• by Lara Mehanna , Op-Ed Contributor, January 31, 2012

According to the GSMA,the global mobile industry trade group, the number of mobile-connected devices will double from 6 billion in 2011 to 12 billion by 2020. Are you ready to take full advantage of this digital juggernaut?  Here are five tips on how you can get the most out of your mobile advertising investments.

1. Look beyond click-through rates when evaluating mobile campaigns.

If you think mobile is just for direct response campaigns, you may be trapped in 2006. Mobile can drive tremendous brand engagement -- there’s no reason to evaluate mobile campaign performance through the vantage point of CTR.

2. Be open to testing.

Don’t pigeonhole your campaigns into narrow audiences or device types. Think your campaign will perform best on tablets as opposed to feature phones? That’s fine. Test performance on tablets, but don’t abandon feature phones. Campaign performance is, in many cases, situational. One device does not work universally better than another.  While you may be convinced your campaign will resonate with a certain segment, experiment with targeting tactics, and choose a vendor that employs prospecting techniques to identify new, potentially lucrative audiences (“lookalikes”). The most successful brands are not afraid to innovate, iterate and learn.

3. Leave all options on the table.

We often recommend that clients pixel every page of their site. It helps us determine which mobile campaigns led to an outcome and helps the client learn what elements are working best.  It also gives the freedom to optimize against any metric you choose -- content downloads, click-to-calls, app downloads, Facebook likes, etc. Campaigns that have a lot of targeting parameters layered on top, pigeon-hole themselves into limited distribution. 

4. Realize that one size doesn’t fit all.

Display performance doesn’t necessarily translate to mobile performance. We all know that running display creatives in mobile campaigns is a bad bet, due to disparities in screen size, but trying to mimic display tactics in mobile doesn't cut it, either. Sophisticated mobile DSPs have algorithms that work continuously in real time to find new audiences receptive to your brand, so why limit yourself with a single targeting parameter or creative concept?  Let the platform decide what works best.

5. Incorporate mobile as part of a larger campaign strategy.

Mobile doesn’t have to be a standalone channel; use mobile as part of a multichannel marketing approach to reach audiences. It should be a dedicated part of your integrated marketing mix.  Mobile advertising efforts can tie in seamlessly with campaigns running across other marketing channels, digital or not: QR codes in print ads or billboards let users download apps or drive them to a WAP site. TV commercials can promote SMS text messaging to allow users to enter a contest.  Mobile is no longer a supplement to display advertising.