With the explosion of social media (currently at 3.5 billion daily active users and counting), mobile advertising has become the most important marketing channel to master.
The average US adult spends 2 hours and 55 minutes on their smartphone every single day. And that’s across all ages, including users that don’t even own a cell phone or still use a Motorola flip phone.
So you need to start optimizing your marketing efforts for mobile viewers, but you can’t just resize your desktop ads and expect to succeed.It’s not that simple.
Mobile devices have unique dimensions and features (like touch screens), and mobile users have different expectations and usage patterns than desktop users.
Mobile ad optimization is more complicated than you might think. But, to succeed in 2020, you need to dive right in.
In this article, we’ll give you a comprehensive look into mobile advertising and analyze 11 mobile ads that do everything right.
Why Is Mobile Advertising Important?
With new and better phones, desktop computer use is starting to trend downwards, while mobile usage is rising steadily.
And it’s not just that people use their phones a lot.
Over the last few years, with larger screens and more apps, the smartphone has started to take over a lot of the tasks that used to be done on desktop computers.
Shopping, for instance.
Online retail is moving to mobile in a big way, with mobile eCommerce (or m-commerce), expected to exceed half of total eCommerce revenue over the coming years.
So unless you want to leave a significant portion of potential revenue on the table, mobile is a medium that you cannot ignore.
Finally, the majority of online searches now happen on smartphones, with over 61% of Google searches in Q4 2019 happening on mobile devices.
Even for PPC, mobile has become the most important medium.
Is Mobile Advertising Effective?
The short answer is, yes, it’s effective.
Just running a Google search ad for mobile can increase your brand awareness by 45%, in addition to leading to direct conversions and sales.
A case study analyzing over $1.5 billion in mobile advertising found that it generated close to $3 billion in revenue, an ROI of almost 200%.
But that’s only the average. When done right, the sky’s the limit for your mobile ad campaigns.
With the right creative and targeting, you can see much higher ROAS than just $2 for every $1 invested in ads — like in this case study in which a company got a 9x return with ad design optimization.
The Different Types of Mobile Advertising
There are a number of different ad formats across many different mobile apps, platforms, and advertising networks.
Let’s take a closer look at the most important types of mobile ads.
Social Media Ads
From the standard Facebook Ad and Instagram Ad to Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn, and other platforms, Social Media is one of the biggest mobile channels for advertising.
Everyone that has ever opened the Facebook app or logged in on their desktop has seen an ad for Wish, which is a testament to the enormous branding power of social media ads.
The potential reach of Facebook Ads alone is 1.9 billion people from all stages of life. Add in a few other platforms, and you can reach more than half all living people on earth!
Mobile Display Ads (Mobile Banner Ads)
Display ads are banner ads shown across a network of websites. Display ads on mobile are simply website banner ads that are shown to smartphone users.
The Google Display Network is the largest display and mobile ad network, with the potential to reach 90% of internet users across over 2 million sites and apps.
In-App Display Ads
In-app ads are just what they sound like. Display ads that are shown inside other apps while you are using them.
In the example above, an in-app ad is shown at the very bottom of the screen when editing the Tabata Timer app’s settings.
Interstitial Ads
Interstitial ads are to mobile banner ads and in-app ads what story or canvas ads are to Facebook and Instagram ads.
They are full-screen ads overlaying and completely covering the regular app or browsing experience. You can either wait to pass, press a button, or swipe away to close.
Video Ads
Video ads on mobile are available on a number of different platforms, including social media apps, interstitial ads, and, of course, YouTube.
Youtube Bumper Ads, a new unskippable 6-second ad format, have become incredibly popular for driving brand awareness on mobile.
11 Next-Level Mobile Advertising Examples You Can Learn From
Now that you know a lot more about mobile advertising, it’s time for us to do a deep dive into 11 examples of great mobile ads across a variety of platforms and formats.
1. Instagram Story Ad: British Airways
British Airways used Instagram Story Ads and video to show a first-person tour view of various areas and activities in London.
Not only did the videos themselves do a great job drawing the user in, but there was an interactive element to the ads. Instagram users could tap the screen to choose whether they wanted to see scenes of the bustling nightlife or daytime sightseeing.
When designing ads for mobile, you should consider that it’s an interactive medium, unlike TV. Allowing your audience to engage can be a powerful marketing tool.
