Researching marketing trends and performance on the web is a common practice among marketers of all sorts. Finding studies and reports focused on mobile marketing today is not hard, as they are everywhere. However, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has just released a study that reports information that I have never really noticed before. Their study, entitled “MMA Whitepaper: Mobile’s Share of the Mix – Marketing Evolution,” gives insight on the grand scheme of mobile marketing ad spending; how it is, how it should be, and how it will be. Though marketers have been giving mobile platforms quite a bit of attention lately, MMA says that it may still be too little.
Marketers currently allocate less than one percent of their marketing budget to Mobile advertising. However, based on sophisticated return on investment (ROI) analysis of Mobile, the optimized level of spend in Mobile advertising for U.S. marketers is seven percent, on average.
With marketers spending under one-seventh of what should be allocated to mobile marketing, they still are not seeing the potential results that they could see. Mobile marketing is definitely a huge opportunity for marketers, and by not taking advantage of it to the optimal degree, they are missing out. However, mobile is still new, so a growth in the total mobile adspend is inevitable. In their report, MMA makes an educated prediction on this growth.
Over the next 4 years, Mobile’s share of the media mix is projected to increase to over 10 percent based on growth in adoption of smartphones only. It is safe to say, however, that the growth does not stop there. As with all new media, more effective targeting, creative excellence, better ad units, tighter industry standards, innovation in technology and other factors will all contribute to increased spend and the further establishment of mobile in a marketer’s mix.
The MMA has based their prediction on the rapid penetration of smartphones into marketing. Their past proven success and the constant use of mobile devices by consumers will ultimately make for more success in mobile advertising and more mobile advertising spending. More methods of advertising on mobile devices will arise and mobile marketing will continue to become more and more appealing. The MMA’s opinion on the subject is so strong that they state, “ it is appropriate to assert at this time that most marketers should significantly increase their investment in Mobile advertising. While this may be a bold statement, it is a statement based on science and mathematics; it is rooted in what we quantitatively know about all media’s impact as well as Mobile’s impact and penetration to date.”
It may seem as though mobile marketing is huge right now, but that is simply because it is new and effective. The vast potential that still hasn’t been tapped with mobile marketing should be sought, and it will lead to more marketing success, surely. Based on this information, Mobile advertising (display, video, audio) should be at least an $11 billion dollar market in the U.S. and higher globally assuming similar dynamics exist worldwide. Here’s a great interview on Five Huge Mistakes on Mobile
