With consumers increasingly turning to multiple screens for research and buying while at home, in-store and on the go, retailers are doubling down on mobile advertising to reach them throughout the purchase process, according to reports.
EMarketer's "Digital Ad Spending Benchmarks by Industry" report estimates $6.65 billion will be spent by retailer to reach consumers on mobile devices this year, representing 23.2 percent of the total $28.72 billion all industries are expected to spend.
The research firm stated that with a vast majority of retail sales still occurring in-store (7.2 percent of U.S. retail sales are expected to come via e-commerce in 2015), "omnichannel efforts are often bolstered by mobile ad spending directed at driving visits."
Emarketer has estimated that about three-quarters of all digital advertising will be mobile by 2019.
In a similar bullish report around smartphone's reach, Juniper Research's "Digital Advertising: Online, Mobile & Wearables 2015-2019" predicted annual global advertising spend on mobile devices will reach $105 billion by 2019, up from about $51 billion this year.
Source: www.emarketer.com
"The research suggests that this increase in advertising spend is in large part attributable to an attitude shift among brands and retailers who now use mobile as a core channel for consumer engagement," wrote Juniper in the report. "It argues that the ability of smartphones to deliver targeted, personalized and timely advertising — allied to the media-stacking trends amongst consumers — means that mobile advertising offers both high visibility and high response rates."
A Wall Street Journal article that came out last week noted that some advertisers are boosting their spending on mobile ads because Google, tapping store-perimeter geofences, is better linking store visits to clicks on mobile search ads.
The article noted that one-third of Target's mobile search ads led to store visits during the 2014 holiday season. Kristi Argyilan, a Target senior vice president, told the Journal, "We know from Google's store-measurement data that our mobile-search ads greatly influence in-store sales."
Facebook, the other dominant player in mobile ads, is also developing mobile/in-store metrics. Mobile search ads still cost half the price of desktop ads.
- US Digital Ad Spending Will Approach $60 Billion This Year, with Retailers Leading the Way - eMarketer
- Mobile Advertising Spend To Reach $105bn Globally By 2019, Accounting For 44% Of Total Digital Ad Spend - Juniper Research
- Google Says New Store Data Help Mobile Ads - The Wall Street Journal (sub. required)