5 Mobile Marketing Predictions for 2017
It’s that time of year when holiday cards flood the mailbox and digital Evites for holiday parties flood the inbox. ‘Tis the season, and 2017 is a mere three weeks away.
With a fantastic 2016 on the way out and 2017 on the way in, we thought it would be fun to share our predictions on what’s to come in mobile marketing in 2017.
Without further ado, here are five predictions in mobile marketing trends that Liftoff foresees in 2017.
1. A Surge in Re-Engagement Over UA
Mobile marketers will look past app installs and put more effort behind retention and post-install engagement via re-engagement campaigns. With a saturated app marketplace, mobile marketers need to ensure customers who already have their apps stick with them. For this reason, top spenders are just starting to consider re-engagement since they’ve already spent a ton of money on their UA pipeline. There’s now a strong desire to bring people back into their apps.
Some major customers we work with are talking about driving lifetime value (LTV) versus just user acquisition through re-engagement strategies. For this reason, CPI tactics will be left behind in exchange for driving active customers with re-engagement campaigns.
2. Industry Consolidation
There are lots of ad technology companies out there who are really good at one thing (e.g. attribution, push-notifications, analytics, etc.). We predict that more of these companies will consolidate, and/or offer more services. Larger companies with big budgets will seriously consider having their own in-house DSP, ad network, etc.
Mobile marketers prefer to work with fewer partners who can serve more of their needs. There’s a desire by big brands to work with a smaller number of partners that can deliver insights for how to build a mobile strategy and drive performance. Though we’ve seen some M&A deals already, the mobile space hasn’t yet begun the consolidation scale we’ve seen in other formats on desktop. We expect the consolidation trend to uptick dramatically in 2017.
Our partner Tune, a mobile analytics and performance marketing software company, recently predicted a similar outcome. They envisioned 2017 undergoing a convergence of adtech and martech due to a lack of transparency and issues with discrepancies between partners (the supply) and marketers (the demand).
3. Big Brands Join the App Party
Big brands will start focusing more on mobile advertising. This year we already saw brands like Target, Capital One, McDonalds, etc. concentrate more on mobile app marketing. Our guess is that more Fortune 500s will move dollars into mobile channels searching for performance and scale.
More ad dollars will move into programmatic as larger companies see value with efficiency and scale. Programmatic display, when done right, can become a top channel for acquiring quality mobile users, even better than Facebook. At the same time, if marketers want to scale their app user base, they will need to look beyond Facebook.
Some sources think programmatic advertising will grow 31% in 2017. Related to rapid growth of programmatic advertising, Liftoff thinks non-gaming advertisers will match/outpace gaming advertisers on traditional inventory as targeting improves.
4. Video. Enough Said.
Definitely video. Video ads will become more popular, with a desire to mix up ad formats with something more visual.
There’s big business in video. A recent report claims mobile will make up just over half (50.2%) of all online video views by end of 2016, due mostly to the proliferation of short funny virals and music videos. Furthermore, the report states smartphone video viewers will grow to 137 million in 2019. With stats like that, it’s no wonder mobile marketers absolutely want to get in on the video action.
We’ve already seen Google introduce native video ads for mobile publishers and claim their video ad business is growing quickly, with monthly video ad impressions served across platforms doubling since January. Similarly, just a few weeks ago, Instagram announced photo and video ads in the vertical format. Facebook has also been testing the waters with a video portal, poised to siphon TV ad budgets. Business Insider reported digital video advertising will grow faster than any other segment over the next five years, as consumers continually shift time spent online to phones and tablets.
5. Omnichannel Personalization
We predict better solutions for omnichannel marketing that includes mobile.
A new study reveals that 53% of consumers feel that it’s important for retailers to recognize them as the same person across all channels and devices used to shop. Customers want to be treated as individuals, with a consistent brand experience regardless of what channel they’re using, including mobile apps.
Venturebeat claims it’s time for brands to move away from media-based outcomes, such as views or clicks, and shift towards tangible business objectives such as sign-ups, downloads, and purchases. To pull this off, there will be more focus on measuring cross-channel and cross-device with personalization and a cohesive brand and ad experience.
Tech Info World urges to think beyond the smartphone before planning your ad campaign. There are smartwatches and tablets as well as different gaming platforms and smart TVs. Of course, there’s standard channels like web, email, and social media too. The point is to think about a cohesive mobile advertising experience because potential customers likely touch many channels, including mobile app ads, before making a decision.
If you are interested to learn how Liftoff can help you with any of the above predictions, don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to reviewing this list in 12 months to see how accurate our guesses were. Onwards and upwards.