Rich Media is the Future of Mobile Marketing

Michael Garrity — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:15:00 GMT

Web marketers are still trying to discover the most effective methods for mobile advertising. Now, there is evidence suggesting that the future of mobile marketing may lie in rich media ad units.

Jumptap recently released the data gathered in its MobileSTAT Report for September 2011, and found that current trends show rich media ad units dominating standard media in terms of click-through rates (CTRs), the primary method of measuring user engagement with mobile ads.

After reviewing over 300 million campaign impressions for a number of major Fortune 1000 advertisers running "both rich and standard media with similar creative and advertising," Jumptap noticed that rich media ad units saw a significant lift in CTR over their standard media counterparts.

The rich media format is seen as a great way to "inspire interaction" between consumers and a brand, and the dramatic rise in smartphone and tablet adoption by the general public has helped to increase the efficiency of these advertisements.

Among the companies that saw greater CTRs with rich media ads were:

- A major retailer, who saw a 337 percent lift over standard ad units

- A luxury auto manufacturer with a 357 percent lift

- An advertiser for a new theatrical release, 340 percent lift

- A quick service restaurant, 455 percent lift

- An athletics manufacturer, 214 percent lift

- A consumer electronics company, 362 percent lift

Android Remains on Top
Other findings released in the MobileSTAT report include figures that show Android still dominating the smartphone market with about 47 percent of smartphone owners using Android devices, the same number as August. Jumptap also reported "a 50/50 split" between mobile Web and app traffic by users accessing the internet on mobile devices, with Android leading app traffic and feature phones offering more mobile Web-based traffic than smartphones. Finally, advertisers named location-based targeting as the most popular method for trying to reach consumers on the Jumptap network.

CTR Study Reveals the Value of Search Rankings

Linc Wonham — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:30:00 GMT

Slingshot SEO has released the largest click-through rate (CTR) study of the last five years, striving to give marketers a better understanding of what to expect in terms of website traffic as it relates to search rankings.

“Conducted over the last six months, our study will help marketers better define the value of SEO to a brand’s budget,” explains Evan Fishkin, head of research and development for Slingshot SEO. “By establishing a reliable CTR curve, you have valuable data in estimating the amount of traffic your website will receive.”

Based on a sample set of 324 keywords, the Slingshot SEO study reveals an 18.2-percent CTR for a No. 1 search engine rank and 10.05-percent CTR for the second position. CTR for each position below the fold was observed to be below 4 percent.

The last comprehensive study using actual traffic data, rankings and search volume was conducted using leaked AOL Search data in 2006. That study, however, occurred before recent algorithm updates, a new user interface, increased mobile search, the addition of social signals and blended SERPs with videos, news, places, images and shopping results.

To be considered for the study, a keyword phrase had to have a stable first-page ranking (1-10) in the search engine ranking page for a 30-day period. Because more changes are expected as search evolves, including changes Google is considering to its user interface, this study will be an ongoing project that will compare with future search engine ranking pages and also compare with other CTR studies.

Full study results are available on the Slingshot SEO website.

'Net Features : click-through rates

Rich Media is the Future of Mobile Marketing

CTR Study Reveals the Value of Search Rankings