eMarketer Roundup: Optimizing Mobile Advertising

April 2016
This year, in the US, advertisers will spend $28.72 billion to reach their targets
on mobile devices, eMarketer estimates. But—as is common with so many
digital advertising channels that offer the promise of measurability and ever-
increasing efficacy—performance measurement is still a challenge. eMarketer
has curated a Roundup of articles, trends and insights to help marketers
understand the current state of mobile advertising.
EMARKETER ROUNDUP:
OPTIMIZING MOBILE ADVERTISING
presented by

eMarketer Roundup: Optimizing Mobile Advertising Copyright ©2016 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved. 2
EMARKETER ROUNDUP: OPTIMIZING MOBILE ADVERTISING
Overview
In 2015, in the US, advertisers will have spent
$31.59 billion to reach their targets on mobile
devices, eMarketer estimates, an increase of
65.0% over 2014 spending levels. This year,
in the US, advertisers will spend $28.72 billion to
reach their targets on mobile devices, eMarketer
estimates, an increase of 50.0% over 2014
spending levels. But—as is common with so
many digital advertising channels that offer the
promise of measurability and ever-increasing
efficacy—performance measurement is still
a challenge.
An April 2015 Millward Brown Digital survey asked US
marketers about which media channels they would
increase spending in if they could track return on
investment (ROI) better. Nearly eight in 10 said mobile, more
than any other choice, including traditional media, typically
considered less measurable than digital.
Respondents to a March 2015 Signal survey were
significantly less likely to say they could collect and
integrate data from mobile with other digital channels.
Worldwide, 66% of marketers said they could do this with
mobile web data—far below the 88% who said the same of
web data or the 76% who said the same of email—and an
even smaller 37% agreed when it came to mobile app data.
Of course, that doesn’t mean marketers aren’t measuring
on mobile—or trying to calculate ROI. Among agencies
surveyed worldwide by Econsultancy in February 2015,
38% said mobile marketing had excellent or good ROI;
35% of client-side marketers said the same. In January,
US marketers polled by the Direct Marketing Association
and Demand Metric reported a median 12% to 14% ROI
for mobile.
Mobile marketers report using a variety of metrics to track
their efforts. Client-side marketers worldwide surveyed by
Econsultancy in March about mobile app success most
commonly reported using number of downloads (76%),
followed by recurrent usage (48%), time spent (41%) and
% of respondents
Metrics Used to Measure the Effectiveness of Mobile
Native Advertising According to Marketers
Worldwide, 2015
Clickthrough rate (CTR) 56%
Engagement rate 51%
Conversion rate 45%
Cost per conversion 40%
Number of interactions 33%
Brand lift 26%
Number of shares 25%
Brand recall 22%
Dwell time 19%
Message association18%
Note: n=209 who understand mobile native and use in campaigns or know
how to but have yet to do so
Source: InMobi, "Marketer and Publisher Perceptions: Native Advertising on
Mobile," April 6, 2015
187885 www.eMarketer.com
% of respondents
Metrics Used to Measure Mobile App Success
According to Client-Side Marketers Worldwide,
March 2015
Number of downloads
76%
Recurrent usage
48%
Time spent
41%
Revenues/leads generated
40%
Conversion rate
38%
Custom metrics (e.g., social shares)
22%
External metrics (e.g., reduced cost in customer service due to
fewer phone calls)
16%
None of the above
7%
Note: n=526
Source: Econsultancy, "Quarterly Digital Intelligence Brieﬁng: The Quest for
Mobile Excellence" in association with Adobe, April 29, 2015