2. Snapchat Ad & Filter: Lucky Charms
For St. Patrick’s Day, Lucky Charms wanted to do something special. The company decided to partner with Snapchat and design an interactive, gamified filter, to promote their new magical unicorns cereal.
The campaign resulted in over 12 million Snapchat users using the filter, giving Lucky Charms a massive earned reach on the platform, and excellent branding lift.
Over the course of the campaign, the company saw a sales lift of 3.4%, with over half being new or lapsed customers.
3. Instagram Stories Carousel: Hugo Boss
Hugo Boss designed an enticing mobile campaign taking full advantage of the Stories Carousel format that’s available on both Instagram and Facebook.
The first part instantly catches the attention of the user with great use of the portrait view, and rhythmic expansion and contraction of the perfume bottle outline.
The rhythm seizes the user’s attention and makes them stay for the next parts of the ad, which sells the target audience further on the new scent.
Often, creating an engaging experience means creating a visual journey that draws you in, rather than trying to throw together an interactive element.
4. Facebook Collection Ad: Adidas
To launch its new Z.N.E. travel hoodie, Adidas crafted a Facebook collection ad. The ad didn’t just highlight the latest product — it also showcased matching products that would appeal to the same demographic.
But instead of just a boring collection of images, it uses video to grab the attention of users, focusing on the cool new features like hidden pockets, and more.
If a user clicks the video, at any point, the experience will become full-screen, highlighting the related products with larger images, as well as increasing the size of the video player.
Mixing media, like still photos and videos, can lead to a new, deeper experience.
5. YouTube Ad: Samsung
Samsung understands that attention spans are extra short on digital channels like mobile. With that knowledge, the ad uses the setting of a classroom ringing for a break to grab everyone’s attention, before transitioning into an endearing lip-sync performance of the incredibly catchy song “Yadada.”
Even if you run a non-skippable YouTube ad, remember that users can still mute your ad, set their phone down, or simply look away.
You only have a few seconds to grab their attention. Never forget it.
6. YouTube Ad: Geico
Another video ad example, this time from Geico. It starts with a setting that’s very relatable for most members of the Geico demographic — a minor disagreement between a couple regarding what’s the most important during the holidays.
It then keeps the users’ attention with a twist around the 5-second mark, keeping the viewers on the hook.
Using elements like surprise or humor is necessary to keep users watching an ad that goes beyond a few seconds.
7. Multi-Channel Campaign: Duolingo
In 2019, Duolingo nailed April Fools day with an organic and paid campaign on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter — amassing over 6 million views in total.
The ad takes the concept of push notifications to the next level, with a fake premium feature called the “Duolingo Push,” where the Duolingo mascot, Duo, will show up, in person, to motivate language learners to keep their streak going.
They even set up a dedicated mobile-friendly landing page, taking the joke to the next level.
You don’t need a massive video production or advertisement budget to create a successful social media campaign.
If you get creative and use the right touch of humor to tackle different holidays or recent events, your company can win a lot of extra “free” reach as people will have a reason to share your advertisement organically.
8. Facebook Story Ad: Waking Up
Waking Up, a meditation and mindfulness course and mobile app, does a great job with this simple Facebook story ad.
Instead of trying to grab the attention of the user with bright colors or sharp edges, the visual matches the mellow tone of the audio, setting the stage for the user to enter a more somber mood.
If a specific emotional state makes it easier for customers to relate to your product or service, that’s what you should aim to initiate when you design an ad.
9. Web Display Ad: HBO
HBO’s banner ad for their new series “Breeders” is a perfect example of an effective banner ad.
- An attention-grabbing graphic
- Short and to the point copy that’s easily readable on mobile
- A bold CTA
- Clear logo and branding to increase awareness
Not to mention, this is part of a multi-channel campaign across YouTube, websites, and social media.
If you want to maximize the ROI of your campaign, you need to follow suit. Don’t just run search ads, social media ads, and video ads separately. Use pixels and tags to create custom audiences and target the same people across channels to create a cohesive journey.
10. Facebook Ad: Kinsta
This standard timeline ad from Kinsta is a great example of middle-of-the-funnel marketing.
First, it uses an engaging graphic that follows their creative brand guidelines and perfectly complements the ad copy to capture the attention of FB users.
Then, it drives home the social proof of winning an award in the headline, subheadline, and copy itself.
Sharing awards, real customer stories, case studies, and testimonials can be a great way to win the trust of potential customers who are still on the fence.
