Getting Started with Mobile Ads for Your Ecommerce Business
If you’re like 4 out of 10 mobile device users, you’ve made a purchase using your phone or tablet. And if you’re an ecommerce business owner, you’ve already taken steps to optimize your site for mobile users.
But have you added mobile ads to your business plan? It makes perfect sense to reach shoppers where they are increasingly doing their shopping. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
1. Design ads with mobile in mind
Don’t just tweak your existing desktop or banner ads—have your content start with mobile capability so it looks and behaves correctly. Mobile banner real estate is much smaller than a regular banner—the typical size is 300×50 pixels. Keep this smaller size in mind and adjust your headlines to carry a lot of punch with a limited number of words.
2. Consider video
Increasingly, smartphone users watch mobile video content. A short video ad can pack a lot of information into a format shoppers enjoy, and viewers tend to recall more details from video versus static ads, which can mean more bang for your advertising buck.
3. Remember Facebook
With 1.87 billion monthly users (as of January 2017), Facebook is still the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to social advertising. And with 55 percent of Facebook users logging in from a mobile device, their mobile ad program is a great way to test a mobile ad campaign. Facebook offers many different targeting options including mobile app installs, recent purchasers or identifying customers on specific mobile carriers.
4. Know your customers
Use location and programmatic advertising to reach your shoppers wherever they are—physically and online. Beacon technology, for example, is proximity-based mobile advertising that pinpoints a shopper’s location with an ad from a nearby business. Some successful concepts include restaurants delivering coupons during lunch time when a customer is nearby and businesses targeting customers with a message when they are near their biggest competitor.
5. You’ll be ahead of the game
Despite numbers that show mobile device use overtaking desktop use, mobile advertising hasn’t caught up to the stats. Tap into this. By taking steps now to capitalize on this developing avenue, you’re likely to outpace your competitors, analyze the results and see returns sooner.