revenues or leads generated (40%). 2015 research by
InMobi about how marketers measured mobile native
ad effectiveness found an emphasis on clickthrough
rates (56% of respondents worldwide), engagement rate
(51%), conversion rate (45%) and cost per conversion
(40%). Among business-to-business marketers surveyed
worldwide by Regalix in May, 79% tracked web traffic, 71%
social media sharing, and 64% clickthrough rates on their
mobile marketing efforts. And according to comScore, last
year brand lift metrics for mobile ads ranged from a low
of 2.5% lift in aided awareness to a high of 4.3% lift in both
likelihood to recommend and purchase intent.
Despite all this, and despite the fact that most client-
side marketers surveyed by Econsultancy in March said
they knew what share of their traffic was coming from
mobile, and what types of devices their customers were
using, being able to track customers across devices and
understanding the differences between smartphone and
tablet behaviors were lacking.
Many metrics across a range of mobile marketing types
suggest that the ROI is there. Adobe Digital Index reported
that in Q1 2015, there were more digital video ad starts per
video start worldwide on tablets (2.8) and smartphones
(2.4) than on the desktop (2.0). Similarly, FreeWheel
reported that pre-roll video ads in the US were more likely
to be viewed to completion on tablets and smartphones
than on the desktop (though mid-roll ads performed slightly
worse on smartphones).
Viewability measurement on mobile has some issues, but
according to Sizmek, again for Q1 2015, while Flash display
ads worldwide were more viewable on the desktop, HTML5
display ads were more viewable on mobile.
When it comes to email, despite consumers’ high
propensity to check their email on mobile devices,
clicking—and converting—is another question. While
Yesmail reported Q1 2015 click-to-open rates in the US
were higher on mobile than the desktop for the insurance,
consumer services and technology industries, for example,
all other verticals had the opposite experience.
among ads served by FreeWheel
Completion Rate for US Digital Pre-Roll and Mid-Roll
Video Ads, by Device, Q1 2015
Tablet
79%
94%
Smartphone
77%
93%
Desktop
72%
94%
Pre-roll Mid-roll
Note: represents activity on FreeWheel's platform, broader industry
metrics may vary
Source: FreeWheel, "Video Monetization Report: Q1 2015," May 20, 2015

Marketers Face Mobile Advertising Challenges
Smartphones are hard to monetize
Mobile accounted for more than half of digital ad
spending in 2015, and marketers continue to see
increased value in mobile advertising. While there
are benefits, there are challenges too, according
to Q3 2015 research.
According to AdRoll, 41% of US marketers said the lack of
attribution transparency was one of the biggest challenges
of mobile advertising. Additionally, more than a third of
respondents said that users or consumers not converting
on mobile is another challenge.
Lack of analytics tools and the inability to connect
mobile and desktop users were also some of the biggest
challenges of mobile advertising, according to marketers.
Mobile devices—smartphones in particular—are not the
easiest screens to monetize. In fact, the smallest screen
is the one that cause the most trouble, according to
September 2015 research from AdMonsters.
Two-thirds of US publishing professionals said that
smartphones caused the most monetization trouble.
Tablets and over-the-top (OTT) and TV screens also caused
issues for a fair number of respondents, but were not as
much of an inconvenience as smartphones were.
% of respondents
Biggest Challenges of Mobile Advertising According
to US Marketers, Q3 2015
Lack of attribution transparency
41%
Users/consumers don't convert on mobile
37%
Lack of analytics tools
24%
Inability to connect mobile and desktop users
15%
Inability to integrate mobile into other digital campaigns
9%
Other
1%
Source: AdRoll, "State of the Industry: A Close Look at Retargeting,
Programmatic Advertising, and Performance Marketing: United States
2016" conducted by Qualtrics, Jan 21, 2016
% of respondents
Type of Screen that Causes the Most Monetization
Trouble According to US Publishing Professionals*,
Sep 2015
Smartphone
66.7%
Tablet
14.5%
OTT/TV
13.0%
Desktop
5.8%
Note: n=138; *focused on publisher ad operations on a daily basis
Source: AdMonsters, "State of Ad Ops 2015" sponsored by Sizmek, Nov 16,
2015

