Investing in mobile ads can be worth the effort when targeting strategically. With the proper resources at your disposal, you can turn mobile advertising spending into profits. It resorts to being an effective tool since there are six billion smartphone users in the world today.
So, if you think mobile ad targeting is right for your business, here are the top tips and strategies.
What Is Mobile Advertising Targeting?
Mobile ad targeting is an online advertisement targeting certain groups of people specific to mobile users. Since the number of mobile users continues to increase each year, mobile advertising is the one thing that’s not going away.
Mobile ads are highly effective because mobile users’ intentions are different from desktop users. Most smartphone users turn to mobile search engines when they’re ready to buy something. In a recent survey, 92% of mobile users who used Google search made a related purchase.
When you tap into this understanding, your digital marketing campaign will perform better.
Top 3 Platforms You Can Target Mobile Ads On
Here’s a look at how you can drive business growth with these mobile advertising platforms.
Google Mobile Search Advertising
Most mobile users gravitate towards Google to search for something because they need a quick answer. That’s why Google makes an excellent place to position your product through mobile search ads.
Google ads work by displaying your ad to potential customers or leads interested in your service or product. An advertiser will bid on a search term or keyword — and the winners of the bid have their ad placed at the top of the search results pages.
The first step in creating a Google mobile ad campaign is signing up for a Google Adwords account — setting up the Google ad and managing and optimizing it.
One effective way to create a successful mobile ad on Google is by targeting with an immediate call to action. A wonderful example of this is Upwork. The company starts its ad with a great call to action, “hire the best” — not just anyone. It reinforces trust by calling their freelancers experts in their field. Then, it goes into detail about their service and the benefits it has to offer.
Facebook and Instagram Mobile Advertising
Whether you should invest in Facebook and Instagram ads depends on your target audience and your intent. Marketers looking to run a Facebook ad and expect product sales might not be the most effective way to spend an advertising budget.
That’s because data suggests customers on desktops have higher intent to purchase an item than on mobile. 50% of online sessions come from smartphones, but item purchases were 24% higher on desktops.
One of the strategic ways to target an ad on Facebook mobile is to generate leads. Since Facebook’s Instant Form fills out as much relevant information for the customer as possible — you have a high-end opportunity of capturing leads.
Twitter Mobile Advertising
Unlike Google and Facebook, no data support the differences between desktop advertising and mobile advertising on Twitter. The primary reason for this is that 80% of Twitter’s users are on mobile. So, you should already have a mobile advertising mindset when it comes to Twitter.
The best form of mobile advertising on Twitter is promoting tweets using videos. Videos are achieving a 67% YoY growth rate, and more users are actively watching them on Twitter each day. Using video in your promoted tweets will give you a chance to increase your engagement.
Just be sure that you specify your target audience to receive positive results in your ad impressions.
Steps to Choosing the Right Mobile Ad Targeting Strategy
1. Determine What You Want to Promote
Whether you choose to promote a unique piece of content to drive traffic or advertise a product to generate sales — your first step is determining what to advertise.
Suppose you have a blog post trending on your social media channels and climbing to the top of Google’s rankings. In that case, you can repurpose it as an ad on the platform of your choice.
With that in mind, you could turn the original blog post into an infographic or video to exploit the content for its creative worth. Either way, you can customize that offer for every step of the buyer’s journey.
Once you’re ready to showcase your mobile ad, test the content in various formats and optimize it to get better results.
2. Figure Out Your Target Audience
When setting up your mobile ad, you’ll use the audience insights tool that the platform provides. Then, you’ll determine the best way to target your advertising. For instance, Facebook allows you to target competitor fans. With this strategy, Facebook learns who you’re competing with, then targets your ad toward your competitors’ existing fans.
One thing you won’t want to skip is retargeting your mobile ads. Retargeted customers are increasingly likely to click on the ad — three times higher than those who’ve never interacted with your company.
Facebook and Google have audience targeting strategies that you won’t want to miss out on — since they can target based on recent user behavior on your business page.
3. Determine Relevancy
After determining your target audience, you want to find strategic ways to hone in on your audience’s journey. The more specific you are with your mobile targeting, the more likely you’ll get higher engagement. One approach to targeting your ad is choosing an audience who expresses interest in your product or service.
Another approach is to create a specific ad for two sets of audiences. Using your buyer’s psychographic information, you centralize your ad spend according to their lifestyles, values and attitudes. You don’t waste users’ time showing them irrelevant ads — saving you money by cutting out unqualified prospects.
Making the Most of Your Mobile Ad Targeting
Mobile advertising is substantial when you understand the platform and user intent. Once you have the essential data on these two subjects, you’ll be surprised to see how much of a rewarding experience you get out of targeting your mobile ads. Use these tips for guided mobile ad targeting and you’ll be well on your way to accomplishing a successful digital ad campaign.
I’m the Managing Editor of ReHack.com and have over 5 years of writing experience covering cybersecurity and business tech. I’m also a contributor at Business.com, MakeUseOf, Lifewire, and more.
