The Top 5 Mobile Marketing Mistakes

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1 The Top 5 Mobile Marketing Mistakes And How to Avoid Them Data fueled mobile marketing powered by miq

2 The challenges of effectively marketing on mobile are numerous. And while each marketer faces their own unique set of obstacles, some challenges are widespread: The mobile ecosystem is fragmented with many different channels and traffics sources that need to be managed. Targeting options are nearly innumerable, making it difficult to guarantee an ad is reaching the right audience. The mobile industry is constantly changing from the introduction of new advertising channels to the sheer volume of apps being added on a daily basis. Marketers lack the necessary data to make strategic targeting decisions to reach precise audiences on mobile. As a result, many marketers struggle to avoid common mistakes, whether their goals are to acquire app users, boost brand awareness, or drive direct actions and ROI. This ebook examines the top five mistakes marketers make on mobile, along with suggestions on how to effectively grow your mobile business. 1

3 Mistake #1: Relying on traditional marketing strategies All too often, marketers rely on traditional, non mobile-specific advertising methods to drive downloads: online banner ads and PPC campaigns, TV, print, radio ads, and more. While those strategies may have worked in the past, they are often inefficient and fail to resonate with today s increasingly mobile-first audiences. The problem is twofold. First, when an ad is shown to too broad an audience, odds are the message will be irrelevant or uninteresting to the vast majority of them. Sure, some people might connect with the message, but traditional, scattershot marketing is certainly not an efficient way to gain loyal app users or build strong brand associations. Second, TV ads, banner ads, and print marketing do not offer an effective method for interaction, whether that be downloading an app or driving conversions that lead to increases in leads, registrations, or sales. Even if a viewer has a mobile device in hand, industry studies have shown that conversion rates are extremely low in comparison to targeted, mobile-tailored campaigns. How to avoid this mistake By using data-driven strategies that deliver precise audiences at scale, you can create targeted mobile campaigns more likely to resonate with today s consumers. This not only ensures a more efficient campaign in comparison to traditional media spend, but also encourages immediate consumer interaction. Some of the best platforms for doing so include: Mobile ad networks that run display or video ads on their network of mobile publishers. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter that provide tools to reach very specific audiences. Real-time bidding platforms that allow you to bid on mobile traffic in real time. 2

4 Mistake #2: Not tracking and optimizing marketing in real time The effectiveness of individual traffic sources changes frequently. Today s most reliable channel might not be tomorrow s, and the tactics that worked at the beginning of a campaign may need re-evaluation after running for some time. The problem is, most marketers either can t or don t stay on top these fluctuations, resulting in inefficient or even obsolete campaigns. Simply put, marketers who don t take a programmatic approach to optimizing advertising in real time are just throwing away money. Many marketers lack the in-house expertise to perform the required analysis and adjustments, and should strongly consider partnering with an outside resource with the tracking and optimization technology required to get the most out of mobile advertising. How to avoid this mistake Marketers need to employ programmatic technology that tracks marketing data in real time in order to optimize their tactics and advertising investment towards sources generating the most efficient results. However, real-time optimization is easier said than done, as the appropriate technology can be exceedingly complex, involving dozens of independent variables. Contextual: time, day of week, publisher, type of device, location Behavorial: other app usage, purchase history, likes, follows Demographic: persona, age, household income, gender Creative: size, message, visuals, Call to action 3

5 Mistake #3: Not measuring past the click A common mistake marketers make is to assume that the channels that generate the greatest number of downloads or impressions at the lowest cost should be the primary focus of spend. What they often fail to realize is that this is essentially worthless if the user fails to interact in any meaningful way. Relying on volume as the sole metric for measuring a campaign s success can result in overspending and a less than stellar ROI. How to avoid this mistake Start by identifying and tagging the events (for brands: leads, registrations, or sales; for apps: registrations, completion of a tutorial, or purchases) that are the most important to your business. As you run your campaigns, track your defined events in conjunction with the sources they originated from. Then, steer your marketing towards the sources that behave in the ways that are most beneficial. Using these deeper metrics to guide your spend virtually guarantees a better return on investment. 4

