The art of mobile advertising

The impact of smartphones on society is well-known, with this year’s mobile consumer survey by Deloitte confirming that UK citizens collectively look at their phones over a billion times a day.

Although it seems communications firms have widely adopted “mobile first” strategies in response, advertisers are still not reaching the potential of this growing channel. Research indicates that while consumers spend around 25% of consumption time on mobile, only 12% of advertising budgets are allocated to the media in the US.

So how can advertisers make the most of mobile? First and foremost, content needs to be creative, engaging and consistent across platforms. Equally important is context – geolocation and user data tracking can ensure targeting is accurate and relevant to time of day, weather and activity.  Mobile influencer marketing also offers potential for mass amplification of content among targeted consumers, especially popular with younger audiences.

However optimised video content is proving essential if you are really looking to take advantage of mobile advertising, with studies suggesting video ads have a 34% better retention rate than non-video mobile ads. And with Facebook mobile ad revenues set to near $30 billion next year we could all look to perfect our video content for the platform – so keep it between 30 and 60 seconds and remember to include subtitles.