What are the recent developments and trends in mobile advertising?

Needless to say that mobile video consumption is flourishing rapidly and that too in-app as compared to the mobile web in the past. This is catching marketers’ attention in a mobile-centric world where their core focus is on generating higher Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

Tremendous in-app video consumption on mobile devices, non-intrusive ad user experience, precise targeting with adherence to highest quality media metrics is few of the reasons making marketers think of only one solution and that is – Programmatic approach in Mobile Video Advertising.

It can be observed that concerns over the quality of inventory and sophisticated audience data targeting, combined with unpleasant display ad formats had generally kept advertisers a bit apprehensive about the Programmatic approach in Mobile video advertising, however, now advertisers are beginning to see the returns in terms of engagement, conversions and awareness – massive scale, precise granular targeting, real-time optimization and highly engaged audiences across every coordinates imaginable.

Let’s take a closer look at certain factors and see why Programmatic Mobile Video Advertising is turning out to be the best choice for them.

In-app mobile video consumption rise

The shift is already there. Forrester’s forecast highlights that 78% of all mobile video advertising spend will be in-app this year. And the reasons are obvious –

• Splendid growth in in-app time spend
• Better user engagement due to effective in-app ad formats
• Opportunity to explore users’ location data to effectively geo-target them
• As compared to mobile web ads which rely on cookies, in-app SDKs collect device identifiers to track and target users, and to measure impressions, conversions and other important real-time data

Immense focus on user experience

Gone are the days when users used to react positively to banner ads. Even with mobile video, users prefer ads that are not spoiling their experience at all. Some of the ad formats that are catching marketers’ attention are – Full-Screen Video, Native, and Rewarded video ads.

• Full-screen video ad format is the most popular ad size among the marketers because they get the undivided attention of the user with a full-screen ad and additional branding in the end card
• Native video ads don’t “feel” like advertisements and hence offer a seamless experience
• Rewarded video ads are less intrusive and offer higher video completion rates because users opt-in to watch the ad in return for in-app rewards

Precise targeting with highest quality standards

• Marketers want to be sure that their ads appear only on high-quality media properties. In-App SDKs offer detailed targeting media options that outperform tag based audience targeting mechanisms. Additionally, marketers want more control over their audience data. Hence, they want to buy through transaction models where they can put some safeguards over the inventory they purchase. The most appropriate solution they are finding is – Private Marketplaces (PMPs)