11. Twitter Ad
This Twitter ad from Progressive does three things exceptionally well.
First, it positions Progressive as an honest brand, happy to tell you when their competitors are cheaper.
Second, it grabs the attention with a creative graphic, and human faces showing lots of emotion.
Third, the ad matches the “culture” of the platform — by not taking itself too seriously as a brand, and using humor and honesty, creating the perfect mix for a successful Twitter campaign.
When marketers talk about native advertising, this is what they mean. The ad isn’t just asking for a buy, it’s actually entertaining the user and providing useful information as a regular tweet would.
Final Thoughts
Most people spend more time on their smartphones than they do watching TV or using their computer.
So naturally, if you want to succeed in the modern marketing landscape, you need to find a way to reach and connect with your target market through mobile channels.
By creating natural, native ads for each platform, and using visuals, humor, and music to grab and hold attention, you can reach a new market without having to invest a lot of money.
But still, with many different platforms to choose from, and hundreds of ad formats, the world of mobile advertising can be hard to navigate without a guide.
If you need more information on any platform or format, you can search our academy at any time. We have hundreds of up-to-date guides and articles on Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Google Ads, YouTube Ads, and more.
FAQs
What are examples of mobile advertising? ›
Mobile ads examples include Instagram Story Ads that pop-up in between your connection's stories, text and image ads on Facebook, Carousel Ads, Snapchat Filters and Ads, video ads on YouTube, ads in-between playing videos or games, notifications from our downloaded apps, while browsing mobile websites and much more.
What are some examples of advertising? ›- Newspaper. Newspaper advertising can promote your business to a wide range of customers. ...
- Magazine. Advertising in a specialist magazine can reach your target market quickly and easily. ...
- Radio. ...
- Television. ...
- Directories. ...
- Outdoor and transit. ...
- Direct mail, catalogues and leaflets. ...
- Online.
Video Ads. Video ads are becoming the most popular form of mobile advertising. These ads are used more often in recent years due to how they catch the user's attention; they often begin with a short clip preview of the ad, then play the full content once the user is watching.
How are mobile devices used in advertising? ›The term mobile advertising refers to any form of advertising that appears on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Companies advertise on these devices through text ads via SMS or through banner advertisements that appear embedded on a mobile website.
What is mobile advertising analytics? ›Mobile analytics captures data from mobile app, website, and web app visitors to identify unique users, track their journeys, record their behavior, and report on the app's performance.
What is Mobile App advertising? ›Mobile app advertising refers to ads and ad campaigns expressly designed for mobile devices. In this context, “Mobile devices” include smartphones, tablets, or wearable devices. Mobile ads can appear within apps, on websites viewed from mobile devices, or on social media platforms viewed through mobile devices.
How effective is mobile advertising? ›The average mobile response rate was 2.72 percent. In the case of the most successful campaign, the response rate reached 11.78 percent. The least successful mobile campaign had a response rate of 0.29 percent, which was still three times higher than the average response rate for Internet campaigns.
What are the characteristics of mobile advertising? ›...
Content Marketing: what are the unique characteristics of mobile?
- Anytime, anywhere. ...
- Real time communication. ...
- Location-based content marketing. ...
- Personalization. ...
- Consumer-controlled interactivity.
Mobile Ads Deliver Relevant Messages in Real-Time
Accurate store visits enable you to build more customized audiences, which ensures you'll reach shoppers when they're active and engaged. The more accurate the location data, the better your ability to deliver offers and deals to customers when it matters most.
Mobile marketing has some substantial advantages over other channels. Marketing in apps revolutionized the way that marketers perform campaigns. The main benefits of mobile advertising include an increase in customer engagement, cost-effectiveness, or personalized messages to target group.
What are mobile marketing strategies? ›
What Is Mobile Marketing. Mobile marketing is the process of marketing and advertising to consumers using smartphones and tablets. Typically, mobile advertising strategies take advantage of mobile device features such as push notifications and location awareness to deliver more timely and relevant ads.
What is mobile marketing and its types? ›Mobile marketing is ads that appear on mobile phones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Mobile marketing ad has various formats, style, and customization. It depends on the number of website, social media platform and mobiles apps that offer a unique and customizable mobile ad option.
How do you analyze an app? ›- Define every step in your user journey. ...
- Only measure what matters to your goals. ...
