If you keep up with digital marketing trends, you are probably familiar with the current conundrum facing marketers: there is a disparity between the great potential for mobile advertisements and the people who have been able to effectively leverage them for their business. There are a number of contributing factors, but ultimately they all deal with the limiting factors that traditional businesses and advertisers face when placing their ads on a mobile device. That being said, we are also aware of the fact that mobile experiences which build upon other mobile specific features get quite a bit of traction.
A mobile app serves as a uniquely branded ecosystem that a customer can access from his or her home screen. Once someone actually downloads your app they become exponentially more valuable. Therefore, it is worthwhile to spend a few marketing dollars to drive potential customers to your app. The good news is, while some mobile ads can be difficult to configure, it is easy to test the waters and drive customers to your app.
There are a number of fantastic articles that can get you started in mobile advertising. For a first timer I recommend you start with this one from Entrepreneur. It’s a quick read, but to sum it up the article states that, when getting started, you should focus on creating mobile-specific landing pages and also piggyback on existing ad networks with mobile options, such as Google Adwords. We’ll also recommend Facebook ads, which are not native specific but DO show up only for Facebook users on mobile devices.
As far as the mobile specific landing page goes, its best to keep it simple. A picture of your app on several devices, four or five bullet points describing the functionality, and an icon that will allow customers to click and immediately start their app downloads (as an aside, Apptive provides you with these icons so you can easily enable customer downloads). This is more powerful than it may at first seem, since users who visit landing pages for your app on a desktop or see a physical advertisement will first have to search the app store for your app.
Mobile ads and mobile apps are both fresh marketing tools that have only been around for a few years. As time goes on people will begin to harness their power with the same acuity they have shown towards traditional methods. Fortunately the two can be used in concert right now to provide immediate benefit to your business!