'Net Features : mobile advertising

Big List of Mobile Ad Networks

Allison Howen — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:05:00 GMT

Mobile advertising is big business. In fact, U.S. mobile local advertising revenues are expected to grow from $1.2 billion in 2012 to $9.1 billion in 2017 according to a recent forecast from BIA/Kelsey.

This rapid growth is likely due to the merchants trying to reach mobile customers in hopes of bringing them into their brick-and-mortar stores. Mobile advertising can also be used to send customers to digital properties or entice them to download apps. But where is a merchant to turn when they want to launch a mobile ad campaign?

While the first platform to come to mind is typically Google, there are many other ad networks that specialize specifically in mobile, and provide advertisers with a large audience, robust targeting options and diverse mobile ad formats.

Click here to discover more information about eight of these platforms.

Get Talkative with Mobile Ads

Allison Howen — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:05:00 GMT

A new innovative ad format for mobile devices is allowing consumers to have a two-way conversation with brands.

This is because voice and language solutions provider Nuance Communications has unveiled Voice Ads, which leverages Nuance’s voice technology to transform traditional mobile advertising into an engaging, entertaining and conversational experience.

Similar to how mobile personal assistants help deepen consumers’ relationships with their mobile devices, Nuance Voice Ads help brands expand their relationships with consumers through targeted and interactive ads that use the power of voice recognition. The new ad format is optimized for the unique capabilities of mobile devices, including location awareness, mobility and voice input. The ad simply appears on the mobile device and prompts consumers to participate by speaking to it. From there, the conversation drives the experience, which is tailored to meet the needs of both the brand and consumer.

“Voice Ads redefines the relationship between consumers and mobile advertising, giving them an opportunity to engage with brands in a more meaningful way,” said Michael Thompson, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile. “Voice has already changed the mobile interface, making it faster and easier for consumers to discover and access information, and find people and content. Mobile advertising shouldn’t be any different, and should be designed specifically around the unique capabilities of the mobile device.”

It is important to note that Nuance Voice Ads are now available for mobile ad platform, network providers and creative agencies as a Software Development Kit (SDK) that can be integrated into new or existing mobile advertisement campaigns. In order to ensure broad reach and distribution for Voice Ads, Nuance has partnered with a variety of companies within the mobile advertising ecosystem, including creative advertising agencies like Digitas, OMD and Leo Burnett, as well as mobile advertising companies like Millennial Media, Jumptap and Opera Mediaworks. These partners will provide distribution to more than 100,000 app publishers and hundreds of millions of consumers globally. Additionally, mobile rich media ad servers such as Celtra are providing tools for rich media production and analytics on mobile devices.

Apps Now Represent 84 Percent of Mobile Traffic

Michael Garrity — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:05:00 GMT

Mobile applications are steadily winning over consumers as the preferred method for getting on the Web from their mobile devices, and the recent March MobileSTAT (Simple Targeting & Audience Trends) report from Jumptap shows that (no surprise) mobile app usage is higher now than it has ever been before.

In fact, mobile apps now represent 84 percent of all mobile traffic; just two years ago, apps only accounted for about 45 percent. The MobileSTAT report attributes this primarily to two distinct factors. First is that consumers are showing a growing preference for the speed and browse-ability that apps provide; the other is that the number of available mobile applications has grown exponentially.

Now, the time that users spend on their mobile apps has already surpassed the amount of time they spend on their personal computers, which means that advertisers should already be readjusting their budgets to reach out to customers while they’re on-the-go. And if they haven’t already, it’s time to get started!

Another interesting finding from the March MobileSTAT report is the news that while the iPad still dominates the tablet market (with a 57 percent market share), Samsung’s Galaxy Tab device is expected to narrow the gap between the two devices in the coming year. However, the Kindle Fire from Amazon has actually lost some market share among the new iPad mini and other “mini-tablet competitors.” Still, Jumptap recommends that “advertisers looking to reach consumers ad they multi-screen during the NCAA tourney and other events should include Samsung and Amazon tablets in the mix,” as together they represent one-third of the U.S. tablet audience.

The Jumptap MobileSTAT report is a monthly look at the most relevant targeting and audience trends in the mobile advertising industry. It looks at Jumptap’s network of over 46 billion impressions, 171 million U.S. users and 51,000 mobile apps and websites. To read more about the MobileSTAT report from March 2013, just click here.

