Q1 2015 The State of Mobile Social Advertising Affirming The Advantages of a Managed Approach
Table of Contents About The Report Executive Summary... Mobile Advertising Spend Growth... Pricing Trends... Marketer Objectives International Growth...... Trends by Vertical... 1 2 3 4 5 6 The data in this report was aggregated across a portfolio of advertisers leveraging Ampush s AMP platform to manage and scale their mobile advertising campaigns on Facebook and Twitter. Ampush customers include leading direct response and brand advertisers across gaming, e-commerce, travel, financial services, consumer packaged goods, and other verticals. Data in this report is specific to the advertisers and objectives represented in Ampush s customer portfolio, and should not be used as a proxy for spend or pricing trends on Facebook, Twitter, or the broader mobile advertising marketplace. Data in this report should not be compared to any prior or future publications due to the dynamic nature of the data set each period. For inquiries, please email research@ampush.com.
Executive Summary Though we are only through the first quarter, advertisers are closing the gap between the time consumers spend on mobile devices and the share of advertising dollars allocated to mobile. emarketer projects mobile advertising to reach $28.72 billion in 2015, a 50% increase from the year prior¹. Of the various forms of mobile advertising, in-feed ads on social apps are among the most effective ways to engage and monetize mobile consumers². Two platforms, Facebook and Twitter, dominate as a result of their size and performance. By verifying desktop and mobile identities and matching marketers customer data to real people, Facebook and Twitter make it possible to reach the right person, in the right place and across devices, at the right time. grow higher each quarter, successful execution requires expertise to manage complexity. Campaign success requires creativity, familiarity with the medium, and the time to test and run multiple campaigns across diverse platforms. With frequent product and algorithm changes, agile adoption of new campaign strategies, ad formats, and tracking methodologies is critical to achieve performance at scale. Today, most marketing teams lack the people, skills, or resources required to continuously manage and optimize campaigns efficiently at scale. Not surprisingly, the first quarter data for 2015 confirms that a managed approach to mobile advertising is the most effective way to achieve campaign objectives on Facebook and Twitter. From a birds-eye view, these platforms provide a straightforward, elegant solution for mobile marketers. But, in a market where competition and the price of inventory 1 Forecast: Advertising Revenue Growth by Format, Business Insider Intelligence, September 2014 2 Forecast: Mobile Advertising Revenue, Business Insider Intelligence, December 2014 1
Spend On Mobile Remains High Despite Seasonal Dip Marketers predictably scaled back budgets in the first quarter after record-high spending in the 2014 holiday season. Compared to the first quarter of 2014, overall mobile spend increased 160% as more marketers looked to mobile ads to achieve their branding and direct response objectives. Marketing success on a single platform, Facebook most frequently, and interest in diversifying advertising efforts to new platforms like Twitter are the primary drivers of advertising growth. Ampush has seen incremental spend on Facebook from video ads and new direct response ad formats that shorten the path to purchase. Video advertising on mobile devices continues to prove more and more lucrative for both branding and direct response objectives while prompting some marketers to reallocate TV advertising budget. In this vein, more marketers also run complementary television and Facebook advertising campaigns with positive results. Growing interest in international markets, specifically with gaming companies, is also contributing to this increase. 400 Mobile Spend Growth Index Q1 2014 = 100 300 200 100 160% GROWTH YEAR-OVER-YEAR 0 Index shows percent growth in spend compounded each quarter. 2
Prices Push Higher; Creative Becomes Essential to Efficiency Pricing Trends $6.04 $5.82 $6.74 $6.41 $3.50 $4.26 $4.90 $2.84 $3.13 $4.80 $0.29 $0.35 $0.58 $0.71 $0.70 CPM CPC CPI The price of a click, impression, and acquisition dropped from the hyper-competitive fourth quarter, but increased compared to the first quarter of 2014. As the cost to reach or acquire a customer climbs, ad creative that attracts attention and drives clicks becomes more important. Video, specifically cinemagraphs and micro videos, is being heavily adopted and used successfully to drive clicks-to-site and conversions. Regardless of the medium, advertisers are finding the need to produce and test new assets bi-weekly, if not more frequently, to sustain click-through-rates. How important is creative in overall campaign effectiveness? Creative is immensely important. Facebook serves ads that get the most engagements, which tend to be the ones with the best combination of visuals and copy. Our platform allows us to upload and test thousands of combinations to find the right marriage of visuals and text. TODD MENDLINGER, SR. MEDIA STRATEGIST, AMPUSH 3
Measurable Profitability Takes Precedence Marketers are shifting focus and budgets from branding to direct response. A more recent shift, due to the increase in mobile ad inventory pricing, is the evolution from reach and volume based campaigns towards success metrics tied to profitability, also known as return on ad spend (ROAS). Advertisers are showing greater interest in dynamic ads for specific products that send people directly to a landing page to make a purchase. The e-commerce potential is huge, but product feed integration and frequent creative production will require support from engineering and creative. 800 Mobile Spend Growth by Objective Brand Mobile App Installs Direct Response Q1 2014 = 100 Excludes Mobile App Installs 600 400 200 0 578% GROWTH YEAR-OVER-YEAR ON DIRECT RESPONSE OBJECTIVES How often should marketers revise their creative? Let the data guide you. If your click-through rate plummets and frequency goes up significantly, it s time to change things up. You may have a great campaign, but they all fatigue over time. The key is to anticipate that and update images proactively. TODD MENDLINGER, SR. MEDIA STRATEGIST, AMPUSH 4
International Budgets Contribute to Growth Driven by the continued efforts of gaming companies to reach a larger audience, mobile ad spend in EMEA and APAC grew 77% and 63% Q1 2014 to Q1 2015. The cost for impressions and clicks in EMEA and APAC are still notably lower than the more mature U.S. market, but prices are slowly climbing with ad spend growth. Advertisers expanding campaigns to international markets are quickly learning that strategies cannot be duplicated region-to-region and that more hands are needed for ad creation, media strategy, and campaign management. CPM By Region AMERICAS $6.17 EMEA $4.20 APAC $3.09 500 Mobile Spend Growth Index by Region Americas APAC EMEA Q1 2014 = 100 400 300 200 100 0 63% IN 77% IN GROWTH YEAR-OVER-YEAR APAC GROWTH YEAR-OVER-YEAR EMEA 5
Gaming Growth Slows, While Other Verticals Ramp Up Gaming, now a relatively mature market, saw the slowest growth compared to other verticals. Retail and travel companies have realized the effectiveness of direct response mobile ads and rapidly invested spend in Q1. Industry-specific success relies heavily on reaching people with the highest propensity to transact. This challenge is being overcome by activating customer data and hyper personalizing creative. In-app event tracking, website data collection via a tracking pixel, and customer data management are mainstays to effectively target campaigns. Advertisers need to lean on engineering teams for SDK integration and pixel implementations, and creative teams for the creation of ads tailored to destinations, individual products, or the buying cycle. Mobile Spend Growth Index by Vertical CPG Retail Travel Gaming Financial Services Q1 2014 = 100 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 171% 561% GROWTH YEAR-OVER-YEAR IN RETAIL GROWTH YEAR-OVER-YEAR IN TRAVEL 0 6
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