Since the number of mobile users is continuously growing, marketers must focus their attention on designing an effective mobile ad. A well-thought advertising campaign must cover almost the whole information space, that is, affect the potential buyer even after he closes his notebook or PC.
It’s no secret that the number of purchases via mobile gadgets, phones, tablets, and now watches, is growing rapidly. Here are some interesting facts:
- 70% of the clicks on mobile devices involve advertisements in the following classes: retail, travel, automotive business, and private messages.
- CTR on mobile gadgets is higher than on computers. For example, average CTR for Android smartphones is 2 times greater than the CTR on PCs (however, iOS is the leading system for America and Western Europe). Consumers buy goods across a broad range of products, including expensive ones. Also, purchases on mobile devices tend to be in different product categories from purchases made on a computer.
- Mobile gadgets effectively complement and even replace PCs. For example, PC sales decrease in holidays and weekends for 10% while sales from IPads grow by 16%.
- But, mobile ads also draw a large number of clicks (50% according to Business Insider) due to ‘fat-fingers’. In other words, they click the mobile ad accidentally when attempting to click somewhere else. This increases costs associated with mobile advertising. Designing an effective mobile ad requires adequate spacing from other links to avoid ‘fat-fingers’.
Advantages of mobile advertising
The main advantage of mobile advertising is that it allows an advertiser to communicate continuously with the audience, regardless of whether they work on PC or not.
Of course, advertising is partly annoying, especially when you can’t get rid of it by removing or closing. As for mobile advertising, it’s even more annoying because of the limited space of the mobile screen.
In this regard, the main task of mobile advertising is to provide the user with the ability to easily close ads and continue his business. That is, an advertiser must create an image that the user chooses whether to watch to close the ad by himself rather than being forced to view it.
The notion of designing an effective mobile ad is even more salient now than ever before. New ad blocking technologies threaten mobile advertising who’ve worn out the patience of mobile users. Here’s what David Kint, CEO of media trade organization Digital Content Next has to say about the problem:
It’s real, and it’s tied to a tech arms race happening because the consumer has been ignored for too long. Current adblocking revenue projections dwarf the entirety of digital advertising revenues across our entire membership
As a result, you’ll have two outputs:
- Advertising will be simply closed and “unnoticed.”
- You’ll get a new customer.
How to design an effective mobile ad
Before I joined DesignContest team, I was involved in a few marketing campaigns. That experience was awesome; I got a lot of experience in creating ads comfort for users and profitable for the advertiser. Here are my pieces of advice:
#1 Don’t use intrusive banners
Huge banners covering most of the information on the page cause irritation. When a pop-up banner blocks the content at the most important moment, the user may leave the site. Huge banners can also damage your brand image.
The average CTR for mobile banner ads is 0.14% — which is pretty pitiful. Unfortunately, even this small ad rate is overstated when you consider a large number of mobile ads are clicked by accident. Luckily, mobile banner ads are a small part of a firm’s digital spend — only about 9%.
#2 Don’t mask and reverse buttons of dialog boxes
If banners imitate the UI elements (such as a dialog box), you can’t swap “Pass to” (or continue)and “Cancel” buttons because many users click on them mechanically. Some advertisers create such banners to increase the CTR artificially. But I encourage you be honest and respect users.
Being honest and respectful has other benefits, as well. These accidental clicks are worthless.
#3 Banners must be made carefully; Text must be readable
Designing an effective mobile ad relies on stringent adherence to UI principles.
Be careful when choosing a combination of foreground and background colors. The combination of black and red is not the best choice.
If a banner is small, that does not excuse text that’s unreadable or unclear. If you want to put a lot of information, check whether the text fits and is located correctly. Use a few frames in the banner to place all the information.
#4 Don’t do the closure cross too small
No doubts, advertising is very important for any company. That’s why it should be visible. Yes, you can force a user to watch your advertising, but that will be the first and the last time he visits your website. Such cheating never brings positive results.
Therefore, better make the cross (you know, that little X allowing users to close your ad) noticeable, so that users who are not interested in advertising could easily close it. Tricking users into watching your ad generates negative feelings that damage your brand. So, give them a choice.
Users only respond positively to ads when the product advertised meets their needs, so making it hard for them to avoid advertising is ineffective, hence the process of searching for a cross to close the window won’t bring additional customers.
#5 Check the text of the banners for mistakes and misprints
Illiterate advertising won’t attract users; on the contrary, it will cause negative impressions about your company.
Do not make pseudo-ends of the page: by putting content advertising banners over the content, you risk causing an erroneous impression that the there’s an empty space under the banner. If you want the user to read the text below the banner, please place inscriptions like “read below.”
I recommend you to place banners at the bottom of the screen since users find this location less annoying. Moreover, according to recent studies, such banners get more clicks comparing to those which are at the top.
To promote your business by the means of mobile gadgets, you have to create a favorable impression of the company, address users’ interests, and design interesting, non-intrusive, and easy to read and understand advertising.
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