Mobile Provides Promising Revenue Opportunities for Media Sellers

From the Borrell Local Online Advertising Conference 2013

One of the more interesting sessions at the Borrell Local Online Advertising Conference I recently attended was “What SMBs are planning to spend on mobile and when.” Researchers Greg Harmon and Larry Shaw from Borrell shared some data from their latest research on mobile trends. They surveyed nearly 2,000 local SMBs between December 2012 and January 2013 to find out what their marketing plans were for the coming year.

Harmon and Shaw began the presentation with a few stats:

• Smartphones are used by over 125 million U.S. consumers
• Tablets are used by more than 50 million U.S. consumers
• 1 out of every 3 online minutes is spent on a mobile device
• In the next 5 years there will be nearly 250 million active mobile devices

Most SMBs don’t know what to do with mobile, Harmon and Shaw explained. Local advertisers spent .73% of their total ad and promotions spending on mobile in 2012. The analysts predict that by 2017, local mobile ad spending will increase nearly 542%. Local mobile promotions spending will increase by 820%. (Mobile promotions include coupons, discounts, contests, loyalty programs and other tactics used to get consumers into the store through their smartphones.)

Sales pressure on SMBs – opportunities for media sellers

Now that media companies have added mobile to their offerings, media sellers are including the format in a majority of their proposals. Harmon and Shaw said SMBs are approached by an average of 16 ad sellers per month, and have listened to an average of 7 sales pitches per month.

From 2011-2012, the number of sales pitches for mobile and actual campaigns have increased significantly. In 2012, 57% of SMBs received proposals that included mobile marketing – up from 40% in 2011. Twenty-three percent of SMBs actually conducted campaigns that included mobile in 2012; up from only 14% in 2011. One more significant stat Harmon and Shaw provided – 45% of SMBs who have already used some form of mobile in a marketing campaign will very likely use mobile again this year.

Mobile challenges for SMBs

Harmon and Shaw said that lack of a budget was the biggest challenge for SMBs (50%) as they seek to go mobile. Other important challenges include:

    Getting ROI from mobile campaigns (29%)
    Complicated and intimidating process (27%)
    Inability to analyze campaign metrics (23%)

 What SMBs want from mobile advertising

A recent Ad-ology Research survey found that the top three factors most important to SMBs when using mobile advertising are:

• Delivery of a new audience: 41.6%
• Metrics/analytics delivered (impressions, click-throughs, videos watched): 38.3%
• Ability to deliver a new ad message quickly: 37.5%

Media salespeople who understand the goals and challenges local advertisers face when it comes to mobile marketing, will be better prepared to help them create mobile campaigns that deliver the much-needed ROI.

Have you pitched mobile to your advertisers this year? What have your results been like so far?

Sources: Borrell Associates, Inc. SMB Mobile Adoption Survey, 2012. Ad-ology Research. 2013 Small Business Marketing Forecast study.


Faye Oney
http://www.mediasalestoday.com/