Mobile internet usage has recently surpassed desktop web surfing–skyrocketing from 15% to 51% in the last six years. And mobile surfing is still growing, with mobile app usage is close behind. It is estimated that one out of four enterprises will have their own app store by 2017.
Naturally, this trend forced businesses to make certain changes to their marketing strategies, which all ultimately revolve around paying a whole lot more attention to mobile marketing.
Likewise, online advertising (being an inseparable part of online marketing) has to follow suit. A lot of businesses are considering the option of using mobile banner ads in their marketing campaigns, but are having a tough time deciding what the right choice is.
Just like William Shakespeare’s famous line “to be or not to be” it’s a question of “to have mobile banners or not to have mobile banners”.
If you are considering mobile banner ads for your business, you have probably read a lot of different and contradicting content on the web before you found this article. Some say mobile banner ads absolutely fail and aren’t worth a single penny, while others encourage to use them claiming that they can provide around 3% CTR.
Since you can’t get along without mobile anymore and need to you settle everything once and for all about this matter, here is a list of advantages/disadvantages of mobile banners and a few tips on how to use/not to use them for your business.
Mobile banner ad-vantages
An insane reach
Mobile banner formats are currently supported by a large number of publishers. Given the fact that mobile web browsing is increasing every year, this can be a great opportunity for businesses to reach a wide audience with a single tool.
Another nice plus to know about: most mobile optimized pages run a single ad per page. So this means you get to reach a wider audience and also make sure that your banner will be the only one that users see on that particular page. Pretty neat.
Affordable for tight budgets
In comparison to other ad formats (like Facebook, Twitter, IG, sponsored ads, search engine ads, native ads, etc.) banners are available at a rather low cost. If you are a small/medium business, you probably won’t be able to afford some of the other formats.
Also, some of the other ads aren’t available in low quantities. You will have to buy those in bulk, which again, can be costly. Banners on the other hand, can be ordered in low quantities, allowing you to squeeze a lot of value with a pretty tight advertising budget.
In-depth targeting options
Mobile banners support quite a few targeting options. You can use retargeting, audience segmented targeting (age, gender, sex, etc.), geo-targeting, as well as publisher specific targeting. This allows you to have your advertising and marketing on the same page, ensuring that you target the correct audience and not just random visitors.
The disadvantages
A lot of accidental clicks
This is natural, right? Smartphones have smaller screens and the vast majority of those are also touch screen, which leads to a lot of accidental clicks. A number of studies claim that close to 40- 50% of mobile ad clicks are accidental, but even without studies and exact numbers, every person understands this.
Yet this doesn’t mean that mobile ads are useless. Yes this is a problem in terms of CTR, since you are losing lots of money “accidentally”, but there are a number of ways you can deal with accidental clicks. Also, not all publishers charge you on CTR basis. There are lots of other options available like CPI, CPA, etc.
Limited space
An average smartphone’s screen is around 10 times smaller than an average laptop’s screen. This leads to a number of problems related to size and proportions. Mobile banner ads are typically placed at the top or bottom of the page and they are pretty small. It’s tough to fit it a lot of communication there other than a logo and a single line. You will have to get very creative with your banners’ messages.
Low CTR
Like any other online ad, mobile banners have low CTR. An average online ad (taking into account both mobile and desktop) has around 0.06% CTR and with mobile banners you might get something like 0.2%, which is still low, but a lot better than desktop.
Are mobile banner ads for you?
So should your business take advantage of mobile banner ads? It depends how are you planning to make use of it and what are you trying to accomplish. If you are aiming at insanely good CTR, which will also lead to pretty good conversion rates, I suggest you look elsewhere.
But if you want to increase your brand visibility for a comfortable price among people who are your potential consumers, then mobile banner ads can be a reasonable investment. The best advice in online advertising would be the following:
Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the opportunity you are considering and think of how you can utilize the advantages while minimizing disadvantages at the same time. If you approach mobile banner ads from this point of view, they may turn out to be pretty good for your business.
Tuan Nguyen is a skilled marketing, advertising and banner design expert and also the founder of 20 dollar banners.com, an online banner design agency. Over the years Tuan has helped hundreds of business grow their sales and revenue with the help of online advertising.