Google App Showcases the Best Mobile Ads

Michael Garrity — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:05:00 GMT

Last week at Google's Creative Sandbox event, the AdWords team officially unveiled its new Mobile Ads Showcase App.

This application is meant to put some of the best advertisements that Google’s mobile advertising platform has to offer in the hands of ad agencies so that they can all get a better idea of how to help their brands find the most advertising success possible on mobile devices.

The AdWords team felt that it was basically impossible for agencies and advertisers to get the full effect of some of the great interactive rich media mobile ads out there, such as those that use mobile video or HTML5, by simply looking at static images. So, they got together and developed the Mobile Ads Showcase App, which will help them all experience these interesting mobile ads exactly the same way their users will.

Using the application, users will be able to explore what some of the world’s best advertisers with rich media on mobile devices and interact with these ads. Of course, AdWords also wants to make sure that these users are also aware of all of the things that they can do using the Google Mobile Ads platform.

In addition, advertising agencies will be able to use this application as a mobile portfolio of sorts to code, test and upload their HTML5 ads by simply including them in the (MRAID-compliant) “My Ads” screen.

The Mobile Ads Showcase App is currently available for Android smartphones and tablets in the Google Play store.

Jumptap Expands Targeted Mobile Ad Toolbox

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:30:00 GMT

Audience data is a critical element in targeting advertisements across the mobile landscape.

Jumptap, Inc., a leader in targeted mobile advertising, and BlueKai’s, an enterprise data activation system for intelligent marketing, had this in mind when announcing its new partnership. The idea behind the announcement is to help advertisers deliver highly targeted mobile ads by leveraging a broad set of mobile, online and offline data segments.

Segments include consumer purchase intent, past purchases, geographic and demographic data, interests, lifestyle, and automotive, among others. The partnership allows advertisers on the Jumptap network to leverage BlueKai’s online data segments and algorithms specifically within the mobile realm.

“Through this partnership, we’re expanding our tool box significantly to enable advertisers to go beyond network-specific data to promote better ad relevancy and ROI,” said Adam Soroca, Chief Product Officer and General Manager, Jumptap. “BlueKai is well-known in the online realm for its data prowess, and we’re honored to be its first partner as the company enters the mobile space.”

According to the announcement, to leverage BlueKai data for mobile targeting, BlueKai drops pixels across its publisher network, which is then matched with targeting segments and an IP address. When Jumptap recognizes repeat users on its network, it matches the segments sent by BlueKai and delivers a relevant ad.

In addition to accessing BlueKai’s Mobile Privacy Guard (MPG), a new technology aimed to ensure user anonymity on their mobile devices, Jumptap works with privacy advisor Evidon to implement the AdChoice privacy icon logo in all behaviorally-targeted mobile ads. Clicking on the in-ad notice brings consumers to Jumptap’s privacy policy page where they can view more information about targeting and update their privacy settings or opt-out. (To check out the updated mobile advertising guidelines, click here.)

“Our partnership with Jumptap signifies BlueKai’s dedication to helping marketers take a data-driven approach to identifying and reaching prospects across any screen,” said Cory Treffiletti, SVP of Marketing at BlueKai. “Mobile is an untapped channel, and with data, audience targeting opportunities can be unleashed in a really big way.”

Updated Mobile Advertising Guidelines Available for Comment

Michael Garrity — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 06:15:00 GMT

Recently, a coalition of some of the primary trade groups in the mobile and Internet marketing industries gathered together to draft an updated version of the “Mobile Web Advertising Measurement Guidelines,” which was unveiled today for public comment.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) joined together with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its Mobile Marketing Center for Excellence division and the Media Rating Council (MRC) to come up with a new framework for the regulation of the measurement of Web-based mobile advertisements across an interactive mobile ecosystem.

This document mostly concerns the work of mobile marketers, wireless operators, mobile publishers and ad serving organizations, although the guidelines can also be used by people who plan or buy mobile media advertising to determine its measurement quality. For instance, the newly updated guidelines will require client-side counting of mobile Web ad impressions in order to increase the consistency with computer-based ad measurement, provide more robust and reliable impression counts and reduce other mobile discrepancies.

Also covered in this updated version are measurement definitions, ad measurement guidelines, click measurement considerations, general reporting parameters, disclosure guidance, auditing recommendations, information on improving the accuracy of ad impression tracking and the importance of the “viewable impressions” that are being established by the Making Measurement Make Sense initiative. While this currently devised version doesn’t require professionals to measure viewable impressions on the mobile Web, it does make it clear that mobile media providers should begin making considerations for viewable impressions as soon as possible.

