Why SMS Marketing Can Be More Effective Than Mobile Banner Advertising

A recent eMarketer article on the effectiveness of mobile banner advertising reports the main reason people don’t click is because they aren’t interested in the offer. In fact, only 24% of those surveyed say they clicked on a mobile banner on a website in the last three months. The number of people clicking on in-app banners is even lower at 19%.

Personally, I think the only time I’ve clicked on an in-app banner is by mistake. Sometimes they just get in the way of what you want to do in the app. Sometimes your finger slips. I honestly do my best not to look at the ads at all. And I’m not alone. The article also reports 20% of people don’t even look at the ads in apps.

Mobile website banners can be different because we’re used to them. After all, most of us have been surfing the web long before the mobile revolution. Banner advertising has been around since the beginning (almost). Apps are a different beast though, they are purpose built to DO something. Ads just become an obstacle to what we want to do in the app, rather than simply advertising.

The second most reported reason people don’t click on mobile banner ads is because the ad content has irrelevant offers. For example, I am forever getting ads about cat food or kitty litter. I love cats, but I’m also extremely allergic. Cat products are not only irrelevant, but annoying since I can’t have one. On occasion, I may see a banner or video ad that offers the ability to “chose” my ads. We’ll, no ad is my choice. I don’t get that option though and instead I almost always have to choose between cats, insurance, or financial ads.

What’s the take away? Mobile marketing needs to be relevant and interesting in order to get people to respond.

The value of SMS messaging is that once you have the opt in, you know the people are interested in what you have to offer. The trick then, becomes making sure the offers are relevant.

Make sure the messages you send are targeted to the topics the person signed up for. If you start a new campaign on a different topic, offer them the chance to opt in via a reply text. Don’t send a blast to everyone assuming they’ll want to know. For example, assume someone opted in to receive text alerts for concerts at your event location. But you’ve lined up a circus and sports entertainment. Should you send them a message about those events? Not unless they say they want to hear about them. Otherwise you’ll just annoy them with irrelevant offers. Send them a text instead asking if they want to know about the different types of events. You’ll have less opt outs and a higher ROI overall knowing they want what you’ve sent.