With the advancement of mobile technology, more people are spending huge amounts of time on their mobile devices than ever before, for their needs, utility, and entertainment. According to recent reports, there are currently about 4.57 billion mobile internet users worldwide as of July 2020, and in the U.S. alone, smartphone users spend an average of 3 hours and 10 minutes on their devices per day.
For these reasons, it is expected that not only will mobile native advertising be one of the best ways for brands and businesses to go, in order to reach out to their audience more effectively, and increase their sales, but it will also be the future of the advertising world, and among the most effective ways of achieving brand objectives.
In this article, you will learn to define your brand objectives, and recognize the importance of investing in mobile native advertising to achieve those goals. You will also learn about five of the most common mobile native advertising mistakes brands and marketers make when trying to achieve brand objectives, and how to avoid them.
Source: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Before we move on to mobile native advertising, and its significance in today’s digitally connected world, let’s take a look at how to go about defining your brand objectives. As you may know, your brand objectives are the end-goals, and the stages along the path, you have for your brand, such as the impression, and perception you create for your target market.
Here are some of the most common types of brand objectives:
On top of these, you need to consider, in order to determine the aims and objectives of your brand, what you want your brand to do for your business, and what you want your audience to perceive, and say about your products and services.
Some examples of brand objectives and aims include boosting your brand awareness, with the aim of establishing yourself in the industry, improving your brand image, with the intention of being more memorable to your target audience, or establishing your brand loyalty, in order to increase your sales.
With that said, establishing realistic and measurable brand objectives can pave your way to a clearer brand journey, and also help every aspect of your organization to work together to attain your overall business goals. Remember, branding is what sets you apart from the rest of the crowd in your target market, and takes your business to where you want it to be.
After determining your brand objectives, no matter what they are, one of the best things you can do to fulfill them is to take advantage of mobile native advertising (and similar tools for mobile app marketing). But what exactly is mobile native advertising? And why is it important today? Let’s now take a look.
Source: neo tam from Pixabay
In order to understand why mobile native advertising can be a vital aspect to achieving your brand objectives, let’s take a look at what mobile native advertising is, what it can do for your brand, and why it is outperforming other types of digital advertising.
To start off, mobile native advertising is any form of native app-based advertising, such as sponsored content, promoted search results, or product listings, in-feed ads, social media ads, and more, that shows up on mobile devices, like smartphones, and tablets.
Mobile native ads are among the most commonly used mobile ad formats, alongside banner ads, video ads, and interstitial ads, however, they cannot be blocked, and they aren’t conveyed directly. They are usually displayed within an app’s natural mobile environment. One popular example of mobile native advertising is Facebook ads.
Here’s what mobile native advertising can do to achieve your brand objectives, and why you should implement mobile advertising strategies for your own brand.
Mobile native advertising is considered to be different from desktop native advertising in that the former drives better results, and its formats are more successful. According to one research, native ads that show up as branded or sponsored content are driving higher engagement rates on tablets and smartphones than on desktop.
The same research found that, on top of that, click-through rates for premium native ads were highest on smartphones, and average on tablets. In other words, advertising on mobile devices can get more impressions than advertising on desktops, because of the difference in traffic.
What’s more, it is reported that mobile users view native ads 53% more than browser-based banner ads, 52% of users who click native ads have a higher level of purchase intent in contrast with those clicking banners ads, which is at 34%, and mobile native ads account for 88.3% of all native advertising. However, this doesn’t mean that you mustn't take advantage of desktop ads at all, but try to make use of both strategies at the same time (similar to how HTML, CSS and PHP can work together).
Obviously, among the primary reasons for the success of mobile advertising in today’s digital age is the increase in the number of mobile internet usage, the portability and uniqueness of handheld devices, and the increasing time spent on mobile devices, over the past decade:
Now that you have an idea of what mobile native advertising is and its benefits, let’s take a closer look at five of the most common mobile native advertising mistakes brands make when attempting to achieve their brand objectives, and what you can do to avoid them.
Source: Mediamodifier from Pixabay
One of the most common mistakes brands still make today, when it comes to building mobile native ads, is taking ads as one size that fits all. As you choose the best ad formats, and sizes, you must always keep in mind that mobile devices have different sizes and resolutions.
Therefore, you must take viewability, and every detail of your ads, into consideration, and be heedful not to make them visible in every situation. You should also remember that the impressions you gather will rely on the proper size, and correct placement of your ads, your audience’s location, including the relevance of your content.
Source: 200 Degrees from Pixabay
Another common mistake brands continue to make is favoring mobile native advertising over other types of mobile advertising, including video ads, or desktop ads. Although the advantages of mobile ads can outweigh those of desktop ads, especially in today’s increasingly connected world, that doesn’t mean that you should no longer invest in desktop ads, or other types of mobile ads as well.
When displaying your specific ads to your target audience, the best thing you can do is to set the different types apart, and pick the best and most responsive formats, so you can make your brand more trustworthy. Employ video content in your ads, and keep them lightweight, so they can easily load on mobile devices.
Source: Diego Velázquez from Pixabay
The next biggest mistake brands and marketers make when it comes to mobile advertising is completely ignoring mobile SEO, which is the process of optimizing your website to ensure that it looks great, and works properly on mobile devices.
There are many reasons why you should, as a brand or marketer, keep doing mobile SEO even though your ads are everywhere. According to research, the first organic listing in mobile still gets 73% of clicks than the first and second sponsored listings combined. What’s more, the research also found that organic search is more effective than paid in bringing non-brand traffic from mobile.
Source: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Another mistake brands make is not using the power of influencers and thought leaders to advertise, and promote their products and services. Influencers are people who have large followings, and they have the expertise in particular niche markets, with the strongest influence on millennials and Generation Z.
Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to achieve your brand’s goals, by boosting your brand awareness, improving your search engine rankings, and establishing credibility in the market.
Source: Diego Velázquez from Pixabay
The last thing you want to do when building ads for mobile devices is not testing them. If you have a mobile app for your brand, and you want to incorporate ads into it, the best thing you can do is to implement them, and track how well they are performing using A/B testing. You can use this testing method to make sure your ads are staying on top of their performance, by analyzing, testing, and optimizing for best results, including your overall user experience.
Moreover, you can also use A/B testing to check your ads for app monetization. Among the benefits of testing your mobile ads for your brand are improved user engagement, improved content quick results, and increased conversion rates. What’s more, always keep in mind that testing is a never-ending process, and there’s always something that you might need to improve, and optimize.
There you have it! In order to succeed in implementing your mobile native advertising strategies, and achieve your brand objectives, and over business goals, you need to consider your ad viewability, take advantage of other types of mobile advertising, continue with your SEO marketing strategy, use the power of influencers, and test your mobile ads on a regular basis.
Story by Aaron Chichioco
Aaron Chichioco is the chief content officer (CCO) and one of the web designers of Design Doxa. Aside from his expertise on web/mobile design and development, he also has years of experience in digital marketing, branding, customer service, eCommerce and business management as well. For more information about Aaron, visit designdoxa.com/about-us.
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