The smartphone market is booming. Mobile telephones with internet access are not the luxury item they once were; they have now gone down-market. However, smartphones, tablets and the like are far more than just the pocket-sized internet and helpers in (almost) all situations. The new generation of mobile devices is also redefining digital retail. The mobile sales channel is no longer the future for e-commerce providers – it is already reality today. The mobile channel will assert itself even more strongly as a performance channel in the future – here are nine hypotheses on the matter.
1. Mobile Devices Facilitate Direct Access to the Consumer
Tablets, smartphones and mobile phones are personalised devices. As such, they offer advertisers direct access to the consumer – anytime and anywhere. With this, the mobile channel is predestined for performance-oriented one-to-one marketing.
2. Mobile Shopping is Reality – Mobile Branding is Still an Idea for the Future
Consumers are already much more m-commerce-savvy than many industry representatives would like to believe. With their adapted user behaviour, smartphone owners are practically forcing e-commerce providers and advertisers into m-commerce. This is also confirmed by current evaluations of the “zanox Mobile Performance Barometer 2012”: In the zanox network alone, the number of mobile transactions in 2012 was more than double that of the previous year. At the same time, however, the sales volume generated has more than trebled. Therefore, consumers are increasingly shopping more and at higher values via mobile devices.
3. Real-time Bidding (RTB) will Change the Future of Mobile Display Marketing
After the web, RTB will also conquer the mobile internet. The auction principle for every individual ad impression is independent of the location from which the internet is accessed and therefore fits the mobile channel like a glove. Through RTB, the performance concept will establish itself more strongly in the mobile world.
4. CPA Models Making Mobile Inroads
In the mobile segment, there is an over-supply of content and, therefore, of marketable ad spaces. For many providers, particularly those who are not positioned in the direct premium segment, this over-supply leads to sharply falling CPMs. As publishers are not interested in flogging their ad spaces at a loss, they are more likely to decide on performance or, in other words, CPA-oriented marketing.
5. Mobile Payments are Stimulating the M-commerce Market
Even though still in its early stages in many areas and far removed from standard use, direct and simple payment via smartphones in m-commerce will prevail. With this, a direct link is possible between mobile advertising and mobile shopping.
6. Mobile Clears the Path for Direct Response Marketing
Mobile will facilitate precise targeting of a completely new kind – one that goes far beyond the targeting possibilities of the stationary web. Mobile targeting can refer to devices, locations or the use of apps and, in doing so, will clear the path for direct-response marketing.
7. Performance Advertising Will Counter the Sausage Fingers Effect
Studies show that a large proportion of banner campaigns are clicked on in error. The explanation for this is the so-called “sausage-fingers effect”. This effect raises real questions about the effectiveness of all reach and CPC campaigns – but not CPA models, as in performance advertising, the ad click is not the currency, but rather the order (CpO) and this should not be afflicted by the sausage-fingers effect.
8. Flexible Advertising Formats in the Performance Segment
According to the latest studies, consumers still harbour major reservations about mobile brand advertising. It comes across as too dominant, hampers mobile internet use and, most of the time, doesn’t fit in the real user scenario. Flexible advertising formats have long since established themselves in performance advertising; these are adapted to the mobile channel and have gained the acceptance of consumers: from the pure text link, to simple banners and product data, right up to mobile coupons.
9. Mobile Performance is More
In the classical world of online marketing, performance advertising is viewed as the quest for sales and leads. This definition expands even further in the mobile market! Mobile performance will be augmented by offers such as downloads, social recommendations, in-app activities or even click-to-call campaigns, meaning that the performance concept reaches new dimensions.