You can review the new guidelines here. Public comment is already open and will close on December 21. To comment, simply send an email to mobile@iab.net.

FTC Offers Mobile Advertising and Privacy Guidance

Michael Garrity — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:45:00 GMT

Mobile ads are the next big thing for the advertising industry, so did you really think that the FTC wasn’t going to get involved sooner or later?

In early 2012, the group was looking into updating its online advertising guidelines to adapt them to new digital marketing avenues, particularly social and mobile, but that won’t be completed for a few more months. Right now, there are already tons of applications on mobile devices across the country, which prompted the Commission to released new guidelines for app developers known as “Marketing Your Mobile App: Getting It Right from the Start.”

The guide, which is intended for an audience that is largely unfamiliar with FTC compliance guidelines, primarily gives advice about “truthful advertising” and privacy issues.

For starters, it tells developers to make sure that their advertising tells “the truth about what” their app is able to do, whether it’s on a website, in an apps store or even within the application. It even offers up a handy rule of thumb, that if they don’t have “solid proof” to back up the objective claims of their app’s capabilities, they probably shouldn’t bother advertising them. It also advises them to disclose any key information “clearly and conspicuously,” meaning that it is big and clear enough that user’s can easily see it and understand what it is saying.

In terms of privacy, the FTC suggests that developers build in privacy considerations from the start of the project, which means limiting the information they collect, securely storing what they acquire and safely disposing of what they don’t need. Additionally, the organization insists that these developers are transparent with users about their data collection and sharing practices, and that they offer privacy choices (e.g. privacy settings, opt-outs or other ways that users can control their personal information) that are easy to find and use.

As with advertising content, the guidelines encourage developers to honor their privacy promises and keep user data secure. It says they should collect only the data they need, secure it by taking “reasonable precautions” against known security risks, limit its access to a “need-to-know basis” and safely dispose of what they do not need. Finally, it recommends that they only collect “sensitive information” (i.e. medical, financial, location, etc.) with user consent, and that they are especially careful when collecting data from children (under 13) and require parental consent when doing so.

If you’re interested in reading the full report, you can check out a PDF version by clicking here. And don’t forget to be on the lookout for the updated mobile advertising guidelines by the end of the year.

Privacy Comes to Mobile Ads

Allison Howen — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 02:09:00 GMT

Mobile ad network Jumptap has partnered with Evidon to fight for consumers’ rights to privacy.

The partnership between the two companies brings the AdChoices icon to in-app and mobile Web advertisements that use behavioral data to target consumers. Although the AdChoices icon is commonly seen in traditional online advertisements, Jumptap and Evidon created the first mobile AdChoices Icon privacy solution, which will be deployed through Evidon.

Through the partnership, Jumptap’s mobile ads will include the AdChoices icon in order to notify consumers when they are targeted with behavioral data. Once clicked, the icons direct consumers to Jumptap’s privacy overview page where they can discover more information about targeted mobile ads, as well as have the ability to update their privacy settings if desired.

“It all comes down to doing the right thing. The components of ‘Notice’ and ‘Choice’ allow us to bring innovative ad targeting features to market in a transparent way that leverage mobile and third party behavioral data at scale,” says Paran Johar, Chief Marketing Officer, Jumptap. “Jumptap provides choice via our opt-out capabilities. Our partnership with Evidon will ensure that notice is provided wherever we reach the consumer, on the mobile Web and in apps, and that our privacy experience will continue to be best in class as capabilities evolve.”

YouTube Now Offering Mobile Ads

Michael Garrity — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT

A lot of people access YouTube and watch videos on their smartphones and tablet devices, and that number increases everyday.

In fact, according to the Google-owned video streaming site, 20 percent of all of its global traffic comes from mobile devices, a number that has tripled since 2011. However, content creators have never been able to make any money off of that traffic, which can quickly add up to mean huge missed revenue opportunities.

Today, the site announced (via Twitter, believe it or not) that it was finally going to start offering ads in videos that are viewed from mobile devices. Advertisements will be viewed as TrueView ads, which means that viewers can skip them after five seconds; these ad types are very successful on YouTube’s main website.

This move indicates that YouTube has been able to fix problems with its mobile API, and it now presents the opportunity for content creators to considerably increase the revenue they can receive from their videos.

Take Control of Mobile Marketing

Michael Garrity — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:49:00 GMT

Cloud-based mobile marketing platform Sitomic wants to help its partner agencies get more out of their mobile marketing efforts with two new solutions.

