Mobile advertising is one of the fastest growing fields in advertising that drives the growth of online advertising, and is expected to post a CAGR of 24.24 percent during the 2013-2018 period.
The exponential growth in the Global Mobile Advertising Market is driven by a rise in media consumption and an increase in time spent by consumers on mobile devices. This has encouraged a number of advertisers to increase their spending on mobile advertising.
With the sky-rocketing popularity of mobile advertising, we decided to sit down with Vice President of TechNavio, Faisal Ghaus, to discuss what the future of mobile advertising might look like:
What makes mobile advertising the best way to get consumers’ attention?
Well, for starters, consumers these days prefer digital content to traditional platforms such as TV, newspapers, and magazines.
A study on US consumers shows that the average time spent per day by US adults on digital media increased from 29.6 percent in 2010 to 43.6 percent in 2013, while on TV it decreased from 40.9 percent in 2010 to 37.4 percent in 2013.
The average time spent by users on non-voice mobile activities increased about six-fold in the last four years. This change in the consumption pattern has shifted the advertisers’ interest from traditional media to digital advertising.
How did mobile advertising manage to gain an edge over TV ads?
Consumer behavior is evolving rapidly thanks to personal tech like smartphones and tablets. In fact, about 90 percent of smartphone users browse the internet while watching TV.
Consumers’ behavior is very dynamic in terms of how they interact with the brands and is influenced by the device they use. Publishers and advertisers need to be up to date on this rapidly changing consumer consumption pattern to remain competitive in the Global Mobile Advertising market.
How has mobile advertising changed the way advertisers reach their target audience?
Advertisers are increasingly buying mobile ad space through programmatic channels. In 2013, over 65 percent of the mobile display ads were traded programmatically. This figure is expected to reach about 90 percent by 2017.
The Programmatic Video on Mobile Devices segment (smartphones and tablets) is the fastest growing segment in the Global Mobile Advertising market. This segment has witnessed more than 100 percent growth in the past couple of years, outpacing the growth in desktop videos.
Programmatic channels enable advertisers to plan, create, buy, and measure the effectiveness of mobile display ads. Programmatic mobile advertising is a worldwide phenomenon that is experiencing rapid growth globally.
What kinds of mobile ads are expected to be the most popular during the forecast period?
Advertisers are gradually shifting from mobile in-app advertising to mobile web display advertising because of its better ROI.
The share of mobile web displays in mobile advertising increased from 24 percent in 2012 to 25 percent in 2013, while that of in-app ads declined from 30.0 percent in 2012 to 27.3 percent in 2013.
The figure shows that mobile web display advertising has taken off, and it is expected to continue its growth trend in the future. The rise in the ownership of tablets drives the growth of mobile web display advertising. Advertisers that are using the combination of web display and in-app advertising are expected to gain the maximum ROI.
What’s the biggest hurdle for mobile advertisers?
Service providers gather personal data to customize an advertising message and reach the target audience. They use tracking cookies to gather information about the users. This involves gathering data related to customer behavior, customer profiling, data mining, and other behavior targeting tools.
Robust use of such data can cause privacy infringements. Location-based services also come under the purview of privacy concerns because offering such services to customers requires geo-based information. The data collected using mobile devices are processed and stored at the vendor’s end. These data can be misused by the vendors.
