If you’re not already in mobile, you’re behind – and here’s why:
According to Marketo’s Definitive Guide to Mobile Marketing, “79% of Smartphone users have their phone on, or near them, for all but two hours of their waking day.” They go on to report this staggering figure: There are 7.1 billion people on Earth, and 7.7 billion mobile devices. In order to reach today’s customer, advertisers must consider mobile marketing.
Infiltrating the mobile arena is also important for publishers. All the major players are buying or have bought mobile ad networks: from Google acquiring InMobi, to Yahoo picking up Flurry, or AOL in talks to snag Millennial Media, the race is on to dominate mobile from all sides.
A key component to mobile marketing is programmatic. Programmatic accounted for 45% of overall ad spend last year (10 billion dollars), and is predicted to double that figure by 2016. Out of that 10 billion, programmatic mobile spend took 44% of the pie. One can only imagine as marketers and publishers continue to improve granular data targeting, workarounds for cookie deletion, responsive design and other nuances to mobile advertising, marketing budgets will most likely shift over much more rapidly.
However, programmatic advertising is not new, not to us at least. Here at Just Media, we have seen it evolve from the first ponderings of CEO, Dick Reed seven years ago, to today, where it is a vital part of our agency’s offerings and a key component to nearly all of our client’s campaigns.
Let’s take retail for example. In an article published by Marketing Land Inc, retail sales lift 7.5% when mobile marketing is incorporated. Specifically, retargeting users from desktop to mobile can be helpful to keep your brand at the top of mind. Adding the programmatic tactic of cross-device targeting, you have the ability to track a potential customer browsing plants on their desktop so that the next time they’re near a nursery or garden center, you could send them a relevant coupon on their mobile device, making them more likely to convert.
Our industry has mostly mastered the Desktop retargeting secret sauce that would make even In N Out blush. So, naturally the next frontier to master is mobile programmatic. As technology changes the mobile landscape and users spend more time on their mobile devices, the ability to target the right users, at the right place, at the right time, and with the right message will be even more crucial.
Advertising evolves as consumer behavior evolves. Those who understand and embrace this notion will ultimately be the most successful.
Amy Recuero
Just Media, Inc.
