle owner. On a mobile device, however, app downloads such as real-time traffic apps are a much better indication of whether someone owns a vehicle.

Combine out-of-home (OOH) with mobile ads

OOH and mobile are ad types on complete opposite ends of the spectrum: OOH ads provide massive, physical displays for creative messages, while mobile ads have screen-size dimensions and are delivered digitally.

But combined, the two have significant potential to help you meet your KPIs.

Measuring the effectiveness of OOH advertising has always raised a challenge for marketers. By leveraging aggregated and anonymized mobile location data, OOH ads can more accurately measure their reach.

For instance, let’s say you’re a quick-service restaurant chain, and a new customer comes in to grab a bite. Location-based mobile data allows you to verify whether this customer was recently exposed to an ad, and if their visit was a subsequent result of exposure to that OOH ad.

And while OOH advertisers benefit from mobile ads, mobile advertisers equally benefit from OOH ads. In fact, click-through rates increase by up to 15% when supported by OOH.

Conclusion

The pressure is on advertisers to create relevant, rich creative that inspires people, rather than annoys them. By fusing creativity with data and technology, mobile marketers can deliver well-targeted -- and well-received -- ads that are pertinent to each individual. In additions, marketers will have to rely more on first-party data and find new ways to reach consumers on mobile with the increased enforcement of privacy regulations.

Best Practices for Creative Mobile Ads