Native Mobile Video Lifts Upper- and Lower-Funnel Metrics
In-feed mobile video ads lift recall, purchase intent
Mobile video is a fast-growing ad format, and
many brands are rushing specifically to create
video ads for native mobile environments like
Facebook or Instagram feeds. Research suggests
that viewing such ads improves a variety of
metrics, from recall to purchase internet.
In a study conducted by Opera Mediaworks and comScore,
a group of US mobile users was shown a mobile native
video ad—the kind of ad created specifically for a mobile
feed environment.
Advertisers hope to develop creative that’s a “thumb-
stopper,” convincing people to stop scrolling long enough
to let the sound and motion begin. After viewing such
an ad, the mobile users took a survey about the relevant
brand or product.
When compared to a control group that hadn’t seen the
ad, the mobile users who watched a mobile native video
ad were 5 percentage points more likely to want to buy the
product. The ads produced a 4-point boost in favorability, a
7-point increase in likelihood to recommend, and a 6-point
increase in mobile ad recall.
Video ads on Facebook have proved popular with
marketers, and not only on mobile.
eMarketer estimates that US advertisers will spend $2.78
billion this year on mobile video ads on all platforms. US
spending on mobile video ads will more than double
by 2019.
% of respondents
Performance Metrics for Mobile Native Video Ads
Among US Mobile Users, June 2015
Ad uniqueness
61%
52%
Aided awareness
52%
52%
Favorability
47%
43%
Likelihood to recommend
43%
38%
Purchase intent
30%
25%
Mobile ad recall
30%
24%
Test (viewed ad) Control (did not view ad)
Source: Opera Mediaworks and comScore Inc., "The Impact of Native
Mobile Video Advertising on Brand Metrics," Sep 10, 2015

Mobile Coupons Effective Way to Link Mobile Ad to In-Store Purchase
In-store beacons also help
While mobile advertising can be an effective way
for companies to reach consumers, being able to
actually link a mobile ad to an in-store purchase
is important. An October 2015 survey found that
mobile coupons can help.
According to research by Marchex and Digiday, almost
two-thirds of US marketers said mobile coupons were the
most effective method for attributing in-store purchases to
mobile ads.
Indeed, mobile coupons are valuable. In 2015, 40.5% of
US companies with more than a hundred employees will
use mobile coupons for marketing purposes, eMarketer
estimates. By 2017, that number will grow by 7.5
percentage points.
Furthermore, eight in 10 US adult mobile coupon users will
redeem a coupon or code via their mobile device for online
or offline shopping in 2015. And, in 2017, more than nine in
10 adults will do so.
Like mobile coupons, in-store beacons—which retailers are
beginning to use more of—are another effective method for
attributing in-store purchases to mobile ads, Marchex and
Digiday found. In fact, 22.7% of US marketers indicated so,
even though beacons are still in relatively limited use at retail.
Beacons also help influence in-store sales. A February
2015 forecast by BI Intelligence estimated that this year,
$4.1 billion in in-store retail sales among the top 100 US
retail locations would be influenced by beacon-triggered
messages. By 2016, that value will grow to $44.4 billion.
% of respondents
Most Effective Methods for Attributing In-Store
Purchases to Mobile Ads According to US Marketers,
Oct 2015
Mobile coupons
62.9%
Using mobile phone as in-store point of purchase
36.1%
SMS text offers
26.8%
Attribution vendor
25.8%
In-store beacons
22.7%
Promotions in shopping apps
22.7%
Other
3.1%
Source: Marchex and Digiday, "State of the Industry: How Mobile Is
Changing Marketing," Oct 27, 2015

