Within the social media space, in-app advertising on Facebook has a higher eCPM than Facebook advertising. Following that model, a new breed of applications is now available for Smartphones such as the iPhone, which, at close to ten million sold, is becoming the must-have gadget of the decade. Google’s Android OS gadgets also push mobile application execution to its limits – the key will be seeing how viral the actual devices become.
A Huge Opportunity for Advertisers
According to industry reports, iPhone users have downloaded more than 100 million applications since the App Store opened in July 2008, and the Android platform is predicted to significantly raise the marketshare of Smartphones by allowing more device makers into the marketplace.
A recent forecast by Magna Global predicts that mobile media will be one of the fastest growing of the emerging media channels, estimating it to grow by 43% to approximately $300 million in 2009. That reach provides advertisers with a huge market opportunity to reach and engage with consumers in a new and scalable way by staying ahead of the curve in advertising innovation – reaching people when and where a decision is most likely to occur.
So why not just mobile advertising? Why mobile application advertising? By integrating into an application, you have much more control over the type of advertisement and the level of interaction available with users, as opposed to the mobile Web where ads are generally static banners. This mobile application platform provides an infinitely engaging and accessible device for targeted advertising, but if social networks are still untested waters, advertisers are still wary of this new environment. And just like social media, when you get past the education, advertisers really just want to know - “How can we make money there and how much is it costing me for a new customer?”
Creating Revenue
The good news is: many of the tenets of social media and mobile marketing apply to Smartphone application marketing, and there are several ways to approach it to ensure you walk away with some real value.
Smartphone application marketing connects brands with their target audiences no matter where they are. Ads on iPhones, Android-enabled devices and other Smartphones have the ability to deliver high-impact interactive rich media to an engaged, targeted, self-selected audience and the new breed of application analytics companies help measure the success of campaigns, interaction and brand recognition.
More visibility. Brand awareness. High impact creatives. Mobile applications and Smartphone technology allow advertisers to extend their imagination to the path of reaching targeted audiences. Users can interact with a brand by tilting the phone and using the built in accelerometers, poking and playing with the product, or getting location-based advertising. Essentially, for the first time consumers become a part of the advertisement springing open the advertiser wallets.
Mobile Application Analytics
Applications only drive higher revenues if advertisers can identify the users consuming those apps. This has opened the door for many mobile application companies focused on identifying who the users are, what they do in the application, and what devices they are using.
Analytics provide application developers with granular insight into how users interact with applications, helping them identify user experience challenges and improve the overall performance of their applications.
What Are You Waiting for?
Mobile advertising has the potential to exceed not only Internet advertising, but also the four traditional pillars of advertising as well: TV, radio, print and billboards. We are only in the first phase of the real mobile application market and this is a significant player that’s here to stay.