Who,What and How of Mobile Advertising

According to a Gartner report, the global Mobile Ad Market is set to generate $18 billion in 2014, a 27% surge over the $13.1 billion in revenues made in 2013. As smartphone proliferation continues to grow, mobile users are consuming an ever increasing variety of digital content, which is having a direct impact on the growth of the mobile advertising industry.

In turn, many of these content experiences are free, which only necessitates mobile advertising. According to the 2012 version of the report, search ads accounted for over 50% of the total ad spend on mobile, while display ads account for 38.7% of all mobile ad revenues.

The What of Mobile Advertising Networks:

Mobile Ad Networks work as a bridge between Publisher and Advertiser. Advertisers and Publishers require the real and detailed information when choosing an ad network to run their mobile Campaign or monetize their mobile web site or app. All data is supplied directly by the networks.

Three facts you need to know about Mobile Ad Networks:

1. No Ad Network is dominant

   This is still a very fragmented market. There are more than a dozen mobile ad networks in the US alone.

2. No one really knows which Ad Networks are the biggest

                                                                                                                                                                           Any figures you read about market share or revenue are estimates (though IDC has made a good effort with the US market, despite lack of disclosure from most networks). And as we all know, size isn’t everything.

3. Mobile Ad Networks are not created alike                                                                                        

   Choose a partner (or a number of partners) that suits your requirements, target market, geography and budget.

The Who of Mobile Ad Networks

Mobile Advertising Networks are mostly divided into three main categories, based on the business model. At one extreme there are blind networks, which mostly work on cost-per-click (CPC) basis; at the other extreme are those networks that focus on premium publishers, which mostly work on cost-per-thousand impressions, and then there are those in between.

Following is the list of most efficient and most widely used Mobile Ad Networks :

1. AdMob
2. Millennial Media
3. Adfonic
4. Chartboost
5. Tapjoy
6. MoPub

Others include Aditic, Admoda, Flurry, HUNT, InMobi, Jumptap, Kiip, Madvertise, MobFox, MobPartner, Mojiva, PlayHaven, RevMob, Smaato.

How Mobile Advertising Works:

Before we move towards the work flow of a complete mobile Ad cycle, we must first have the idea about general terms implied in the Mobile Advertising

Publisher is the one who publishes the advertisements on his pages or apps.

Advertiser is the one that provides advertisements

Exchange connects the Advertiser with the Publisher

Exchange Connector, in turn, connects Advertiser with the Exchange

Bidding Agent provides ads to the Advertiser after filtering and optimization

How the Bid Request Lifecycle works:

1. The Ad request is initiated from the Publisher about a specific Campaign that sends it to the Mobile Ad Network
2. The Mobile Ad Network forwards it to the concerning Exchanges that in turn forward it to the relevant Advertisers via Exchange Connectors
3. The Advertisers sends the augmented Bid Request to the Bidding Agent which provides the Ads according to certain requirements and standards
4. The Advertiser then dispatches the Bid back to the Exchange via Exchange Connector
5. The Exchange forwards the Bid to the Mobile Ad Network in real time that further publishes the Ads to the Publishers
6. The Exchange then sends a win notification to the Advertiser and then Agents

Advantages of Mobile Advertising:

Mobile Advertising has a lot of advantages as compared to other traditional advertising methods. Still not convinced ? Here are a few details that will help you understand how personalized , accountable and ROI driven mobile advertising can be for your marketing campaigns , and your target audiences :

1)      Size of Audience –

According to recent polls, people owning a cell phone are much larger than those owning a computer all over the world, thus providing much larger audience.

2)      Affordability 

By most advertising medium standards, text marketing is far less expensive. It is also far more effective.

3)      Proximity to Target Consumer 

According to a study, 60% of mobile phone users report having their phone within reach at all times.

4)      Measurability

Effective marketing requires some experimentation. Mobile advertising is extremely measurable. Simply by using response codes, a campaigns success can be tracked easily.

5)      Targeting Ability

With smartphone ads, ads can be specifically run in the circumference of the advertisers business. Advertisements can be run at very specific times. Similarly, targeting can get as specific as behavior, and even weather.

6)      Technology  

Mobile advertising is no longer limited to text messages. With smartphone technology a whole array of advertising mediums are opened up.

7)      Compatibility with Other Advertising Methods  

Mobile advertising is not limited to being its own method. In fact, it can be a very powerful way of tracking measurable results from other forms of marketing.

8)      High Click Rate

According to a recent study, 95% of text messages are opened and read. Click rates on smartphone banner ads are also impressive.

9)      Response 

Response rates can be very high for mobile campaigns. The impact, is about five times higher than similar ads can achieve online currently, which makes mobile advertising highly economical compared to other media.

Where do YOU stand on Mobile Advertising ?

What’s your take on Mobile Advertising ?

Do you think we’ll see a time in the future where mobile advertising takes over all other advertising methods to take the lead ?

How has your experience been with mobile advertising , are you keen on seeing ads on your smartphone while you browse apps and the web ?

Do you believe it is an invasion of privacy or do you actually want to see companies promote products that you like being shown to you ?

The smartphone , or rather anyone’s cell phone is the most private of products that an individual has these days. Do we want to allow companies that little space we have reserved for ourselves or do we want it to be a more public affair so that companies can get to know us better and recommend products and services we would like to use ?

You , the consumer are powerful , you can dictate where this industry goes.

We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions , so sound off in the comments below !