Mobile Video Ads Drive Brand Awareness, Engagement
Digital video ad spending is growing
Mobile video advertising brings a lot of value to
marketers, primarily increasing brand awareness.
It also helps with lead generation and better
engagement, according to a December
2015 survey.
Trusted Media Brands (TMB) and Advertiser Perceptions
asked US media decision-makers to choose their top
three benefits of mobile video ads—whether or not they
currently use them.
Almost half of respondents (47%) said that increasing
brand awareness was one of their primary benefits and
a little over a third said that better engagement and
interaction was.
Additionally, nearly one-third of respondents
said that mobile video ads were suited to mobile
consumption behaviors.
That mobile video ads get higher clickthrough than
desktop-based ads and are less intrusive also appealed to
media decision-makers, but lower on the list.
Mobile video ad spending is growing faster than any
other digital advertising format in the US, according to
eMarketer estimates.
Spending on mobile video advertising will grow more than
70% to reach $2.62 billion in 2015—over one-third of the
estimated $7.77 billion to be spent on digital video ads. By
2019, eMarketer estimates, mobile’s share of total digital
video ad dollars will reach 47.7%.
% of respondents
Leading Beneﬁts of Mobile Video Ads According to US
Media Decision-Makers, Dec 2015
Increases brand awareness
47%
Better engagement/interaction
34%
Suited to mobile consumption behaviors
31%
Better user experience
29%
More authentic brand voice
23%
Better quality of those who engage/click through
21%
Lead generation
20%
Higher clickthrough than desktop
20%
Less intrusive
15%
None of the above
6%
Note: respondents chose their top 3; whether or not they currently use
mobile video ads
Source: Trusted Media Brands (TMB), "Can Video & Native Formats Rule
Mobile Advertising?" conducted by Advertiser Perceptions, Jan 6, 2016
billions and % change
US Digital Video Ad Spending, by Device, 2013-2019
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
18.3%
166.5%
32.2%
37.8%
113.0%
52.0%
20.6%
70.4%
33.8%
9.8%
50.2%
23.4%
9.0%
29.3%
17.3%
11.3%
17.1%
13.9%
9.6%
15.1%
12.1%
Desktop*
Mobile**
Total
Note: includes in-banner, in-stream and in-text; *includes advertising that
appears on desktop and laptop computers; **includes mobile phones and
tablets
Source: eMarketer, March 2015
$3.10
$0.72
$3.82
$4.27
$1.54
$5.81
$5.15
$2.62
$7.77
$5.65
$3.94
$9.59
$6.16
$5.09
$11.25
$6.86
$5.96
$12.82
$7.52
$6.86
$14.38

Mobile Programmatic Display Ad Spend to Eclipse Desktop as
Automation Grows
Moving past the experimental stage
Programmatic advertising, the use of technology
to automate the buying, selling or fulfillment of
ads, is becoming the standard for marketers
looking to simplify the media buying process.
The new eMarketer report, “Mobile Programmatic
Advertising: Grabbing the Vast Majority of US Display Ad
Dollars by 2017,” explores that while programmatic was
originally used to effectively buy desktop banners, the
process has naturally expanded to mobile. Moreover,
eMarketer forecasts US mobile programmatic ad spending
will reach $9.33 billion this year and account for 60.5% of
total US programmatic display ad spending.
Mobile might be newer to the programmatic game, but
marketers have high expectations for it. A February 2015
survey conducted by RBC Capital Markets and Advertising
Age found that the biggest portion of US marketers cited
mobile as the channel or format expected to have the most
opportunity for programmatic buying. And with many of
the other cited areas—such as social, video and native—
increasingly intertwined with mobile, such an opportunity is
only growing.
“A year ago, clients were only doing science experiments in
mobile programmatic,” said Craig Palli, chief strategy officer
at mobile marketing firm Fiksu. “They were checking ‘test
mobile’ off of their to-do list. This year, we’re seeing the
larger brands come in with millions of dollars, because they
now realize that if they’re not reaching their consumers on
mobile, they’re ripe for disruption for competitors.”
Facebook is playing a substantial role in mobile’s
programmatic growth. With Facebook considered a
largely programmatic platform and its US mobile revenues
expected to total $5.89 billion this year and reach $10.32
billion by 2017, its direct contribution to total US mobile
programmatic digital display ad spending will be significant.
However, eMarketer also anticipates that Facebook will
play a secondary role in fueling the growth of mobile
programmatic ad spending as both mobile web and app
publishers increasingly look to redesign their sites in the
style of Facebook’s popular in-feed units.
Another key aspect to mobile programmatic’s
advancement is video, which will exhibit swift growth over
the next 24 months, albeit starting from a small base of
just $1.14 billion, or 12.2% of total US mobile programmatic
display ad spending. By 2017, that number will reach $3.79
billion, but its share will still remain small, at 18.5%.
Though these numbers may seem extremely conservative
to the many who are bullish on mobile video growth, it’s
important to note that eMarketer’s definition of digital video
only includes in-stream video ads (pre-, mid- or post-roll)
and does not include many of the fast-growing a types
often lumped into the digital video ad category, such as
native video or in-feed video.
billions, % change and % of total programmatic digital display
ad spending
US Programmatic Digital Display Ad Spending,
by Device, 2014-2017
Mobile*
—% change
—% of total programmatic
digital display ad spending
Desktop/laptop
—% change
2014
$4.44
234.3%
43.0%
$5.89
73.3%
57.0%
2015
$9.33
110.2%
60.5%
$6.10
3.7%
39.5%
2016
$14.89
59.6%
69.1%
$6.66
9.2%
30.9%
2017
$20.45
37.3%
76.3%
$6.34
-4.9%
23.7%
Note: digital display ads transacted via an API, including everything from
publisher-erected APIs to more standardized RTB technology; includes
native ads and ads on social networks like Facebook and Twitter; *ad
spending on tablets is included
Source: eMarketer, Oct 2015

