As the social media user base shifts from the web to the mobile, mobile ads are becoming very popular. Here are a few must-knows to run successful mobile advertisement campaigns.

Match the sort of content to your budget:

Overall, a mobile screen is a cheaper medium to advertise on vis-à-vis (say) running a rupee one crore worth commercial on national television. However, the mobile platform is versatile enough to carry different sorts of content, some of which is more expensive to create. So, match the kind of content you will put out to your budget, then custom create content.

“As soon as you look beyond simple text based messaging, maybe attach links to e-brochures or e-catalogues, or create a mobile film then the cost of creating content increases. But frankly, the medium is underutilised if it is used at just the most basic level,” opines Chraneeta Mann, co-founder, The Mob, a mobile advertising company.

“Creating a film commercial to feed to a mobile database through Facebook or Youtube costs still more but is associated with higher engagement and recall,” adds Mann.

It’s highly likely you’ll not stop at one campaign. So, choose the sort of content you can afford again and again.

Custom create content:

Content is king, no matter which advertising medium it is carried on. Having said that, here’s a big caveat: custom create content.

“In the name of economy, don’t clip, stretch or compress desktop ad creatives to run on mobiles. Redesign creatives with mobile in mind,” says Chaineet Kaur, senior digital marketer, Nablasol, a company offering digital marketing services.

Also, keep the message simple. “User’s attention span on mobiles is far less than on desktops, so it becomes increasingly more important to capture them in the first few seconds,” advises Kaur.

Work on your recipient’s database:

Television and radio advertising campaigns address all and sundry. Mobile advertising campaigns address select recipients, which makes for more effective marketing.

“Sharply targeting a database of potential buyers depending on their location, their purchasing habits and their social circles increases the response rate and gives you more value for the money spent by avoiding spillage,” says Mann.

Best, split the database into several sections and tweak the content for each. Kaur shares an example: “A restaurant could target one set of customers with a lunch creative, and another set of customers with a dinner creative.”

Target people near you:

Location-based targeting is the mobile platform’s strong point. “This allows you to reach people in a specific area, such as near your outlet or even in your store, to get the best return for your spending on marketing,” explains Kaur.

Location-based services are very cost-effective. “In terms of pure cost per conversion, we’ve seen an average reduction of around 20% for the mobile platform, and as high as 40% for location-based services,” shares Kaur.

Go generic to scale sans a database:

Video mobile advertising campaigns are very catchy. “Such campaigns needn’t be taken up as a targeted initiative but can be created to go viral to garner a lot of attention for a brand…what really matters there is the quality of content. It has to be worthy of going viral,” suggests Mann.
 
Mobile advertising outfit The Mob recently created two online films for Videocon, one for Independence Day, another for the festival of Raksha Bandhan. In just two days, the films saw a reach of 10 lakh impressions and 36 lakh impressions respectively.

Videocon didn’t mail these ads to their database; their popularity was mostly organic with the Independence Day film running primarily through Whatsapp, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.