2013: The Year Of Mobile? A Retail Campaign's 1000% Increase In Conversions Says Yes

Recently, most years have been dubbed the "year of mobile," but Run, a programmatic ad tech provider with a mobile-focused demand-side platform (DSP), says it can prove that 2013 truly has been the year of mobile.

The company gave RTM Daily a look at data collected over a 12-month period from a seven-figure, cross-platform campaign that a major global retailer ran. The retailer has more than 330 stores in the U.S., and the data was observed from August 2012 through August 2013. The entire campaign was run through Run's DSP, and all impressions were bought programmatically. 

The total number of mobile impressions over the course of the campaign was just shy of 60 million. The first observed month -- August 2012 -- saw 1,738 mobile conversions. In August 2013, that figure skyrocketed to 19,112 conversions. If the rate of growth (1,000%) continues, there will be 210,000 mobile conversions in August 2014.

Of all conversions -- desktop and mobile combined -- mobile accounted for just 7% in August 2012. By August 2013, mobile accounted for nearly half (48%) of the campaign's total conversions.

It should be noted that the year-over-year figures are not entirely comparable because mobile represented 10% of the overall campaign spend in August 2012, but 37% in August 2013. However, the campaign's mobile conversions increased at a rate greater than the increased spend, so the data does still support that it was a big year for mobile.

Run also reported that the cost per action decreased 733% from August 2012 to August 2013. At the start of the campaign, the cost per action was $8.17. By the end, it was just $0.97. A Run representative defined cost per action as "a post click action, which for this campaign means users that entered their zip codes in the retailer's store locator."

"There's basically a trend happening opposite the 'if you build it, they will come' cliche," a second Run representative observed. "People have already flocked to mobile devices, so now retail advertisers must adapt to them to convert sales."

You can see Run's infographic on the data here.

1 comment about "2013: The Year Of Mobile? A Retail Campaign's 1000% Increase In Conversions Says Yes".
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  1. Bill Guild from ChoiceStream, November 1, 2013 at 11:04 a.m.

    This finding is consistent with data we collected in the 2013 ChoiceStream Survey. That is, consumers are engaged on mobile and mobile ads do stimulate response. They just aren't preferred for completing the transaction - yet.

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