The Critical Steps for Growth Marketers to Build a Strong Mobile Marketing Strategy
Written by Haley Walden
Mobile marketing is a rapidly-growing swath of the modern consumer economy, and it’s fueled by consumer data.
Direct-to-consumer businesses are driven, in large part, by consumers who shop via mobile devices. Brands have an opportunity to leverage this buyer behaviour for significant ROI, but it doesn’t come without risk.
Each year, marketers around the world spend $93 billion on mobile advertising. A recent survey revealed that 56% of consumers shop via their smartphones. But for marketers, it’s challenging to identify who is buying their products. In order to increase conversions, marketers need control over both their creative content and user data.
Curate Mobile was founded in 2015 by Marc Porcelli to help mobile marketers effectively leverage user data to grow their brands. Marc felt that mobile marketing lacked transparency, and it was unclear whether brands’ ads were viewable and if humans were actually seeing them
“The mobile performance marketing space was a black box,” says Joe Strolz, President & Managing Partner of Curate. “It hadn’t caught up to traditional digital marketing yet around transparency, accountability, quality, inventory, crime protection–and all those things marketers were concerned with in a desktop world.”
Curate allows marketers to control insights, data, and fraud controls via customizable integrations. It’s designed to map the customer’s path to purchase through audience personas and geolocation data, rather than cookies. They’ve developed a privacy-forward, proprietary technology that assists marketers in converting and re-engaging mobile consumers.
In early 2019, Curate acquired Juice Mobile, which allowed the company to merge ad performance with branding. The combination of Curate’s powerful fraud detection and KPI tools with Juice’s TAG-certified DSP (demand-side platform) services allow for scale, higher transparency, and control over mobile advertising.
“DSP is foundational technology for how all media investment trades, which is in biddable auctions,” Joe says.
The DSP is a system that allows buyers of digital advertising inventory to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface. This allows advertisers to understand the complete impact of their ads.
“Our DSP was built in mobile, for mobile. When you don’t have a cookie, the only way to understand the user is through location. So location data is at the core of our decision making,” Joe says.
Leveraging Mobile Ads Within Apps
Marketers appeal to mobile users through a variety of go-to options, including email marketing, SMS, websites, apps, and social media platforms.
Curate allows marketers to place a mobile app within a primary app. They can then input CRM data and retain users’ location data in order to monitor their buyer’s journey and engagement. This allows marketers to monetize with a performance focus. Marketers may also choose to A/B test, tweak the user experience, or adjust the CTAs to see what approach is most effective.
Leveraging App Installs and Integrations for Maximum ROI
Marketers don’t need to silo their user growth and brand awareness separately from one another, according to Joe. Instead, these components should be connected.
“The consumer has already done the connecting,” Joe says. “They can be presented with an ad in an app for another app. The creative illustrates the value of that app to you.
“You can then tap on that app, download it from the app store, and use it in the same session. When you’re done, you return to the initial mobile session you were at.”
Focusing on both app installs and integration helps to prevent silos from forming around brand awareness and user growth. For example, valuable user location data is collected when an app is installed. From there, marketers can collect that user’s behavior within the app.
Joe says consumers encounter every touch point of the mobile supply chain all within the first impression of using an app. The parts of the mobile supply chain include:
- Brand awareness
- Consideration
- Trust
- Transaction
- Trial
- Usage
- Potential re-engagement
Safeguarding Against Ad Fraud
Marketers must be keenly aware of the potential for ad fraud, and should protect themselves when marketing via mobile. International privacy laws and regulations like GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act have put consumer protections into motion surrounding data consent.
As consumers become more concerned with privacy, the market should rise to meet those concerns — and provide necessary data protection along the way.
“What’s interesting is that, despite how much the market has moved forward, most players still aren’t certified on these standards,” Joe says.
“It’s so critical for the marketer to have their own tools to perform their own due diligence and to keep their attribution and fraud partners honest.”
According to Joe, these partners may not necessarily have a negative intent, but they ultimately don’t understand the marketer’s business as well as the marketer does.
“The marketer knows their own business best: their users, consumers and flow,” he says. “We help put the marketer back in control of what they’re executing.”
To download Joe Strolz’ presentation at the Commerce and Conversions Edition of influenceTHIS, click here –
