You’d be forgiven for thinking that mobile advertising was about to die. iOS and Android – at least on Samsung devices – allow users to install ad blockers and consumers are doing just that with alacrity. They don’t, it seems, want ads. But that’s not quite the case: and there is an opportunity here to rethink mobile ads for the better.
Close to a quarter of British adults used ad blockers when they go online, according to a new poll conducted for YouGov on behalf of the IAB, up 20% from October 2015. While many people have installed ad blockers, many more haven’t. Most don’t know you can unless they work in the mobile industry or read the tech press, while some actually like ads.
A study by Quantcast reveals that 64% of consumers have been influenced to purchase by mobile advertising – a figure that rises to 80% among millennials. Younger users are actually using mobile advertising to their advantage as part of the research process and, it seems, actually buying off the back of it.
The only caveat is that they want ads to be engaging, creative and to offer them something that is of value to them, the study goes on to find.
And while millennials are the ad lovers of today, it won’t be long before other demographics start to follow, so long as ads are relevant and delivered in the right context.
Which brings us to why ad blockers aren’t necessarily the end of the mobile ad market as many fear.
According to Frederic Joseph, COO of S4M, it’s not a cause to panic but an opportunity to embrace better programmatic advertising and to sell the idea of highly targeted, relevant advertising to brands and retailers.
As he says in our feature: “Advertisers should not panic because of ad blocker adoption but instead see the urgency to fully adopt mobile programmatic as a way to guarantee the best user experiences for their customers. In the mobile digital advertising space, programmatic can deliver engaging messages in a personalised context and ensure that the same ad scenario is not served to the same user multiple times. Ad blockers are reshaping the mobile advertising space and forcing advertisers to rethink their approach. Brands need to seek the acceptance of their customers with engaging, entertaining and purposeful ads instead of intruding users on their devices.”
Similarly, Andrew Darling, marketing director at Blis Media, sees that the IAB’s research into this very subject reveals that many business are still very excited about mobile advertising. “It is clearly great news for programmatic advertising,” Darling writes in his article here.
The link here is that advertising to mobile can work and programmatic can deliver, but only if its context aware. And this is the hard bit – and the bit that affects all telemedia companies. Getting your service ads seen by the right people on the right device at the right time is crucial.
So understanding programmatic advertising is key to the industry moving forward – and something that we shall be majoring on at World Telemedia in Marbella on 18-20 October in Marbella and a subject we’d like to hear your thoughts on.
