Should I be advertising on mobile phones?

I guess it’s fair to say that mobile advertising is still in its infancy, but it’s growing fast and definitely something to keep your eye on.

Let’s look at some stats before we make a decision whether to set sail.

Wikipedia notes that there are currently three billion handsets globally – and they out-number computers by more than four to one.

It states: “In Spain 75% of mobile phone owners receive ads, in France 62% and in Japan 54%. More remarkably as mobile advertising matures, like in the most advanced markets, the user involvement also matures. In Japan today, already 44% of mobile phone owners click on ads they receive on their phones”.

So it’s looking promising.

There are effectively three ways to advertise on mobile phones:
1. Standard top and bottom banners,
2. SMS (which currently makes up an estimated 90% of revenue) and;
3. MMS – which is effectively embedding ads in games and apps. Video is appearing more and more as phone technology improves.

In our neck of the woods we’ve been looking at and reporting to our clients the iPhone usage trends in the monthly reports we send them. The growth in visitation from mobile devices has been remarkable across all clients, from corporate to eCommerce.

Google has been offering mobile ads through the Google AdWords interface which I wrote about last year but it’s clunky at best.

Probably in response to the lack of use by the AdWords mobile ads system, Google snapped up AdMob (for $750 million – which they found in the petty cash tin next to reception).

AdMob is one of the world’s largest mobile advertising providers and it will give the search giant more reach (just like DoubleClick has provided with banner display advertising).

Presumably, this will allow you to place mobile ads into mobile phone apps and mobile websites through the Google AdWords interface. As soon as it happens, I can tell you now, we’ll be the first to start experimenting with this ‘new’ advertising medium. We’ll probably make a few mistakes here and there, but that’s how you learn.

It seems mobile advertising is working well for big business but will it work okay for SME’s?

Again, I think the deal done by Google and AdMob will allow SMEs access to mobile advertising and really start to drive already explosive growth in the medium to the next level.

Given that most of us have our phones on 24 hours per day, and most phones have internet access I’d say ‘yes’, now’s the time to be advertising on mobile devices and as is always the case online, keep an eye on your ROI.

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Trent Leyshan is the founder and CEO of BOOM Sales! a leading sales training and sales development specialist. He is also the creator of The NAKED Salesman, BOOMOLOGY! RetroService, and the Empathy Selling Process.