What to consider with mobile ad purchasing

By Bob Bentz

President of ATS Mobile

Many restaurants would like to advertise on mobile phones, but they simply don't know how. Here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind.

Garage sale rates

Statistics show that while 21 percent of overall time spent with media is on the mobile phone, mobile advertising garners just 4 percent of the overall ad budget (according to eMarketer). It is by far the most under-utilized advertising medium available today.

That means there are more sellers than buyers and if you remember back to high school economics, that means bargains for advertisers.

How to buy mobile

• Cost Per Thousand — The simplest way to purchase mobile advertising is on a CPM basis. In this scenario, you will pay a set amount for every 1000 exposures on mobile phones. Expect to pay about $3 per thousand exposures for general advertising. The narrower the targeting is, the higher the cost per thousand.
• Cost Per Click– Buying mobile on a CPC basis will enable you to pay just when somebody clicks on your advertisement. Of course, many of those clicks will be "fat finger" clicks where the consumer didn't really intend to touch your advertisement. But, in our experience, you will almost always gain greater exposure on a CPC basis than on a CPM basis
• Cost Per Call– Not all advertising networks will allow for a Cost Per Call payment method, but this is also an option if your goal is to receive inbound calls. On a Cost Per Call, the consumer will touch the add, then have to touch the call button to make the call to your business. You only pay when they do both.

Pinpoint accuracy

Never has there been a medium that allows for better pinpoint targeting of consumers than with mobile ad buying. Mobile ad buying enables the advertiser to precisely target the audience through a variety of demographic and psychographic characteristics.

Here are some of the variables that you can choose from in determining how to best target your audience:

• Specific days and hours– Enables you to reach customers when they are most likely to buy — perhaps, just before the lunch or dinner hours.
• Where to show your ads – Apps or mobile websites.
• Devices – Choose whether you want tablets and smartphones. Do you want to buy just the more upscale iPhones or just Androids, or both?
• Language
• Target countries
• Carriers – Want to reach an urban audience? T-Mobile might be your best bet.
• Wifi – Target just those on wifi services.
• Publishers– Show your ads on general interest or age groupings, or choose specific publishers that best serve your market.

Location, location, location

One of the best things about mobile advertising is being able to target those that are nearby to your business. This is known as "geo-targeting" or "geo-fencing." A restaurant, for example, could target only those people within a 1-mile radius of its location; this is geo-targeting. A yogurt shop could just target those living on the college campus nearby; this would be geo-fencing.

Test, Test, Test

Mobile advertising, when not used simply as brand building, can be an effective direct response medium. A mobile advertiser should be able to get immediate results from its efforts. Analyze those stats every week in an effort to increase the click through rate, but more importantly to increase sales. Because, at the end of the day, the mobile ad buy won't be judged on your click through rate, but how much additional dollars your mobile ad buy brought to the company.

Bob Bentz is president of ATS Mobile, a Philadelphia and Toronto-based mobile marketing agency that provides strategies to advertisers, advertising agencies and media. He has been known to play Angry Birds just to see the mobile advertisements that come up between the stages.