UK Marketers Switch on to Mobile Programmatic
Over half of mobile marketers already get programmatic
A recent study from the Internet Advertising
Bureau UK (IAB UK) indicated that 50% of
UK marketers use programmatic for buying
smartphone inventory. However, the research,
which was conducted in December 2015 by
Circle Research, also found that among those
that advertise on mobile, 44% didn’t have good
knowledge of the practice.
Another way of looking at those figures, though, would
be to concede that 66% of UK mobile marketers
professed to having either good or expert knowledge
about programmatic advertising on smartphones. If the
wider programmatic market is anything to go by, these
proportions are likely to be even more heavily weighted
toward those that are “clued in” to the programmatic
proposition in the coming years.
In eMarketer’s September 2015 report “UK Programmatic
Advertising Forecast: Automated Trading on Track to
Dominate Digital Display Ad Spending,” Steve Chester,
director of data industry programs at the IAB UK indicated
that the education phase for programmatic trading at large
had largely passed. “There’s a lot more confidence in the
market than there was say two or three years ago when
programmatic was really starting to take off in the UK,”
he said.
Mobile marketers were slightly later to the programmatic
party, but with mobile taking an ever-larger chunk of
programmatic ad spend, the education phase is likely
to accelerate quickly. eMarketer estimated that mobile
accounted for just 35.1% of programmatic digital display
ad spending in the UK in 2013. However, by 2016, that
proportion is forecast to reach 58.7%. Although UK mobile
marketers are relatively well-versed in trading smartphone
inventory programmatically, it’s apparent that more need to
get up to speed.
% of respondents
Level of Knowledge About Programmatic Advertising
on Smartphones According to UK Mobile Marketers,
Dec 2015
Expert
12%
Good knowledge
44%
Little knowledge
32%
No
knowledge
12%
Note: n=301 who advertise on smartphones
Source: Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK), "Mobile Advertiser
Snapshot Study 2015" conducted by Circle Research as cited in Marketing
Week, Jan 13, 2016
millions of £, % change and % of total programmatic digital
display ad spending
UK Programmatic Digital Display Ad Spending,
by Device, 2013-2016
Mobile*
—% change
Desktop/laptop
—% change
2013
£157.0
328.9%
35.1%
£289.9
155.8%
64.9%
2014
£538.0
242.7%
49.7%
£544.2
87.7%
50.3%
2015
£1,008.8
87.5%
56.1%
£790.2
45.2%
43.9%
2016
£1,445.6
43.3%
58.7%
£1,018.3
28.9%
41.3%
Note: digital display ads transacted via an API, including everything from
publisher-erected APIs to more standardized RTB technology; *ad spending
on tablets is included
Source: eMarketer, Sep 2015

