Following the first in our series of deep dives into our recent “What’s My Worth?” study – which seeks to understand the value exchange that consumers have with advertisers on their mobile devices – this week I want to look at the second part of our research project: how ads appeal to mobile users.

 

 

As well as understanding what consumers thought of mobile advertising, we thought it was vital to ask questions on “Ad Appeal” - how does mobile advertising attract, interest, and stimulate consumers to engage with brands and what specific actions does it inspire?

 

Beyond The Click

Of those that clicked on a mobile ad (62% of all 4,018 consumers polled across France, Germany, the UK and US), over a third recalled being prompted to specific action on their smartphone (35%) or tablet (38%) in the last 12 months.

 

The most popular action by consumers was to consider a product or brand they would not have otherwise thought about (18%), demonstrating mobile’s ability to affect consideration and increase brand awareness.

 

The other most common actions by consumers that click ads are to save a page (13%) or to add to a wish or shopping list (10%). As consumers interact with multiple  screens at different  touch points on their path to purchase, these findings demonstrate  how mobile ads impact future purchase decisions well after the original click.

 

 

Affecting Sales Beyond The Screen

Perhaps most interestingly for brand marketers, the second most popular action for consumers who clicked on a mobile ad was to then make a purchase (14%).

 

Of all those who made a purchase as a result of clicking a mobile ad, 43% said they made their purchase in a bricks-and-mortar store, while 82% said they made it online. These results signify how vital mobile is, not only for raising brand awareness but in taking consumers through the entire customer journey to a purchase.

 

It is perhaps unsurprising that the majority of these purchases are currently made online. The scope of our research did not cover whether this was directly from the device, or on a PC. However, with mobile making such a significant contribution to the purchase decision, this demonstrates the importance of implementing simple attribution tracking for all campaigns. In doing so, brands can move away from simplistic last-click attribution and gain a deeper understanding of how the different channels within the marketing mix contributed to the final purchase decision.

 

Mobile’s Impact Compared With Other Media

In addition to post-click actions, we also wanted to compare how mobile stimulates consumers alongside other advertising channels.

 

Results from our Global Survey found that over half (52%) of consumers believe that TV is the medium they are most likely to pay attention to as it is happening, followed by mobile (14%), which far outstripped desktop (3%), print (6%), and radio (7%).

 

Importantly, more than a quarter (27%) of consumers said they are likely to engage with TV at the same time as viewing other media, suggesting it is actually part of a multi-screen experience for a significant number. This is also true for mobile, with 26% of consumers engaging with mobile devices while interacting with other media. Radio, (8%), desktop (7%), and print (5%) however were all far less likely to be consumed at the same time as other media.

 

 

According to respondents across all markets, mobile devices are the channel most likely to cause consumers to add a product to a wish/shopping list (27%) when they engage with an ad. TV is far less likely to move a consumer to add a product to a wish or shopping list (9%) than mobile or desktop, meaning that while it is perceived to capture more attention, it is less effective in pushing consumers to specific actions.

 

However, the most notable result of the whole study for me came when consumers polled stated that mobile devices are also more than twice as likely (22%) than desktop (10%) to make consumers remember a product or message.

 

Consumers have made it clear that if advertisers engage them properly on mobile, it can have a huge impact.

 

Other Highlights On Ad Appeal

 

 

Takeaways

From the second chapter of “What’s My Worth?” we can see mobile has the power to drive consumers to a specific action, and is outperforming desktop by two to one on areas such as product recall. However relevance (as discussed last week) and time (which we’ll cover in our final post) are of the utmost importance to consumers, so mobile must be used in the right way by advertisers if their ads are to appeal to consumers.

 

So how do brands ensure their ads appeal? Advertisers must remember that mobile stimulates consumers in different ways to other media, with features like touch and swipe, sound, and location. These features can help to both increase relevancy through audience targeting, and capture attention more effectively with deeper, more engaging experiences. The most effective ads on mobile leverage these endemic features within the ad experience, driving engagement for advertisers by increasing dwell time and overall appeal for consumers.

 

Next week I’ll move onto the final chapter of the report, and arguably the crux of the whole research project: “Ad Value” and consumers’ self-perceived value to advertisers on mobile devices.

 

Original Article

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