Dive Brief:
- Retale, a location-based mobile platform, conducted research on mobile banner ads and found 60% of clicks are actually mistakes due to small screen size and fingers slipping on the screen.
- Even though 69% of respondents reported clicking on a mobile banner ad at least once, only 16% clicked on ads because they liked the company and 13% because the ad was interesting.
- Target is sticking with mobile banner ads, Mobile Marketer reports, with a new campaign that adds features such as tap-to-buy products in the ads in order to drive engagement and make the format more exciting.
Dive Insight:
One result of the large number of mistaken mobile banner ad clicks is it creates negative feeling in the user. Survey respondents were given a list of 10 positive and negative emotions to describe how they felt after accidentally clicking on a mobile banner ad and the top three chosen were all negative – 68% said annoyed, 45% said frustrated, and 22% reported angry.
“Mobile display spend will hit $18 billion this year,” Pat Dermody, president of Retale, said to Mobile Advertising Watch. “Given the investment and with the majority of mobile banner clicks done accidentally, brands, marketers and agencies should reconsider their mobile strategies. Keep in mind, mobile display campaigns may suffer, not just from accidental clicks, but from viewability and fraud. To counteract these challenges and reach mobile users, other approaches need to be part of the mobile marketing mix.”
Mobile banner ads are facing competition in video and native ad formats as popular mobile advertising options. However, some brands, like Target, continue buying banner ads because the format is inexpensive and familiar to marketers who have long-run banner ad campaigns on the desktop.
