Mobile advertising is a must have for any brand looking for exposure to a wide audience. The average Brit spends more than a day a week online, with one in five spending as much as 40 hours a week on the web. With some 78% of us owning a smartphone, targeted marketing on mobiles – via text messaging, banner ads on mobile websites or placed within an app and so on – are a great way to reach those all-important consumers.

In fact, so addicted are we are to our phones that an Ofcom report recently revealed that, on average, we check our mobiles every 12 minutes, with those aged 15 to 24 looking at theirs as frequently as every 8.6 minutes.

Arguably then, any marketing strategy should be mobile led. However, should you consider a mobile-first approach, then make sure you engage the skills of a mobile advertising agency with a team that is up to speed on technology, trends and with established mobile user acquisition in order that your brand benefits – and profits.

So, how best to choose a mobile advertising agency that will get you in front of the right audience to ensure high conversion rates?

One of the first talking points must be about their experience in running mobile ad campaigns. A good agency will have an established and wide ad network and will be able to leverage the latest technology to reach those who matter most to the brand. This then means understanding your target audience, where they are, what device they use, and how they interact online, as well as an operating system, network operator and so on.

You will have your own data on your customers, so do ascertain which third party data integrations are available.

Mobile advertising should also be the focus of any agency you choose rather than just an add-on. Many general ad agencies, having seen the boom in popularity of mobile advertising and its associated financial benefits, now list this service alongside its more established offerings. However, if you are looking for an agency to grow the customer base of a brand app, for example, you should consider a team with both the expertise and the experience in buying ads within that market.

Your chosen agency should also have purchasing power and successes in paid social and paid search, as well as a strong mobile display history.

Even if you do not fully comprehend the intricacies of accessing a target audience, do ask which real-time bidding sources the agency use, as well as how many.

As with any partner agency, ask to speak with a number of their past clients who can give you solid feedback as to their service quality and, once you have that, spend time with your appointed account manager – it’s important you have a positive and constructive on-going relationship.

A strong mobile advertising agency should also be able to augment a brand’s in-house efforts to maximum benefit as well as offer complementary creative ideas, partnering you to the best effect.

The best agencies are those with teams who are enthusiastic about the field in which they work and understand exactly what mobile advertising has to offer their clients. They should be inventive in finding mobile-focused solutions, so do ask about their approach to innovation – and find out what has worked for their clients in the past, as well as what hasn’t.

The boundaries of creativity need to be pushed far and wide and any mobile advertising agency should be able to blend creative with data and analytics in order to nail those important long-lasting connections with a target audience time and time again.

An experienced team will have already gained experience with numerous ad networks, saving you a lot of time when it comes to your account. However, not all marketing strategy works immediately, so do ask if they are prepared to adapt and refine campaigns.

When it comes to the audience, the creative, the offer and the landing environment – tweaking is a must. Is your chosen agency prepared to test combinations to see what works? This way, adaptions may be made at minimal expense to you.

Speed
The mobile app environment is a particularly fast-moving one, which means consumers have high expectations when it comes to the speed in which they can access content.

Increasingly, brands are faced with a consumer who is now more likely to browse and shop via an app, thanks to a more personalised and targeted online experience.

Location and voice search are now key drivers in the app market so do ensure your chosen agency are up to speed with new developments that effectively into your target audience using accurate insights.

In order to enhance the user experience, the agency needs to ascertain what your most likely customer likes, their interests, where they shop and what they are likely to buy, all within a localised environment.

According to The Drum’s Danielle Gibson, consumers download the apps they love on their devices which in turn gives them access to content that is relevant and useful. This type of bespoke in-app experience has led to consumers citing they are more willing to share their data, in exchange for more personalised experiences. 

A good mobile advertising agency will capitalise on this fact.

Indeed, it may be fruitful to establish exactly where the agency’s strengths lie. Are they best suited to building an app or is their niche market more focused on mobile display ads?

Will they enhance your landing environment so that it is optimised for mobile or will they create a specially designed mobile version of your website?

Will your chosen mobile advertising agency steer you in the right direction, depending on your target audience? Also check if they can integrate on mobile and tablet – meeting the criteria of all devices will greatly improve your chances of reaching that audience.

As Rico Chan notes ‘Consumers want to be entertained, educated and feel special – that’s why personalised content marketing campaigns are so important. But they also crave the wow factor that can be delivered through emerging formats and distribution channels.’

Mobile advertising platforms can be complicated, but it is an emerging trend in delivering honed targeted marketing to the right people at the right time and on the right channels. This then can only lead to the best results for your brand.