Data and context will usher in the future of Mobile advertising, say experts
Today, India is considered as the largest market in Asia Pacific in terms of smartphone users with around 41 per cent of Indian users consuming content on mobile. According to a report, India has 76 per cent Android users, followed by 8 per cent Apple users, 3 per cent Windows phone users and 13 per cent users who use other smartphones.
This swelling number of smartphone users has given a fillip to India’s online advertising market, which is expected to grow at a rate of 30 per cent year-on-year. The FICCI-KPMG 2015 Report revealed that digital advertisement spends in 2014 witnessed 45 per cent growth, which was around Rs 43.5 billion as compared to Rs 30.1 billion in 2013. In-app advertisement captured 40 per cent market share; mobile web advertisements grabbed 25 per cent and movie video, TV, SMS, MMS advertisements at 35 per cent.
Experts view
Speaking at MobileSparks 2015, Amit Sharma, Managing Director, Affle AppStudioz observed,
Mobile and tablets have gone far ahead of desktops in terms of user adoptions. This has led many e-commerce companies turn into m-commerce entities. For example, Myntra and Flipkart have moved to only apps and they are focusing on building mobile-only strategy.
Amit pointed out the growing number of startups that are into app development. He said that before developing any app, it is very crucial to interact with customers and do lots of research analytics which will help startups save significant amounts of marketing expenses.
Dev Ramnane, Head - Business Development for India, SE Asia and Middle East, InMobi said that companies that have thorough understanding of their users can add value to the entire experience and make mobile advertising user friendly. He said,
At InMobi, we process five billion ad requests on a daily basis and that is the amount of data we currently have. Through this, we come to know the user’s location, the kind of advertisements he is speaking about and what the context of the application they are featured on is. All of these data signals give us a clear understanding about the users.
Importance of feedback
Raja Hussain, Founder & CEO, Airloyal mentioned that an app developer in the early stage does not require lot of users, but only feedback from consumers. He cited an example of an Australian company which built an app called Zipp. It works only on 2G. So it sought feedback from across India by launching it on Google Play. Zipp has been installed by 10,000 users from across India.
However, Kumar Samanvaya Misra, Sales Director - India, PocketMath stated that installation number is not enough; one needs to have proper understanding of consumer behaviour on the platform to achieve the desired goal.
He said, "Creativity always plays a critical role. Before getting some action, one should look at the innovative methodology to engage the audience. We are moving towards a mobile-only world opening up avenues that traditional means of advertising did not have. So, a whole breed of creators has lots to give to its audiences."
How to measure the performance of advertising?
Shiju Mathew, Head Product Management – Mobile, Vizury said that lot of innovation has happened in the measurement of the mobile advertising space. They have third party independent companies which figure out which partner is working well. The third party companies validate the data, measure the performance and give reports to the advertisers, while advertisers, too, can have an idea of how campaigns are working out for them. "One should be well aware of the metrics and measurement mechanisms at the beginning of the campaigns to evaluate performance," he added.