The first is a white label program that lets partners offer services under their own company name, as Sitomic will give them each a custom-branded platform, microsite and client CMS hosted under their own domain name. This will put their partners in greater control over their own mobile marketing presence, expanding their company’s reach and strengthening client loyalty at the same time.

It should be noted that the white label partners will be responsible for their own marketing efforts, as well as their client support.

Also available is a new value add reseller (VAR) program to help partners create multiple client projects in a single Sitomic account. VAR partners will be able to set up their own monthly payment agreements with clients, and will pay a much lower monthly project fee for bulk sales. The program, ideal for firms that print QR codes, utilize SMS marketing or run mobile ads, will open up new revenue opportunities and service offerings to clients.

The Sitomic mobile marketing platform offers all partners a variety of simple tools to help them extend the reach of mobile campaigns with social sharing incentives, capture email leads, generate unlimited shorted URLS and QR codes to track visitors and, of course, quickly create professional mobile landing pages for QR codes, SMS, mobile email and mobile ad campaigns.

Bypassing Apple's Rejection of UDID Apps

Michael Garrity — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:00:00 GMT

Just a few weeks ago, Apple came out and said it was going to reject iOS applications that access the host device’s Unique Device Identifier (UDID) code. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for developers to test and track their applications.

UDID codes are also used to help marketers target ads, which helps improve payouts for developers. Basically, this is a major inconvenience for developers who want to sell their apps in the App Store (and make some money off of them).

Though little can be done about it, there are some solutions out there that can help ease some of the strain, one of which is the LeadBolt Visitor Match tracking feature that the mobile advertising company released last October.

Visitor Match, which was built to work across a wide range of platforms, including the Android and iTunes app stores, gives advertisers a way to automatically track mobile conversions in a quick and convenient manner with highly accurate results. According to LeadBolt, the Visitor Match algorithm is able to produce a 98.7-percent accuracy rate for server-side and other conversion pixel events.

Most importantly, Visitor Match is able to track conversions even if a UDID is not present, which really helps set the feature apart and gives LeadBolt users a leg up now that Apple has completely rejected UDID-based apps.

In addition, LeadBolt just made available its iPhone advertiser software development kit (SDK) in a non-UDID version, which should also help users adjust to Apple’s recent changes.

Android Owns 60 Percent of Mobile Market Share

Linc Wonham — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:00:00 GMT

In its newly released MobileSTAT report, mobile advertising network Jumptap reveals that Android and iOS together make up 91 percent of the mobile operating systems (OS) market.

Based on data from the Jumptap network of more than 95 million monthly users, both operating systems reached new heights in January 2012. Android hit 58.8 percent and iOS reached 32.2 percent market share, respectively.

Blackberry, on the other hand, sunk to a record low of 6.7 percent. The data supports Nielsen’s recent report that showed 89 percent of smartphones that were acquired in Q4 2011 were Android or iOS, and only 6 percent were Blackberry.

“With Google activating 850,000 mobile devices daily, it’s no surprise that Android has continued to outpace every other OS on the market,” says Jumptap chief marketing officer Paran Johar. “What advertisers should take away from this data is the importance of advertising cross-platform. Both the Android and iOS operating systems continue to grow while the remaining competitors represent only a fraction of the market."

Additional findings in the new report include the following:

• Exponential Tablet Growth: The launch of the Kindle Fire has helped fuel exponential tablet growth in the last few months. Overall tablet traffic on the Jumptap network has increased over 50 percent since December 2011. In that same time period, Kindle Fire has grown from holding a 4 percent share of tablet traffic to a 33 percent share. Jumptap predicts that 2012 will be a year of heavy competition between the iPad3 – launching in March – the Kindle Fire, and other low-cost tablets.

• Mobile Devices of CES Attendees: The largest consumer electronics show in the world, CES, brought hundreds of the best and brightest in tech to Las Vegas -- and with them, their mobile devices. In analyzing the types of devices used in Las Vegas during the event vs. devices normally used in the area, the Jumptap February MobileSTAT found that Apple and Blackberry made the strongest showing. Additionally, iPad traffic increased 100 percent and Blackberry traffic increased 111 percent during the show. To no surprise, the report also found that tech-focused CES attendees were less likely to use feature phones as compared to Las Vegas locals.

