As mobile marketing gains traction, marketers are looking for the best ways to measure the channel and use the data it provides to build relationships with customers. Four mobile industry experts provide their tips
Steven Rosenblatt
SVP of ad sales, Quattro Wireless
Mobile is exciting because it combines many of the models and methods of other channels with the ability to reach and engage consumers anywhere, anytime.
Successfully measuring a campaign requires clear definition of goals and key performance indicators. Typical campaigns include database building via e-mail capture and more detailed form fills; sales via m-commerce and mobile coupon redemption; a direct action, such as click-to-call; viral distribution through send-to-friend; and local offer participation that drives walk-ins with maps, directions and coupons. Mobile’s unique characteristics — including immediacy of response, higher brand impact and response rates, and location awareness — provide opportunities for measurement that can generate additional intelligence on why a cross-media campaign succeeds and how to improve it in the future.
To measure how targeted your audience reach is, it is important to measure how efficient the media spend is in reaching your target demographics or in-market consumers. It is also important to look at the click-through rate, which is most applicable for cost-per-click campaigns, but is also valuable for comparing mobile with online.
Marketers should also look at page views when driving to a mobile landing page or site to measure consumer engagement. In addition, the number of pages viewed, video views, send-to-friend actions, wallpaper downloads and other actions should all be captured. Short codes or text campaigns that are promoted via other media can be used to measure the effectiveness of that medium. Click-to-download banners and click-to-store ads or landing pages can also enable direct measurement. Coupon redemptions can be measured in store.
Integrating with existing digital measurement tools is also critical. Quattro Wireless analytics, for example, are integrated through DoubleClick DFA, Microsoft Atlas and Omniture, among others, to provide a cross-channel picture of marketing efforts.
Marketers find mobile is often the most effective consumer activation channel, and by following these tips you can make the most of your mobile advertising investment.
The Takeaway
Mobile data can and should be integrated with information from other channels
Peter Johnson
VP, mkt. intelligence & strategy, Mobile Marketing Association
More and more, the universality and convenience of SMS is making it the channel of choice for measuring the success of all media, whether mobile or not. Notably, print, out-of-home and broadcast ads increasingly include a common short code and keyword call to action. For example, by using a unique keyword for each set of ads – such as “text MMA to 47201” for an ad in an article and “text MMA2 to 47201” in a show poster – MMA can compare total response and average response rates to determine which outlet better reaches its intended customers.
Beyond comparison lies conversion. Responses can be used to grow an opt-in mobile database. Its success should be measured in terms of the number of ‘subscribers’ who convert to repeat paying customers, at what cost of acquisition and, ultimately, with what lifetime value.
By contrast, on the mobile Web, more traditional branding goals and metrics can loom large. Evidence is growing that display advertising can be measured as much by impressions and brand awareness as by click-through rates. In fact, the lack of clutter on the mobile handset means static ads can surpass comparable ads on the wired Web when measured by metrics like ad recall.
Mobile is not one channel, but many. Each mobile channel is measurable via its own portfolio of metrics. While SMS, mobile web, and branded apps are the most ubiquitous, MMS, e-mail, voice, Bluetooth, near-field communications (a wireless connectivity technology) and quick response bar codes each have powerful elements that can be measured, tracked and analyzed.
What’s more, these mobile channels provide new opportunities to measure the effectiveness of other media, such as print, outdoor or broadcast, no matter when, where or how consumer exposure occurs. Mobile represents a powerful marketing combination, any way you measure it.
The Takeaway
Marketers should segment and measure based on campaign goals and channel
Brian Field
VP of subscriber experience and integration, MyScreen Mobile
Savvy marketers are taking advantage of new mobile advertising platforms that combine opt-in programs with advanced mobile technologies to deliver unprecedented consumer intelligence and more precise campaign measurement. Mobile customers are opting in for ads on their phones and to access rewards, special offers and discounts. In doing so, they pre-qualify themselves with a wide array of demographic and psychographic variables. To provide advertisers with additional benefits, the advanced platforms can further define the subscribers’ profiles by using methods such as polling or tracking responses by content categories.
New mobile advertising solutions target these opt-in subscribers with full-screen, rich media ads that are delivered after every call. Every ad contains a strong call to action, creating immediate brand interaction and engagement between the advertisers and consumers that can be fully measured.
Both SMS and Internet banner ads are quantifiable; however, their metrics are limited to their delivery vehicle. For example, with SMS, the number of messages delivered and click-throughs can be quantified. However, the latest mobile platforms can track metrics such as length of time that the consumer viewed the ad, number of visitors to the Web, phone calls generated, forwards to friends, coupons clipped, and brand recognition through a “rate this ad” feature.
In addition, much like Internet ad-serving platforms, new mobile platforms enable advertisers to build more effective mobile campaigns by setting frequency caps and controlling the number of times ads are delivered during a specific period. Based on response rates, more sophisticated platforms optimize the delivery of these ads, displaying ads with greater response rates more frequently. In turn, click-through rates increase, advertisers generate greater engagement and consumers receive more relevant ads.
These new mobile advertising platforms — by combining opt-in targeting with sophisticated delivery and measurement tools — are akin to mobile direct response channels. Advertisers can gain tremendous consumer intelligence regarding consumer behavior and buying patterns in the mobile world.
The Takeaway
Mobile provides a depth of data about customers who have opted in
Jeff Hasen
CMO, HipCricket
In two decades as a marketer, I’ve seen many successful campaigns and many that fell short. One of the biggest frustrations is not knowing what worked and what didn’t until it is too late. That is what makes mobile marketing so attractive: the ability to measure campaigns in real time and make course corrections on the fly.
If you place a billboard on the highway, how do you know who sees it? You can never really know; you just hope it gets enough eyeballs. Mobile marketing takes the opposite approach, with highly targeted campaigns that can be continually optimized.
Audience segmentation lets marketers segment by age, gender and location. Behavioral targeting lets mobile marketers aggregate information, such as response to certain offers. That helps to determine a customer’s interest in other products and services.
Mobile coupons and gift cards can be delivered via SMS and integrated with the retailer’s existing point-of-sale promotions. These solutions represent the ultimate measurement tool, as they allow marketers to track the offer through to the purchase stage.
Mobile marketing measurement tools have the ability to break down individual campaigns by month, week, day, hour and even quarter hour, helping to give us a precise picture of when and where your message is viewed.
In addition, mobile campaigns can also help measure traditional marketing initiatives. Adding SMS shortcodes to TV, radio and billboard advertisements adds an aspect of traceability and can bring the benefits of mobile to traditional ad buys. That ultimately provides marketers with a valuable opt-in database for future marketing.
The Takeaway
Mobile marketing enables precision targeting and granular interaction tracking
