• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 12, 2016

Mobile advertising may suffer from the hype surrounding it. Some 21% of respondents to a recent survey said they either did not know how to measure their return on investment (ROI) from mobile campaigns or just did not measure it -- for search, social and display advertising.

The detailed study, released Tuesday and based on a survey of 400 marketers surveyed by ClickZ in partnership with Search Optics, analyzes the state of mobile advertising in 2016. The study looks at perception, strategy, and techniques such as programmatic media buying in terms of return on investment, measurement and attribution, and effectiveness for different stages in the marketing funnel.

Although Google has confirmed that a greater number of online searches now happen on mobile than on desktop, the ClickZ study shows that digital marketers have not caught up with that shift in consumer behavior, Troy Smith, president of Search Optics, told Search Marketing Daily.

Many advertisers remain in the early stage of understanding how to implement and measure the return of investments on mobile campaigns, even when it comes to search advertising. In fact, overall 56% describe themselves as beginners; 31%, intermediate; and only 13% regard themselves as advanced.

Some 46% of marketers surveyed said they do not believe their current mobile advertising spend is in line with their customers' consumption of media through mobile. 

Only 6% of marketers who rate themselves at the beginner level regard the ROI from their overall mobile advertising campaigns as "good" or "excellent," compared with 59% for companies that classify themselves as advanced.

Some 32% of marketers using search mobile campaigns viewed them in a positive way compared with 15% of marketers who deemed mobile display advertising to provide good or excellent ROI, and only 23% who said the same for social.

The success in search may come from the way marketers view using the media. The study shows that paid-search advertising is the best mobile channel for lead generation and direct online sales to produce a positive ROI. Not knowing how to account for returns on investments could tie in with the search strategy of using mobile as a direct channel for sales and leads, and suggests there remains a gap between expectations and results that marketers must bridge when pursuing other objectives for mobile campaigns.

"This isn't to say that digital marketers haven't taken any steps to reach a mobile audience," Smith said. "For example, 84% of client respondents and 79% of agency respondents report using responsive Web design."

Smith said the study makes it clear that digital marketers do not take full advantage of all available opportunities to reach customers at every stage of the purchase funnel. More widespread adoption of advanced digital marketing tactics such as programmatic, hyperlocal and paid search could better help digital marketers reach customers in all the channels in which they're seeking out information.