Where are you right now as you are reading this article? Are you in transport or are you enjoying your favorite coffee in the nearby corner cafe? Just look around. How many people do you see? How many of them are staring at their smartphones? I'm sure 80% of them do. 

 

Imagine what a great marketing opportunity this habit of mankind creates. And what are you supposed to do to get advantage of it for your business? The answer is simple: you just need to develop a well-structured mobile marketing strategy and success won't make you wait long.

 

What is mobile marketing?

 

Any advertising activity aimed at promoting products and services via mobile devices and smartphones is known as mobile marketing. It is the art of making your products or services appealing to mobile users. The greatest advantage of mobile marketing is that it provides your customers who are using smartphones with personalized, time and location-sensitive information where and when they need it. 

 

In fact, mobile is the future of marketing as the era of mobile has already arrived. Just look around: do you notice how many people around you are staring at the screens of their smartphones. If you have not incorporated mobile marketing into your marketing strategy, you are seriously lagging behind. 

 

How does mobile marketing work?

 

Well, let's understand how mobile marketing works. Mobile marketing consists of ads appearing on tablets, mobile smartphones, and other mobile devices. Like many social media platforms, websites and mobile applications mobile marketing ad formats, customization and styles can vary by offering their own unique and tailored mobile ad options.

 

Why is it important to have a mobile marketing strategy?

 

You need to develop a strong mobile marketing strategy for your business the way you need to have a computer and Wi-Fi access. 

According to the reports, 40% of users’ internet time is spent on mobile devices. Here are other important statistics:

• 80% of mobile device time is spent on apps

• Retail conversion rates are 2,2% on tablets, 0,7% on smartphones

• Mobile searches have increased 200% year over year

Not surprisingly, by 2019 media average consumption on mobile devices has surpassed desktop by 37%. As you see mobile usage has become the leader and it is time to get to work. 

 

What are types of mobile marketing?

 

In reality, there are multiple types of mobile marketing strategies that you can implement. The kind that fits best to your business depends on your target audience, industry and, of course, on the budget you have allocated for it.

The types of mobile marketing are:

 

• App-based marketing 

 

App-based marketing encompasses mobile advertising involving mobile applications. As 80% of mobile usage time per average individual is engaging with apps, there is no need for you to create an app yourself to practice app-based marketing. For example, Google AdMob helps advertisers to create mobile ads that would appear within third-party mobile applications.

Moreover, Facebook plays "the good guy" here, as by using Facebook's Ads Manager you can choose Audience Network, also referred to as third party apps, as the placement for showcasing your ads. 

 

• In-game mobile marketing

 

You have definitely gotten annoyed as an ad popped up when you were trying to pass the hardest level of Temple run. That's the case you have become a victim of in-game mobile marketing.

In-game mobile marketing is the practice of running ads within mobile games. These types of mobile ads can appear as banner pop-ups, full-page image ads and even video ads appearing in between loading screens.

 

• QR codes

 

QR codes are machine-readable codes which consist of numerous black and white squares used for storing URLs or other information. After scanning them with your smartphone you will be directed to the website or receive the information attached to the QR code. When the users scan QR codes, they are taken to a specific webpage that the QR code is attached to. QR codes are oftentimes linged up with mobile games and they are always considered to carry an element of mystery as the users do not exactly know which rabbit hole they would jump into.

 

• Location-based marketing

 

Location-based ads are the ads which appear on users' mobile device screens based on their location and relative to a specific area of business. For example, you might want your ad to appear when your potential customers are within a 2-km radius of your business. In that case, location-based ads are the best option for you.

 

• Mobile search ads

 

Mobile search ads are basic Google search ads which are built for mobile devices. They often feature extra add-on extensions in the form of click-to-call or maps. 

 

• SMS

 

SMS marketing looks like a little bit more old-fashioned approach. In fact, it involves capturing users' phone numbers and sending them offers in the form of text messages.

 

Frankly, mobile marketing is quite a broad topic to be covered in just one article. If you want to dig deeper into the topic and discover what Google ads enhanced campaigns are follow the link and read the second part of this article on our website. Let me open a little secret: the second part of the article also includes tips for a successful mobile marketing strategy.