• Politics is Mobile: Political candidates aren’t the only ones using mobile for the primaries. Mobile users in South Carolina took to their phones to check results of the state’s primary election on January 21. Significant spikes on the Jumptap network ‘News Channel’ occurred on the day of the primary resulting in a 35 percent increase in traffic at 7 p.m. ET when the polls closed, and a 40 percent spike at 10 p.m. when results were announced.

MobileSTAT (Simple Targeting & Audience Trends) is a monthly view of the top targeting and audience trends in mobile advertising. The results are derived from large quantities of network data to identify targeting and audience trends.

Mobile Bandwidth Usage Controlled by the One Percent

Michael Garrity — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:30:00 GMT

Occupy the Mobile Web!

Apparently there's more than one "One Percent," even when it comes to mobile bandwidth. It seems that the top one percent of mobile Web users consume half of the world's bandwidth, while the top 10 percent generate 90 percent of all mobile Internet traffic. And this next part is hard to believe considering how quickly mobile Internet usage is growing, but it looks like this gap is actually widening.

That is, at least, according to Arieso, the England-based company that observed this significant gap after it tracked 1.1 million customers of a European mobile operator for one day last November.

It seems that in 2009, the top three percent of users were generating just 40 percent of the traffic, but not anymore, as this percentile is using up around 70 percent of the bandwidth.

"What is unforutnate is that this study couldn't (or didn't) give us much of a profile of this "One Percent," said Michael Flanagan, Arieso's Chief Technology Officer. Flanagan does seem to think that the group is "probably diverse, with a mix of business users gaining access to the Internet over a 3G network...and individuals with generous or unlimited mobile data packages."

So it looks like this One Percent doesn't quite fit the elitist profile many associate with that other One Percent.

The survey also shared some pertinent information about how these "extreme users" were accessing the mobile Web. As it turns out, 64 percent of them were still primarily using a laptop, while about 33 percent were on smartphones and just three percent were getting online on an iPad.

This information could be useful for Internet marketers as they ponder how to go about factoring the mobile Web into their campaigns. Knowing that such a small percentage of users is actually driving all of that traffic could make one rethink the actual value of heaping money on mobile advertisements, as it seems that it would be the same small segment of users seeing most of your ads. Another important factor to consider is that many users are still on laptops when accessing the mobile Web, so is it going to be worth it to spend the extra money to have your advertisements optimized for smaller screen devices?

Standard Mobile Ad Sizes from the MMA

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:30:00 GMT

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released mobile ad unit guidelines which address the buying, selling, and creation of mobile ads for smartphones, feature phones and tablets.

The MMA analyzed over 150 billion mobile ad impressions and identified a list of 60 common formats which was pared down to just six which the trade group is calling the Mobile Universal Ad Package.

"The guidelines issued today vastly simplify the mobile ad landscape, creating six standard ad unit sizes, out of the tangle of the more than 60 unit sizes currently in use in the marketplace," said MMA Global CEO Greg Stuart. "By standardizing around a limited and widely accepted set of ad sizes, mobile advertising becomes exponentially easier to add to the marketing mix for marketers everywhere."

The guidelines call for three small size ads meant for feature phones including 120x120, 168x28 and 216x36 (in pixels). Smartphones have three banner ad sizes which are larger at 300x250, 300x50 and 320x50.

Networks and publishers will have until the end of March 2012 to become compliant.

Ad Units by Greystripe More Social, Interactive

Michael Garrity — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Mobile advertisements are about to improve their social lives. Greystripe, a mobile ad network, recently launched Ad Boosters, ad units that enhance Flash advertisements by making them more social and interactive.

Ad Boosters come in two different forms. One is an industry-specific ad unit with features that are distinct to vertical markets, including retail, package goods, automotive, travel, tech, health or restaurants. These customizable units allow advertisers to include buttons for special actions unique to the ad right in it's code. (As an example, an ad for a retail store could include a "store locator" button.)

The other type of ad unit is about social network integration, allowing brands to include one-button access to social networks. These units currently support Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.

These new Ad Boosters also support special "click-to-action" buttons like buy, deals/daily deals, coupons, video, recommend, download, call, store locator and mobile website.

In addtion, the Boosters give advertisers the opportunity to include a branded image, such as a logo, onto the ad in the form of a 300x100 image on the top of the screen. Below that is the 300x250 ad unit that focuses on the campaign's message. The actionable buttons are displayed below the ad at the bottom of the screen.

For those interested, select Ad Booster buttons come packaged together as special industry-specific bundles, but they are still totally customizable.