6 Mistake #4: Picking the wrong traffic sources Marketers frequently employ too few traffic sources to advertise on mobile often because they are either unaware of the sheer volume of available channels, or they are simply overwhelmed at the prospect of managing spend, creatives, tracking, and reporting across multiple sources. Regardless of the reason, advertisers who limit the scope of their campaigns can easily miss out on the most effective channels for reaching their desired audiences. They also risk saturating the available audience, leading to subpar ROI. Programmatically optimizing to the best-performing sources can be one of the single biggest drivers of mobile marketing success. How to avoid this mistake Working with a mixture of traffic channels at the onset of a campaign can help marketers narrow down the most efficient traffic sources. By using the information obtained from tracking and attribution during a campaign, marketers can make adjustments programmatically and instantaneously, pivoting to the sources that bring precise audiences, strengthen brand recognition, and drive results. These can include a mix of: Mobile app ad networks Social media platforms Real-time bidding platforms Incentive-based networks or app discovery services Video ad networks 5

7 One Fiksu client began their campaign by advertising on three different networks social, RTB, and incent. Through programmatic tracking and attribution, they realized that social drove the highest number of loyal users at the lowest cost and adjusted their campaign accordingly. After shifting the entirety of their spend towards the social networks, they delivered CPIs 27% lower and install volumes 40% higher than their initial goals. 6

8 Mistake #5: Not custom-tailoring your creatives Marketers spend a significant amount of time tinkering with their creatives in hopes of producing an ad that appeals to as many potential users as possible. And they should: a well-crafted creative can go a long way. Far too often, though, marketers are content with running a single iteration of an ad. This presents two problems. First, an ad that runs on the same network for a prolonged period will eventually decrease in effectiveness as it succumbs to oversaturation. Interested users will have already interacted, and those who were unaffected by the ad during its initial run are not going to be persuaded weeks later. Second, many marketers do not consider the nuances of what makes an effective ad on one traffic source as opposed to another. Although they both use a variation of app install ads, for example, the creatives that work well on Facebook do not necessarily translate to Twitter. How to avoid this mistake It s simple really. Marketers need to make sure that they have several versions of ads, update their creatives every few weeks to avoid oversaturation, and tailor their creatives to fit individual traffic sources. The latter may take some experimentation, but it can make a huge difference in end results. 7

9 Other common mistakes Here s a few more issues we ve run into don t run into them yourself. For app marketers, focusing too much on rank Every app has an optimal rank in which the number of organic users gained comes at the most efficient cost, and a higher ranking does not necessarily translate to an incremental increase in the number of organic downloads. The difference in organic users between a chart position of 10 and 5, for example, might not be worth the cost of ascending the charts. Make sure to gain an understanding of your organic users gained versus your rank to ensure you re not spending more than you need. Failing to define success metrics Without benchmarking the metrics for success, marketers have no way of knowing if they re efficiently spending on their campaigns. App marketers unsure about the ideal metrics to measure should consider a soft launch campaign, which can bring insight into how users interact with their app. Not connecting with existing customers on mobile Many brands have large customer bases that exist outside of mobile, like those who tend to frequent a desktop website or signup to receive promotional s. Not tapping into these preexisting customers would be foolish. Cross-device targeting allows you to reach them using the channels where they most often spend their time. 8

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11 How can marketers avoid mistakes on mobile? There are two options: either employing a lot of time, patience, technology, and money or by choosing a technology partner like Fiksu. Our data-driven strategies and programmatic technologies help marketers make informed advertising decisions, acquire more high-value users, grow and maintain awareness, drive leads and sales, lower CPIs, grow ROI, and avoid some of the most common obstacles. With Fiksu you can: Easily market on all ad networks and traffic sources Incorporate your own customer data, online and offline data from third party providers, and Fiksu s own mobile-first data store Leverage social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter Track ad performance and optimize ad buys in real time Tag actions to better understand your consumers with the Fiksu SDK Generate more loyal users at a lower cost Learn how Fiksu can help you. Get started today! 10

12 Clients that use Fiksu Data fueled mobile marketing powered by miq US Fiksu, Inc. 31 St. James Ave. Suite 1150 Boston, MA Phone: APAC Fiksu, Inc. 61 Robinson Road #13-01 Robinson Centre Singapore Phone: EMEA Fiksu, Inc. First Floor 130 City Road London, EC1V2NW Phone: Copyright 2015 Fiksu. All rights reserved. Fiksu, the Fiksu logo, and FreeMyApps are registered trademarks of Fiksu, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective holders.