For An Effective Mobile Ad, Send a Text

Up until the last few years, the majority of non-voice revenues from mobile phones has been in the form of SMS and mobile content such as ringtones, games, and more recently, ringback tones.  But now that the market for mobile advertising is starting to become real, we can start to assess which modes may be the most effective in terms of both customer experience and click through rates.  Having managed products in the mobile content industry, I am a stickler on keeping an optimal customer experience on a mobile phone and to me, understanding the mobile customer experience will be the main driver in determining which ad formats will ultimately prove to be successful.

The majority of ad placement is currently distributed via banner ads on popular WAP sites or applications (as in the picture above). For me, these are ineffective for 2 reasons: 1) waiting for banner ads to load on WAP pages detracts from the experience of the WAP page and 2) given the already limited amount of relevant information on a WAP site due to a lack of screen real estate, if I need to spend additional time waiting for subsequent pages to load, I am highly unlikely to spend the time clicking on an ad vs. clicking on more info from the WAP site I am visiting.  Also, on a handset, I don't have the luxury of clicking through to advertisers sites and clicking back to the publisher site easily due to the fact that pop-up windows are not prevalent on handsets (yet).  This all makes banner ads ineffective for the publisher, advertiser, and consumer.

That is why I believe SMS based ads are the most effective method for ad placement, at least in the short to medium term.  It remains to be seen how 3G+ networks and larger screens from smart phones may alter the customer experience of WAP browsing, but there is no doubt that SMS is not going anywhere anytime soon.  In terms of implementation, hitting consumers with SMS ads needs to avoid the feeling of spam.  There are a few companies trying to entice consumers to allow SMS ads within their received text messages from friends by giving them freebies or credits. I find this to be a very interesting concept.  SMS messages have a 95% open rate, meaning you won't suffer the same issues seen on the desktop with unopened emails.  This high open rate is because the sender is known. Thus, advertisers can be assured their message is being seen. Virgin Mobile has shown that consumers are willing to view advertising for free airtime through their Sugar Mama program.  Applying this type of interaction for SMS ads should also find similar traction.

An SMS ad platform/network like this would certainly help to establish ad viewing on mobile devices and drive higher click through rates.  When people interact via SMS with a friend, they are not actively engaged in a web browsing experience and thus, are more inclined to view or click on the SMS based ad to see what the advertiser has to offer.  It's also a good way for people to kill time while waiting for their friend to respond back to their SMS reply.  Of course we can't forget about the traditional SMS-based off-deck pull advertising (i.e. American Idol voting, sweepstakes, etc.) that is becoming much more popular as companies learn and adapt to new mobile marketing practices. These programs have also shown SMS to be an effective method to engage with consumers. 

It is important to remember the reach of SMS is more than double that of WAP at this time (SMS usage penetration is 56% in the U.S. vs. 26% for WAP), providing a wider range of eyeballs for advertisers. And once consumers get used to these types of non-intrusive SMS based advertising vehicles, bigger screens are more prevalent, and higher mobile bandwidth rates are available, more elaborate and rich ad formats (images/video) can then find more success.  Until then, SMS should be a key part of any mobile marketing strategy.

Comments

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[Sara Williams]

The mobile marketing is the great way, One key criterion for provisioning is that the consumer opts in to the service. The mobile operators demand a double opt in from the consumer and the ability for the consumer to opt out of the service at any time by sending the word STOP via SMS.

[Mobile Marketing]

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