In 2015, mobile Internet usage surpassed desktop usage for the first time ever. Brands in every industry are trying to take advantage of mobile marketing, but many are struggling to get results.
The problem isn’t that they aren’t getting enough exposure with their mobile marketing campaigns. Their biggest hurdle is making sure their mobile ads are engaging enough.
If your mobile marketing campaigns are faltering, you may be making the following mistakes.
1. Only using commercial style ads
The purpose of mobile marketing is to connect with your users. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to engage your customers with traditional banner ads, especially on mobile marketing platforms.
Mr. Green, David Ford of AffPlayBook and other marketing experts state that marketers tend to have better results with less commercialized ads.
“This has probably been drilled into your head a million times, but it’s true! Amateur photos kill it on POF. Let’s face it, users of POF are on average less sophisticated than most other dating sites. If you put an amateur photo in front of them, they actually think that they might have the chance to date this person.”
If your mobile banner ads aren’t working, you may want to try the following:
- Use amateur images instead of stock photos of human subjects
- Take pictures of your products yourself
- Minimize logos in your banners
You may find people are much more engaged this way.
2. Failing to test
Experienced digital marketers realize they should never make assumptions about their mobile marketing practices. They should focus on testing every variable.
If your users are not very engaged with your ads or your landing pages, you simply need to keep testing. As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to test 10 to 20 different ads and at least five landing page variations.
There are a lot of rules of thumb about testing budgets. My advice is to estimate the industry click through rate average (CTR) and test each banner long enough that the average dinner in your industry would receive 100 clicks.
For example, if you operate in an industry with an average mobile CTR of 1%, then you will need to test each ad for 100,000 impressions.
Make sure that you adjust for the average CTR of each traffic platform. The average CTR of in-app triggered messages may be a bit lower than other ads, since it is a form of interruption marketing, so you may need to test for more impressions.
3. Focus on user pain points
Let’s say that it’s Friday and you are looking for a restaurant to take your significant other for the evening. You do a search on Google and see the following mobile Adwords ads:
“Eat here today!”
“Chinese restaurant Indianapolis”
“Best restaurant for couples 2017”
“Delicious Chinese food for families”
You would probably respond much more favorably to one of the last two ads. They specifically focus on the benefits of the service.
You need to keep this in mind with all of your mobile ads. They must emphasize the main benefits of your services, rather than listing your company name or summarizing what you do.
4. Use Social Proof
Social proof has become more important than ever in marketing. Nearly nine out of ten website visitors take online reviews into consideration before making a buying decision.
Testimonials are just as important with mobile marketing. Since you may not be able to have as many of them without cluttering your landing page, you may need to narrow your testimonials down to two or three of the very best.
5. Use Shorter Form Content
Long form content just doesn’t work well on mobile devices. It takes up too much of your customers’ screen, so it’s a good idea to have a separate page for mobile devices.
Keep it short and concise, while still making it engaging. In other words, make every word count.
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