With about 2 billion mobile devices in use around the world already and a continuous increase in the daily time being spent on mobile phones, any ad executive will give you the same sage advice – don’t underestimate mobile advertising.

But despite spending thousands of dollars each year on hiring top ad executives to produce several mobile advertising campaigns each year, most companies fail to see any improvement in sales or brand recognition. Most such failures can be traced back to one of these 5 most common mobile advertising mistakes to avoid.

Ignoring Your Target Audience

You just spent a lot of money producing an ad campaign that speaks directly to your target audience. But then, you just go ahead and purchase inventory from publishers without knowing that the audience being targeted is according to your need.

You need to tweak this approach by using a Data Management Platform to narrow down the audience as per your need. If you keep avoiding this crucial step, any successful campaign would only be a result of chance, not design.

Sticking With Desktop Banners

Many companies have reformatted their websites in the recent times to make them highly responsive for mobile viewing but have completely ignored the advertising aspect in all of this. It is not uncommon to see ad banners designed for the desktop even when opening the website from a mobile device.

A mistake like that undermines the importance of UX and not only minimizes the efficacy of the ad, but in fact can have a negative effect on the brand’s image. Direct your advertising team to make all banner ads responsive in a way that they can adjust themselves depending on the size of the screen.

Don’t Forget the App!

86% of the time spent by people on mobile devices is spent exclusively on apps. This means companies allocating the major chunk of their mobile advertising budget on websites are constantly losing out. Don’t make the same mistake and ask your ad executives to identify ways to reach your target audience effectively through apps.

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One of the biggest advantages of in-app advertising is location based targeting. You can make use of a specialist Demand Side Platform (DSP) to determine the location of a mobile user and then offer real time offers or services that are relevant to the user’s location.

Repeat After Me: UX is Key

The way ads are presented is as important as the ad itself. Unfortunately, most advertising comes off as intrusive because enough care is not taken to not hamper the user’s mobile experience. This is also the reason for the huge rise in use of ad blockers.

One of the most common complaints users have reported is the ‘unintentional’ clicking of ads that diverts them to a different page with completely irrelevant information that only gets them annoyed. One smart way to tackle this is to identify non-intrusive formats of advertising on mobile such as in-feed ads or native ads.

Track Performance

Publishing one ad campaign after another without actually tracking the progress of previous campaigns is one very common mistake to avoid. Many companies only track the number of clicks on an advertisement to judge its performance. However, this parameter is seldom an accurate indicator of an ad’s success or failure.

Real-time performance tracking by using powerful tools like DSPs is certainly the need of the hour. To obtain a clear picture of the success or failure of any campaign, it is also highly advisable to compare the rates of conversion before and after that campaign, and to keep a close eye on the brand perception as well.

About the Author: Eve Watson is an online marketing manager for Global TrafficJet.com

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