What Works in Rich Media Mobile Advertising?

Mobile advertising is all about achieving the brand’s marketing goals, whatever they might be. You may want consumers to browse products, watch a video, go to your Facebook page or find a store so they can learn more about you. We’re often asked about what really works for mobile rich media and which ad features perform the best. Celtra’s Quarterly Mobile Rich Media Monitor offers insight into the performance of various ad experiences and features and aims to serve as a guide for designing effective rich media mobile ads.

Mobile advertising is all about achieving the brand’s marketing goals, whatever they might be. You may want consumers to browse products, watch a video, go to your Facebook page or find a store so they can learn more about you. We’re often asked about what really works for mobile rich media and which ad features perform the best. Celtra’s Quarterly Mobile Rich Media Monitor offers insight into the performance of various ad experiences and features and aims to serve as a guide for designing effective rich media mobile ads.

Highlights from Q2 Benchmarks

• Among ad formats, more than 2/3 (67 percent) were expandable banners, making it the most popular ad format. The remaining 1/3 of the ads were split between interstitials (21 percent) and animated banners (12 percent).
• Interestingly, there were more iOS (55 percent) ads than Android (45 percent), but Android adoption continues to rise and Celtra expects that these numbers will shift in the coming months.
• Engagement rates for mobile rich media ads average in the double-digits (12.8 percent) with video and gaming experiences being the most engaging.
• Gaming experiences are highly effective for entertainment with (16.6 percent) of users responding to a gaming element.
• Users are engaging with social media through mobile ads and sharing branded content. 8.7 percent share on Facebook and 12.6 percent Tweet. In addition, brands are increasingly integrating newer social media services such as Instagram, Foursquare and Pinterest.
• Direct response features are present in most ads. A click to an external service, such as app store, or website is almost always included in an ad.

“Creativity has always been at the heart of great advertising — and designing the right experience with the right message for the right audience is a key to success,” said Matevz Klanjsek, co-founder and chief product officer at Celtra.

“Rich media mobile advertising is changing the way brands communicate with consumers by engaging them with meaningful, useful and often intimate experiences instead of simply bombarding them with commercial messages. From the start, Celtra’s AdCreator platform has made it easy for marketers to push the creative boundaries and craft beautiful and effective experiences while seamlessly reaching targeted audiences.”

The Future is Rich

As mobile advertising ecosystem is entering a mature phase, rich media ads are becoming much more sophisticated and elaborate. While including video is still the first and obvious choice for most brands, they are increasingly leveraging advanced mobile capabilities and ad features, such as location-based services, social media and gaming elements. When designed well and used in the right context, these features drive significantly higher ad performance and create much bigger value for advertisers than traditional static “click-to-site” mobile banners.

For more detailed data from the report on vertical-specific performance, please visit the Celtra Quarterly Mobile Rich Media Monitor. You can also view examples of ads made with AdCreator in Celtra’s Ad Gallery.