New Data Will Help Advertisers Get More from Mobile Programmatic
Beth Gilmore
Head of Global Demand
MoPub
New and improved data that’s becoming
available this year will allow advertisers to better
target their most desirable audiences via mobile
programmatic, according to Beth Gilmore, head
of global demand for Twitter-owned mobile
ad server and exchange MoPub. eMarketer’s
Tricia Carr spoke with Gilmore, whose focus is
the mobile in-app inventories within MoPub’s
programmatic exchange, about what mobile
advertisers should focus on in 2016.
eMarketer: What opportunities in mobile in-app
advertising are important to marketers’ overall digital
advertising strategy?
Beth Gilmore: One is desired audiences and users
that are available in mobile. There is a misconception
that desirable users and inventories are only in labeled
premium content—for example, “I can only find Joe
Wall Street Banker on The Wall Street Journal.” But Joe
who reads The Wall Street Journal also plays games and
uses utility and entertainment apps. You can find your
desirable audience and users across all different types of
app verticals.
“You can find your desirable audience
and users across all different types of
app verticals.”
In mobile, data has been fragmented. Most brands just
know the cookie, and all of the buyers that they’ve worked
with give them user profiles or audiences based on the
cookie. But data is going to be the new term for mobile
programmatic this year. It’s going to be easier for brands to
target their desirable audiences on mobile because of the
advancement of data.
eMarketer: How will ad targeting improve this year?
Gilmore: Data is going to be huge this year. Publishers are
getting smarter about what they want to do with their data
and how they want to transact their data to advertisers,
especially in a programmatic setting. New data is going to
be available. It’s up to the exchanges and platforms that are
supplying this data to make sense of it so that it transacts
across channels.
eMarketer: What’s the level of interest in
location targeting?
Gilmore: Location has become the most desirable first-
party data that an advertiser can get from mobile. That’s
what makes mobile unique—you can find your user
wherever they are. Brands should know that they’ll have
to pay a premium for it as it becomes more desirable and
differentiates mobile against desktop, TV and all of the
other platforms.
“Location has become the most desirable
first-party data that an advertiser can get
from mobile.”
This year is also going to be all about verification with third-
party data providers—making sure that location is accurate
and standardizing what location looks like in mobile. It can
come through many different data points, like IP address
or DMA [designated market area], so marketers have to
standardize what it is that they’re looking for.
eMarketer: Is the added expense of buying ad
placements with location data worth it?
Gilmore: The expense is worth it if you’re a brand
advertiser that’s looking to focus on that user at that
location at that moment. Publishers are getting smarter
about the data that they’re dipping and what they want for
a premium.
Advertisers might not understand how cheap mobile is
right now—it’s much cheaper than desktop and there’s
still more supply than demand at this point. This is their

opportunity to get in and take advantage of location,
and mobile advertising in general, before it becomes
more expensive.
eMarketer: What metrics are most important when
measuring mobile programmatic?
Gilmore: Over the past few years, we’ve seen brand
advertisers in mobile not knowing what convergence they
wanted. All they focused on was pushing impressions.
Performance marketers were the complete opposite—they
just tried to drive that app install. They just tried to find the
lifetime value of the user and only target users that they
knew would spend money within the app.
Now we’re seeing a switch. Performance marketers think
of themselves more as brands. They have TV commercials,
they want to make sure that their ads are high-quality
and the view is just as important as the install. Brands are
trying to drive performance metrics like clicks, installs and
lifetime value.
It’s been interesting to see that transition, but you need all
of the above. You can’t just run campaigns that are going
to drive installs or views. Campaigns should have clear
metrics and run the gamut.
How Personal Capital Optimizes User Acquisition, Conversion
Across Channels
Mark Goines
CMO
Personal Capital
Mobile is vital for user acquisition and customer
engagement at Personal Capital, the creator
of digital wealth management tools where
users can aggregate their financial accounts,
determine their net worth and engage with
financial advisors. CMO Mark Goines spoke with
eMarketer’s Bryan Yeager about how the firm
uses marketing technology to optimize cross-
channel acquisition and conversion and how it’s
finding scale beyond digital channels.
eMarketer: How do you track the path from user
acquisition through customer conversion across various
channels and touchpoints?
Mark Goines: We have a robust implementation of
tracking against lead source. We originally used and still
largely rely on a last-click attribution model to a conversion
event. We have a dozen conversion events that we
monitor. We look to optimize against those conversion
events, and they’re different based on channel.
For example, an application install is a different conversion
event than a registration from that install that occurs on the
device. There’s also a different event that occurs when that
person downloads our app and then registers it, not on the
phone but on the web.
We have to be multichannel-capable in our tracking and
therefore align our tag management system in a way that
allows us to track that user through their journey—not
necessarily the journey that one specific vendor has in
mind for an install that becomes a registered item on the
phone. We use multiple technologies. We then integrate all
that data into a single view of the user’s journey and try to
do attribution from that.
We also use the multistage influence model. In other
words, we might talk to somebody seven or eight times
before they register. We want to track their journey to
those different touches through various integration to tag
management systems so that we can then say, “This is the
ninth time, and finally they registered with us. How did we
get them there?”

