I recently wrote a post about the importance of mobile optimization and today I want to expand further on the topic of mobile and discuss mobile marketing and advertising.

I can’t reiterate this enough: When it comes to your business, if mobile isn’t currently on your mind, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity, especially when it comes to advertising. In fact, experts are saying that by 2019, mobile advertising will represent 72% of all U.S. digital ad spending (MarketingLand).

Given the amount of time people spend on their phones, it always amazes me how low mobile ad spend is in comparison. There are so many benefits of using your ad dollars to target mobile users (we’ll get into a few of those below) and when used correctly, these campaigns can drive significantly more traffic and conversions.

If you’re in charge of marketing for your business, ensure that mobile is part of your strategy to give your audience the best experience possible. Below are a few tips to get started.

Device targeting with advertising

When it comes to mobile campaigns, it’s not uncommon for people to simply copy and paste the same messaging that is being used for their desktop campaigns. If it’s working there, it must be working on mobile too, right? Wrong.

When it comes to searching on your desktop and mobile devices, the needs and uses aren’t always the same. People use the two devices in different ways and with different contexts.

While keywords that are entered may be the same, the user’s intentions may be vastly different. You must understand your audience’s habits and behaviors when they’re on the go and take the time to develop a full mobile advertising strategy around it.

The terms you use can have drastically different response rates depending on the device a person is using.

Keep in mind, your bids will vary on the various devices as well, so from a tracking perspective, it’s smart to measure desktop and mobile separately.

Your mobile ads may be outperforming your desktop ads, or vice versa. Given the separate data, you can more accurately put a revised plan together for either device moving forward.

For marketers, this may go without saying, but you’ll want to be as detailed as possible with tracking and measurement so that you can continue to optimize the campaigns for each device.

Mobile only ads to mobile only pages

As I alluded to in the last section, marketers often try to use existing content from desktop formats and convert it to mobile. Why not, instead, create a mobile-only ad that drives to a mobile-only landing page to help increase conversions?

Keep in mind, the more a landing page resonates with the ad, the more likely people will be to move forward.

This idea can work really well, especially when it comes to location-based campaigns.

Let’s dive into this a bit more.

Location-based advertising campaigns

Consumers are on the go and as a business, it’s your job to reach them at the most relevant time to give them the most personalized and custom experience possible with your company. In the age of personalization, consumers now expect mobile ads to be tailored to them, and location-based campaigns is one of the ways to do just that.

In fact, 78% of consumers say they would be happy to receive mobile advertising if the ads relate to their interests.

There are numerous benefits of location-based advertising that you should consider:

• Can be used to compete with larger brands
• Personalization – If a customer truly feels like you know them, it can help you deepen your relationship and establish an emotional connection.
• Measurable – Through technology like WiFi and beacons, you have the ability to measure offline activity, which is often difficult to do.

With location-based marketing, you must put a lot of thought into how it’s going to work ahead of time. How will you track results? What kind of CTA will you use to attract your audience? What technology will you use?

Timing is everything. You must be relevant and think of the context of your ad delivery. You can get very specific with your targeting with this type of marketing, but please, refrain from coming across as creepy, as that can actually be very easy to do with this tactic. People don’t want to feel like you know information about them. At the end of the day, just provide value to them.

Keep in mind, this should not be used as a standalone tactic. When used, it should be a part of a comprehensive marketing approach for when they leave the area of your location-based campaign.

Like all marketing, this really only works if you truly understand who your audience is so that you don’t risk wasting your ad dollars. Spend the time to get a good grasp on that before you begin your campaigns.

SMS Campaigns

A few years back, SMS campaigns seemed like they would be the next big thing with mobile marketing, and then the buzz started to fade, which begged the question, “is SMS marketing dead?”

To that, I answer “no,” provided it is implemented correctly.

There are still a plethora of benefits to SMS, or text, marketing, including:

• Instant
• Direct to consumer
• High open rate – Over 95% of SMS messages received are opened and read.

A major downside with this tactic is the ability to easily come off spammy. To avoid this, be sure you get permission from recipients before you begin marketing to them via text message.

When it come to SMS, be clever and unique in your messaging and offer true value. As easy as it is to market to your audience, it’s just as easy for them to opt out, so be sure to keep them engaged.

With mobile campaigns, always keep in mind that you are putting these together for real people. Strategy must be at the root of all of these tactics. You must understand your goals and audience first and foremost, and create an authentic, genuine, and valuable campaign around them.

As already mentioned, measure, measure, and measure. Kee modifying and testing your tactics until you find a method that gets the results you’re looking for.

Are you currently implementing mobile campaigns as part of your overall marketing strategy? What have you found successful? What are you struggling with?

Need more mobile marketing tips? Check out our entire Guide to Mobile Marketing.