We should not confuse Marketing with Advertising, and in this sense everything related to the mobile technology and marketing sector acquires important nuances.
The truth is that during the month of March 2012, approximately 10% of all Internet accesses were made using smartphones or tablets, according to the comScore consultancy. However, the mobility advertising budget is far behind that percentage of use. The provider of marketing solutions for email and cross channel Strongmail, in a study conducted in April this year, mentioned that more than half (54%) of those responsible for companies that invest in mobility, do not devote more than 5 % of your total digital budgets, including advertising.
Another study, this June of the company Trademob, did not give many positive reasons to companies and advertisers to expand those budgets, especially as far as advertising is concerned. Trademob, after having analyzed more than 6 million clicks made on advertisements on mobile devices around the world, determined that 40% of them were useless and that for companies it was like throwing money away.
Small screens and inaccuracies at the time of using the finger in navigation, led to 22% of clicks were made accidentally. This figure could also have contributed to an incorrect location of the ad or an improper adaptation to the device.
Click fraud is also a new concept to take into account within the PPC scheme (pay per click). The same problems that existed with desktop computers have moved to the mobile world. The study has found that 1 in 10 clicks had their origin in a botnet. Botnet is a virus that creates a false click once the “log-in” on the advertiser’s server has been done.
Unlike the botnet, traditional fraud involves authentic clicks generated by the publisher of a page where advertising has been included, with the purpose of generating undue charges for clicks that have never occurred in reality, by hiding under false profiles. Thus, an additional 8% of clicks were the result of a normal fraud, or the manipulation of the figures that actually took place.
These actions are really expensive for companies, as we can understand since the figures are significant. eMarketer estimates that the mobile advertising market will reach 1.1 billion dollars in the US this year and 5.9 billion in 2016.
As the mobile advertising market matures, the number of clicks per accident will progressively decrease. However, fraudulent clicks are going to be more complex to eliminate and it is only possible for the industry to face these new problems to find the right answers. Meanwhile, the proper selection of suppliers and the establishment of controls and policies is the only possible solution. Brands can also take advantage of the existence of verification tools and services, many of which include lists of entities not recommended to work in this field. Ad verification can also be an excellent system for brands to actively monitor their advertiser activity, thus ensuring maximum efficiency and performance.