“We want to track their journey to those
different touches through various
integration to tag management systems
so that we can then say, ‘This is the ninth
time, and finally they registered with us.
How did we get them there?’”
eMarketer: What influence do the likes of Facebook,
Google and Twitter have on how your company approaches
marketing technology?
Goines: At the top of the funnel, they’re very influential
and frankly, they give us heartburn about being able
to do multichannel tracking. There are certain rules.
Facebook won’t let you put customized tags in URL listings.
Apple requires a generic landing page. They all have
their particular rulesets that ostensibly are focused on
protecting personally identifiable information. For us, that’s
a barrier to efficient multichannel marketing that we have
to solve for.
eMarketer: How do you overcome those challenges?
Goines: We continue to find new technologies, new
platforms and new permissions with those partners
that allow us to execute our multichannel marketing
strategy efficiently.
Facebook and Twitter are helpful in terms of where we can
do better audience targeting. Facebook, for example, gives
more insights into the profiles of users in a way that allows
us to create lookalike modeling based upon successes
we’ve had. That allows us to refine our targeting into their
customer base. Of course, they charge more for that. It’s
gotten more expensive to market on their platforms with
that improved targeting.
As a marketer, you look for the opportunities, the crevices,
the creases—the things somebody else hasn’t found.
Facebook and Google have bidding systems. You’re
competing with everybody else for the same insights
that you might get, so they tend to be fleeting. Improved
targeting turns into higher pricing. That’s fair, that’s their
business. We have to be smart about how we use it.
eMarketer: Is there a place for TV and other traditional
advertising methods in your media mix?
Goines: One of the challenging things about the direct
digital channel—particularly when we narrow our audience
targeting to identify highly qualified users—is that we
hit scale and there’s not much more capacity. We began
aggressive testing of direct mail and television. These are
scalable mediums if you can solve for the same audience-
targeting puzzle.
You have to be a certain scale of company to use those
efficiently, because you have to spend a lot of money doing
creative packages, buying lists, building the television
commercials—those are not low-cost endeavors. We’ve
reached a scale now where those are in the realm of
possibility for us.
eMarketer: How successful have these efforts been?
Since we began experimenting, we’ve seen positive results
directly from them. They’ve also had a positive effect on
our other channels—this cross-channel impact that occurs
when you start building brands, if you will.
Even though we focus on a direct-response model, we ask
people to come and visit our site and register. We measure
the effectiveness of each of those programs by the amount
of direct response they create, but it seems that those
mass media are helping to lift all boats for us.

