If you you’re still putting off implementing mobile ads for your business, here’s yet another reason to get on it. According to the numbers released by comScore yesterday, over 100 million US subscribers now use smartphones. Up 13 percent since October, comScore determined that “Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 48.6 percent market share (up 2.3 percentage points) followed by Apple with 29.5 percent market share (up 1.4 percentage points). RIM ranked third with 15.2 percent share, followed by Microsoft (4.4 percent) and Symbian (1.5 percent).”
To determine which devices make up the market share, comScore surveyed over 30,000 mobile subscribers in the US. Results of the said study indicate that Samsung is the number 1 handset manufacturer in the country, claiming 25.4 percent market share. LG took second place with 19.7 percent followed by Motorola and Apple with 13.2 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively. RIM sat at last place claiming just 6.6 percent of mobile users.
Good news for the mobile industry continues, as the numbers for mobile content usage were up all across the board. comScore’s study showed that 74.6% of US mobile subscribers use text messaging on their phones (up 2.8 percentage points from October). Meanwhile, mobile app usage also saw an increase of 4.8 percentage points, with 48.6% of users. Moreover 48.5% (up 4.5 percentage points) of users also surf the Internet using their devices. Unsurprisingly, the percentage of users who access blogs and social media sites through their phones (35.7%) also saw an increase of 3.4 percentage points. Addtionally, the digits for game-playing were also up, as 31.8% (up 2.6 percentage points) of mobile subscribers reported that they play games using their smartphones, while 24.5% said that they listened to music on their devices. (Up 3.3 percentage points).
Yup, more and more people are turning to their smartphones, and this is precisely why advertisers should go mobile as well. Mobile ads are one of the best ways to reach on-the-go consumers, and the great thing about them is that companies can fully customize how their ads appear on mobile devices. Don’t be intimidated by the large variety of mobile devices out there. Ad companies nowadays offer several ad formats that are compatible with the different kinds of gadgets in the market.
Advertisers can choose to be simple and discreet with plain text ads that lead to their site. Want to spice things up a bit? Consider adding an image or even a video that users can interact with. Additionally, advertising companies nowadays have sophisticated algorithms that can effectively determine a user’s location. This is a very nifty feature for businesses because it allows them to target people based on their location, increasing the chance of conversions.
Moreover, social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter, are starting to roll out mobile ads, giving companies the opportunity to tap into the massive user base of these social networks.
On top advertising on mobile websites, companies can also choose to place ads on apps. Businesses won’t have a hard time finding relevant applications, considering that there are currently hundreds of thousands of mobile apps out there, in just about any category imaginable.