Mobile ads are still to earn favor among users. Most users are not thrilled about receiving ads on something as personal as a mobile phone. However, by ensuring that the mobile ads are in the format preferred by consumers, marketers can, to some extent, avoid alienating potential customers.
A survey was recently conducted by Yahoo! and the Nielsen Company to find out the qualities most preferred by consumers in mobile ads. The survey collected information from US mobile internet users about the features they consider to be most important in mobile ads for different categories like personal care, apparel, home, food and beverages, automobiles, travel, technology, health, entertainment, mobile digital, dining and financial. In all the categories, the ad being informative was given highest importance by respondents. Relevance was the second most important quality desired by consumers in mobile ads. Surprisingly, users gave least importance to graphical and multimedia elements of ads. This is in contrast with the preferences of iPad users who gave high importance to these elements of ads.
Ipsos Observer conducted a survey for Advertising Age to find out percentages of internet users liking and disliking ads in different advertising media. Most internet users preferred ads in magazines and newspapers with 41 percent people liking them while mobile ads were least preferred with only 15 percent users liking them and 63% disliking them. According to the findings of InsightExpress, heavy mobile users found full page ads annoying but the response was more favorable for mobile banners.
Keeping mobile ads informative and relevant will be the best strategy for marketers interested in mobile internet marketing.