Private Marketplace Investment Rises as Brands Buy in on
Mobile Programmatic
Mark Connon
Executive Vice President, Platform
Millennial Media
As the executive vice president of platform at
mobile ad network and exchange Millennial
Media, Mark Connon is responsible for managing
all demand-side partnerships with the company’s
mobile ad exchange. Connon recently spoke with
eMarketer’s Lauren Fisher about some of the
biggest programmatic trends Millennial Media
is seeing, including the rapid adoption of private
marketplaces and the importance of cross-
device advertising.
eMarketer: What are some programmatic trends you’re
seeing play out in the mobile space?
Mark Connon: One is the rapid move toward Deal ID and
programmatic direct. That has a lot to do with the evolution
of the OpenRTB standard to include Deal ID. We now have
the bulk of our programmatic buyers using the current
RTB standard, which enables Deal ID, and that’s been a
rapid evolution over the last six to nine months. It allows
most of the players in our world to transact via these
private marketplaces. It’s the next phase of evolution for
programmatic capabilities.
eMarketer: What’s driving this mass adoption of more
private-type programmatic setups?
Connon: The foundation of mobile advertising has been
the app download space, more pure direct response and
cost-per-install or cost-per-action dollars, which is still the
vast majority of spend in display. But the shift that we have
seen and will continue to see is driven by consumers—the
amount of time and usage of smartphone and tablets.
That’s always been an indicator of where brand spend
will be.
Brand spend is going to come in through the more
sophisticated agency trading desks transitioning from
the display world, or in some cases, the mobile pure-
plays developing solutions for these types of brand
buyers. Brands want to come into an environment they’re
comfortable and familiar with. They want transparency,
brand safety and audience guarantees, as well as a direct
relationship with a publisher. The wide-scale availability
of that from a technology or capability standpoint is
here. Brands that are shifting some of their spend toward
programmatic are making those asks.
eMarketer: What type of inventory are brand
advertisers looking to acquire through these more private
transaction methods?
Connon: It runs the gamut. Sometimes they are custom
ad units, other times [the inventory] is driven by data and
key attributes like location, audience segment or device ID
where the buy side is using their own data management
platform [DMP] to target their particular audience.
“Brand spend is going to come in through
the more sophisticated agency trading
desks transitioning from the display world,
or in some cases, the mobile pure-plays
developing solutions for these types of
brand buyers.”
In terms of formats, video is growing rapidly. It’s an effective
format for mobile. If done well, it can be incredibly engaging
and drive interactions in a way that drives significantly
higher prices. Advertisers are more than happy to pay
those costs because they are engaging with their audience
in a unique way.
eMarketer: With something like native programmatic,
one has to imagine that programmatic creative would
be a necessity to execute these placements with the
greatest relevancy.

Connon: The native spec included in the OpenRTB 2.3
standard is essentially a form of dynamic creative, but it’s
not necessarily based on consumer targeting as much as it
is on with assimilating the ad unit with the look and feel of
the site.
Coming at it from the targeting lens, on the desktop,
you have the third-party cookie, which is a deterministic
solution on which to match a browser to a user. But with
cross-screen, it’s not that deterministic yet. You do see
some focusing on cross-screen to be able to capture that
data and target a user based on what they’ve seen and
what they’ve done. The next logical solution or step from
that is to dynamically do the creative as well. But that’s not
something that’s prevalent through our exchange yet. It’s
not yet a part of everyday conversation.

Visit us at LightReaction.com for more information
Performance
Light Reaction is a programmatic performance media company.
We use proprietary technologies and premium supply to deliver premium outcomes
across any device or platform.We price all of our programs on a performance basis and
guarantee our outcomes.
Matters

Coverage of a Digital World
eMarketer data and insights address how consumers spend
time and money, and what marketers are doing to reach
them in today’s digital world. Get a deeper look at eMarketer
coverage, including our reports, benchmarks and forecasts,
and charts.
eMarketer Corporate Subscriptions:
The Fastest Path to Insight
All eMarketer research is available to our clients via an annual
corporate subscription.The subscription provides clients with
access to all eMarketer analyst reports, signature charts,
interviews, case studies, webinars and more. See for yourself
how easy it is to find the intelligence you need. Learn more
about subscription options.
Confidence in the Numbers
Our unique approach of analyzing data from multiple research
sources provides our customers with the most definitive
answers available about the marketplace. Learn why.
Schedule a personalized demonstration or request a quote today.
Go to eMarketer.com, call 212-763-6010, or email sales@emarketer.com.
The leading research firm for marketing in a digital world.

eMarketer Roundup: Optimizing Mobile Advertising

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (6)

Similar to eMarketer Roundup: Optimizing Mobile Advertising

Similar to eMarketer Roundup: Optimizing Mobile Advertising (20)

More from Filipp Paster

More from Filipp Paster (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

eMarketer Roundup: Optimizing Mobile Advertising