Mobile marketing encompasses a broad range of advertising activities that use mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as marketing platforms. Depending on the product or service, mobile marketing initiatives employ different delivery channels from SMS messaging to in-app advertising. To successfully customize content offers, marketers also make use of mobile technology features such as personalized location services.
By shifting their attention towards mobile marketing strategies, companies are adapting to one of the most significant technological trends of the past decade, the shift from desktop to mobile. In 2018, almost half of the world’s population was connected to mobile internet, with smartphones accounting for the largest share of global mobile devices. As a result of the ubiquity of such portable electronics, internet users around the world are gradually switching to mobile devices to browse the web and spending less time online via PC.
In order to reach this large potential customer base, companies are rapidly increasing their mobile advertising spending. In 2019, over 190 billion U.S. dollars were spent on mobile ads worldwide, with the United States seeing the lion’s share of expenditures. Looking at the distribution of mobile advertising funds in recent years, the retail industry stands out as the sector with the highest share of ad spend globally. In 2018, roughly 46 percent of the total mobile ad spend was attributed to retailers.
One of the most significant mobile advertising trends of the last years is the increase in global mobile ad requests. Today’s interconnected mobile users are driving up mobile ad requests and impression volumes, particularly in emerging mobile markets where the number of mobile device owners is rapidly increasing.
So what will the future of mobile marketing and advertising look like? When asked to predict the most effective digital marketing trends for their businesses in a recent survey, nine percent of polled marketers projected mobile marketing to be the technique with the largest commercial impact. This figure will likely increase in the years to come, as the omnipresence and interconnectedness of mobile devices is presenting advertisers with seemingly endless opportunities to promote their brands. After all, mobile marketing is becoming not only an indispensable tool for companies, but also a key part of our modern digital infrastructure.