Mobile Advertising Is Farther Along than You Think

Steve Ahlberg – Vice President of Revenue and Product Management / Gannett

Mobile advertising can be an effective channel when done well, but similar to other channels, there are a few misconceptions. Steve Ahlberg, vice president of revenue and product management at US media conglomerate Gannett, spoke with eMarketer’s Rimma Kats about the top misconceptions of mobile advertising and where marketers and agencies are at in overcoming them.

eMarketer: What are the top misconceptions that marketers have with mobile advertising?

Steve Ahlberg: The biggest misconception is that you can’t do anything interesting in the space, and that’s been a product of the small standardized units. Marketers are now going with larger size canvases that have full site interactions happen within them.

Additionally, agencies are starting to understand the possibilities within the mobile advertising space, but they’re not quite there yet.

eMarketer: Specifically looking at mobile search vs. mobile display, do these misconceptions vary?

Ahlberg: The biggest thing has been accountability. Has someone clicked on my ad because they wanted to vs. they just fat-fingered something and ended up clicking on it accidentally?

“Agencies are starting to understand the possibilities within the mobile advertising space, but they’re not quite there yet.”

There have also been a tremendous amount of nefarious players in the mobile marketing space. Premium publishers are bringing some of their best branding positions that they had online to the mobile space and are differentiating themselves from the masses.

eMarketer: What advancements from last year will have a positive effect on mobile advertising in 2015?

Ahlberg: Viewability and accountability metrics are the biggest ones. Was my ad viewable? Did people engage with it? Those are the next-generation metrics that weren’t there on mobile 12 to 18 months ago.

Mobile has quickly caught up and advertisers can now say, “I only buy viewable impressions. I only want to buy impressions that are going to be engaged with as opposed to having impressions that are below the fold or are never seen.”

eMarketer: How important is viewability in mobile advertising?

Ahlberg: It’s coming; it’s not there yet. There’s a large unnamed agency that worked with Condé Nast that said, “We’re only going to pay for 100% viewable impressions.” That’s not really realistic in the web world yet, but agencies and advertisers are now saying enough is enough, let’s clean up this oversupply.

You want to make sure that what you’re buying is not only going to be seen, but also engaged with. Mobile is probably 12 to 18 months behind where the web is right now from a viewability perspective.

eMarketer: Where does the industry stand on establishing standards for mobile ad viewability?

Courtesy of eMarketer