According to AdAge Mobile Fact Pack, mobile advertising grew over 75% in 2013. Mobile marketing is no longer just another emerging channel – along with social media, it has now become integral to every online marketer’s strategy.
The rise of mobile marketing can be attributed to several factors, not least the huge success of Facebook’s mobile advertising, which started from zero and scaled to a staggering multibillion dollar business.
To guide online marketing executives we have outlined 6 mobile trends for 2014.
1. Mobile Real Time Bidding (RTB) will constitute 45% of all mobile ad buys
Mobile RTB technology became accessible to the marketers with Twitter’s acquisition of MoPub this year. The third quarter 2013 round up by AdExchanger, had projected mobile RTB to hit 30% by the end of 2013. Going forward, the RTB is expected to comprise 45% of all mobile ad buys by the end of 2014.
2. Ad network space consolidation to continue
As more and more companies adopt transparent buying methods like RTB, a significant decrease in the amount of inventory available to ad networks has been registered. Given the large number of options available to buyers, consolidation of network space is likely to happen in the near future. The combined might of RTB platforms will make large and medium-sized mobile ad networks redundant.
3. Email predicted to become a mobile-first channel
Research has shown that over half of all email is now opened on a mobile device. In 2014, email will further flip from PCs and become a mobile-first channel. According to Gartner, PC shipments worldwide in the third quarter of 2013 declined 8.6 percent. The decline of PC sales will further accelerate this trend. Smart marketers are already experimenting with responsive designs for email marketing and optimizing them for mobile platforms.
4. New mobile ad formats to make their presence felt
Mobile video formats are also undergoing interesting innovations. We emphasize our case with Facebook’s in-stream ads format around which mobile ad formats are now evolving. Another worthwhile example is Promoted Tweets from social media giant Twitter. Pinterest is also expected to roll out its own mobile ad format in the near future.
5. Twitter to expand its mobile advertising platform
comScore data shows that nearly 90% of time spent on Twitter in August 2013 was on a mobile device. Given Twitter’s recent IPO debut, the company will be focussing on increasing revenue and the immediate solution will be to expand its mobile advertising.
6. Facebook to dominate with mobile FBX
Analysts at J.P. Morgan believe that Facebook Exchange (FBX) will eventually make 60% of Facebook’s total revenue. To achieve this aim, FBX will have to get mobile. Currently, Facebook content on mobile devices and PCs display different ads. And as end-users continue to make mobile their device of choice, FBX revenues are predicted to increase exponentially.
In keeping with the emerging trends, we expect marketers in 2014 to significantly increase their investment in mobile, including those who have yet to embrace mobile marketing.
The train has left the station. Run fast, if you are not on it!