The mobile ad revenue of publishers is not keeping pace with the time spent on publishers’ mobile offerings, creating a “mobile gap,” according to this article from The Wall Street Journal.
Jack Marshall points out in this article that selling advertising on mobile devices is challenging. It is difficult to show mobile users enough ads, traditional ad formats like “banners” do not perform well, and publishers cannot easily undertake sophisticated tracking and targeting of ads. These challenges impact publishers’ mobile websites and their apps.
Additional reasons that mobile ad revenue is growing more slowly than mobile traffic:
-mobile devices have smaller screens so that mobile users don’t see as many ads as desktop users.
-advanced tracking and targeting mechanisms don’t work as well on smartphones and tablets as on desktops. As a result, it is often more difficult for publishers to prove the benefit of mobile ads to marketers.
Solutions being developed by publishers include:
-experimenting with new mobile ad formats and tactics.
-stepping up investments in sponsored content, also known as “native” advertising.
-partnering with Facebook, which has the consumer data across devices and channels, that enhances targeting.
Marshall concludes that mobile ad revenues will increase as publishers work out the technical challenges in mobile advertising and prove to marketers that mobile advertising benefits their businesses.
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