- Test your app on as many different devices as possible. ...
- Prioritize your onboarding experience. ...
- Use A/B testing to improve your funnel's conversion rates. ...
- Use app analytics to find new initiatives.
Mobile analytics tells a story about consumer behavior on mobile and how their experiences with mobile apps and websites can be improved to generate greater revenue. Marketers can use mobile analytics to determine the effectiveness of different campaign efforts on mobile devices.
Which is the 1st step of mobile analytics? ›The first thing you may want to define is what to track: should you be exhaustive in the way you approach data tracking, or should you limit it to the main funnels & actions you're interested in looking at? Tracking costs money. Most of the analytics tools have a cap on the number of data points you can send to them.
What is the difference between mobile marketing and mobile advertising? ›With mobile advertising you are trying to reach an audience that are most likely not yet customers or leads. Mobile marketing however is more about building a database of customer or potential customers and then marketing to them.
What is an advertisement analysis? ›An ad analysis is a form of market research that professionals use to create effective and unique advertisements. This analysis addresses each stage of the process, including the development, creation and delivery of an advertisement.
What are the 8 advertising techniques? ›- bandwagon. This is a propaganda technique that suggests one should do something because everyone else is doing it. ...
- fear. ...
- conflict. ...
- shock. ...
- problem/benefit. ...
- testimonial/celebrity. ...
- anti-ad. ...
- association.
Institutional and product are the two main types of advertising. Institutional is a type of advertising that is used to improve a company's image instead of promoting an individual product. Product advertising promotes the product or service to the target market by focusing on the benefits.
How many types of advertisements are there class 12? ›There are two kinds of advertisements: Classified; Commercial.
What are the 3 major types of advertising? ›
Advertising is a primary component of an effective marketing strategy. It can take many different forms, from print advertising in magazines and newspapers to television and radio advertisements and outdoor advertising, such as billboards.
What is an example of product advertising? ›Product advertising also strives to encourage consumers to make purchase decisions quickly based on seeing a product. For example, a jewelry company may use paid advertisements to showcase individual products to entice customers to click the advertisement and order the product.
What are the most popular ads in 2022? ›Rank | Brand | Campaign |
---|---|---|
1 | Amazon | Mind Reader |
2 | Nissan | Thrill Driver |
3 | T-Mobile | Do It For the Phones |
4 | Cheetos | Flamin' Hot |
Amongst the challenges of 2020 and the mobile advertising ecosystem shifts expected in 2021, many app publishers see signs of hope. In mobile games especially, there's high player engagement, industry growth and an ongoing flow of monetisation innovation.
Do people like mobile ads? ›Somewhat surprisingly, at a global level, consumers have no dominant preference towards email or mobile ads, with both channels receiving exactly 41% of the total vote. Phone alerts, such as push notifications and texts, were the least popular method amongst respondents.
What are the four benefits of mobile marketing? ›- Instant Results. The mobile phone is almost always powered on and near to its owner which means, he or she will receive the message at the very moment it is sent and can act on it. ...
- Affordable. ...
- Build Customer Relationship. ...
- Reach Target Audience. ...
- Easy to Track User Response.
Mobile advertising limitations are also prevalent because unlike PC, they don't have a mouse. As a result, navigation on a mobile phone is difficult for the user, even if it has a touch screen. You should know that every ad must cater for both the iOS and Android versions for better content display.
What is the role of mobile marketing? ›Mobile marketing relates to any promotional activity that takes place on smartphones and other handheld devices, including tablets and other cell/mobile phones. Mobile marketing aims to reach an audience of mobile users through methods such as mobile-optimized ads, push notifications and mobile applications.
What are features of mobile advertising? ›- Mobile advertising.
- Mobile search.
- Mobile optimized websites.
- SMS.
- Mobile coupons.
- Native mobile apps.
- Location-based offers.
- QR codes.
With mobile advertising you are trying to reach an audience that are most likely not yet customers or leads. Mobile marketing however is more about building a database of customer or potential customers and then marketing to them.
Which is an example of online advertising? ›
Google Ads
By far the most popular form of search advertising. Google Ads allow you to advertise to people searching on both Google and YouTube and create ads based on your goals, like to driving more visits to your site.
Product advertising also strives to encourage consumers to make purchase decisions quickly based on seeing a product. For example, a jewelry company may use paid advertisements to showcase individual products to entice customers to click the advertisement and order the product.