Personalized Targeting Key to Winning Mobile Consumers [Study]

Forrester Research's recent report reveals that marketers must use a mobile-unique approach for integrated and individualized mobile ads.

There’s no denying that mobile ad spend is on the rise, but many marketers still don’t seem to understand the uniqueness of the mobile experience. To excel in the space, marketers must develop a mobile-only approach for ad formats, targeting, and execution, according to a recent report entitled, Mobile Advertising: It’s Time to Get Personal, by Forrester Research.

The report reveals that while marketers of course want to tap into the mobile advertising sphere, most of them fail to create effective ad strategies. According to the research, close to 60 percent of U.S. adult smartphone users feel in-app ads are interruptive, while a mere 20 percent think the ads are relevant to them.

According to Forrester, several factors have led to the discrepancy between marketers’ goals and the results they actually achieve, including the immature market and the fragmentation of standards and solutions. Unfortunately, the standardization of the mobile market is hindered by privacy concerns, the lack of cookies, and the use of various tracking methods across mobile environments.

To deliver a better user experience, marketers must adopt distinct mobile formats with personalized ad targeting, which is the key to winning consumers’ attention, suggests the report.

Per Forrester, four types of mobile ad formats will emerge in the near future:

  • Standard display formats
  • Mobile-specific display formats
  • Standard publisher-specific formats
  • Proprietary publisher-specific formats

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But no matter the specific approach, mobile ads won’t work if the strategy itself isn’t mobile-first. And mobile-first requires a mobile-unique approach to creative formats and messaging, audience targeting, and partnership for execution, the report says.

forresterfigure3

Based on the findings, the report suggests that marketers, agencies, publishers, and ad-tech vendors should work together to achieve the desired results. Here’s how:

  • Marketers must have mobile-first thinking and target individuals rather than segments.
  • Agencies must boost their mobile advertising strategies with partnerships or acquisitions.
  • Publishers must offer mobile-optimized inventory and automation to enable scale.
  • Ad-tech vendors must abandon the desktop approach, and focus on solving the mobile ecosystem.

Forrester interviewed 21 vendors and user companies for this report. To learn more, you can purchase the research from Forrester.

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