There
was a time not too long ago when advertisers struggled to fit in their ads in
mobile apps. They could hardly accommodate five words and a small picture,
which was too minute to even get noticed. Secondly, once a user tapped on the
ad, the phone would struggle to load the advertisement and the app would be
pushed into the background. More often than not, viewers would get frustrated
and switch to a different app.
Cut
to 2015. For marketers around the globe, ‘appvertising’ is the new buzz word.
E-commerce and gaming companies and FMCG firms are all devising marketing plans
for this new channel. A recent report by eMarketer, a market research firm
offering insights on digital marketing, media and commerce, predicts that the
market will reach $20 billion in advertising spend by 2015 on apps alone, showing
a growth percentage of 52% when compared to 2014. The report further predicts
in-app advertising will grow 10% faster on average than mobile web.
Adam
Jaffe, VP, Marketing, Social Point, a mobile game developer, says, “The way the
industry is heading, every company will more or less have an in-app advertising
strategy. Two years ago, mobile strategy was not seen as viable. Today, they
are realising the benefits of in-app advertisement.”
And
now, big brands are following suit. They are now not thinking twice before
entering the gaming app space to leverage the opportunity. “Associating with a
game was generally perceived as a good opportunity only by those brands that
“gamers” would typically love. This is changing as mobile gaming has become
popular in basically every demographic globally and big brands are starting to
see this too” point outs Saara Bergstrom, Chief Marketing Officer, Next Games,
a gaming platform. To begin with, gaming companies have been in the forefront
of the mobile advertising trend and thus have been able to leverage these
channels effectively. In fact, the top 10 preferred apps for advertising happen
to be gaming apps.
The
platforms and technology to deliver ads has taken huge leaps as well. The older
model saw companies playing around with product placement inside a gaming app.
That did not work much. Now, companies have gaming characters using their
product inside a game. For instance, in one of the games, a gaming character
drinks the soft drink of a particular brand in a key moment — especially when
the character is really thirsty. This enhances the gaming experience as well as
creates enough brand visibility.
The
other innovative way is to make people sit through an ad in exchange of virtual
currency or power points for a game. Experts say that advertising on gaming
apps work as most smartphone users spend 40% of their app time on playing
games.
However,
they caution against use of loud ads. Every app has to consider the experience
of their user in order to be successful and it is up to their own product
decisions on how to provide the most engaging experience. “This should be a
major consideration when determining how to monetise an app. Developers must
carefully consider if the advertising they are serving to their user base is
helpful, additive and not extremely disruptive. We have seen that those apps
that put a lot of thought into creating their own unique, native advertising
model are far more effective than other apps, and they ultimately annoy users
the least,” says Peter Hamilton, CEO and Partner, Tune Inc, the enterprise
Software-as-a-Service company for mobile marketing.
And
advertisement is the main source of revenue for app developers as well. “In
most countries, especially emerging markets, users do not want to pay for an
app but are ready to engage with advertising. It could be traditional offer
wall or video, but in-app advertising is the biggest source of revenue for
developers,” says Vaibhav Odhekar, co-founder and COO at Pokkt, a mobile video
advertising and app monetising platform based in India.
Though
appvertising is gaining momentum, big brands have not given up on traditional
mode of advertising like print and television. “At the end of the day, the
industry matters. One cannot expect a manufacturing company or a hardware firm
to advertise on apps. It is not very viable. Bur definitely, the auto industry
is fast catching up,” remarks Puri.
Another
reason why brands are preferring appvertising is the ability to check
‘performance’.
“Brands
want to see the direct engagement they are able to create with their mobile
experience, but they also want to think about the awareness and frequency of touch
they are able to achieve. This gives them insight into both the recognition
they are creating, as well as the hard numbers they are driving,” says
Hamilton.
Mobile
app tracking brought, not just light to the darkest corners of the mobile
marketing landscape, but more importantly confidence to the mobile marketing
manager. This confidence has grown precipitously over the last five years and
with it the budgets of marketing departments the world over. “I believe that
mobile app tracking is the single most important step in the life cycle of an
application,” remarks Jaffe.
Why in-app ads work
1. In-app audiences are more sophisticated.
Hence, advertisements can be targeted to a particular
Group instead of going in for mass
advertising
2. A study by Appsavvy shows that in-app
advertising is 11.4 times more effective than online
Banner ads, which are often viewed as
intrusion to privacy
3. The ads are definitely more engaging
4. Companies can track the success of an ad
through real time numbers/data
The early days
The
trend of advertising on mobile apps is not very old. It began in early 2011.
“We first started hearing about the problem of mobile
recharge
app attribution in early 2011. Some of our customers had mobile apps
and wanted to promote them across several different media partners, but they
had no way of doing it. So we started building a solution and launched it at
the end of that year. However, I believe we were ahead of time. During 2012, we
had trouble finding marketers that were putting significant budgets and volumes
towards their mobile apps,” states Hamilton. It was not until halfway through
2012 that TUNE saw those volumes.
Source:
http://www.tyroo.com/blog/?p=1613
