Mobile Marketing: AMP Pages On the Rise

Sometimes, while riding the bus to campus, I take a moment to have an actual look around at all of the other commuters, and I am always amazed.

I’m amazed at how every single time I do this, it seems as though almost every single one of the riders is glued to his or her phone. Is it because they are doing some last-minute studying before a big exam, or to pointlessly scroll through their Twitter feed just to avoid awkward eye contact with that one kid that was in their class a few quarters ago and haven’t spoken to since?

Whatever the reason, the amount of focus they are putting into this mobile experience is always surprising, and I find myself wondering why they would rather spend those 5 to 10 minutes looking at a website rather than be present with the people around them, taking a breather from the technology that consumes them with homework and research every day anyways.

According to some research done by the AMP Project,

75% of mobile pages take at least 10 seconds to load for a user.

That means that if that person visits roughly 20 pages during their bus commute, they’ve just wasted over a third of their commute waiting for a mobile webpage to load (I'm guilty of this too, just to be clear).

Putting the issue of the lack of human interaction aside, wouldn’t it be much better to spend possibly even just a tenth of their commute doing this?

Cue AMP.

AMP is basically a way for mobile websites to reformat themselves that makes the loading time and design of a mobile website page much quicker, and much more pleasing to the eye.

Why is AMP so important, you ask?

Well, according to the creators of the AMP Project, there are a few reasons:

• AMP builds on existing skillsets that many web developers already have. AMP code can easily be entered into regular HTML so the transition of a mobile website page to an AMP is smooth and simple.
• UI designers can ditch the fear of losing the look of their brand by switching over to AMPs because the process allows for designers to maintain the brand image while creating new AMPs.
• AMP is likely to decrease the bounce rate and increase engagement with users by making the experience more straightforward and quick to use.
• AMP supports flexibility with ad design and page formats, so you can use more than just a basic mobile banner ad whilst trying to reach users successfully.
• Many analytics platforms are already way too excited about AMPs. With the support of these platforms, switching over to AMPs will be much easier because there is no risk of losing the ability to collect valuable data.

Curious to see all this in action? Me too. Here’s a few examples of some businesses that are all about the use of AMPs:

TUNE:

TUNE is a mobile marketing platform that is focused mainly on helping a business track and measure its mobile marketing strategies and the results that come from it. TUNE allows businesses to hone in on each user individually as well, offering a feature that assigns each user of the mobile site an individual profile, better tailoring certain parts of that site to the user’s interests and needs.

Wompmobile:

This platform is all about helping mobile sites decrease their load times and increase their conversion rates. Their website claims they are “obsessed with client success” and “results-driven solutions”.

Influence Mobile:

This mobile marketing app developer is all about sports fans. Specifically, it focuses on offering ads in the form of trivia, rosters, and scores that are engaging to the user, building up a point base system that helps them win prizes (cash included) and the like. The site is actually really interesting to poke around in for a while, so make sure to do so.

So we’ve seen just how far mobile marketing has come, but now I’m curious—where is mobile marketing going? How can it get even better than ads that award you with CASH prizes?

My best guess is up. According to a few individual interviews with mobile marketing professionals that the Digital Marketing Institute conducted, these are just a few trends that we should be on the lookout for within the mobile marketing world:

• Less friction with an increased amount of international communication. Chris Cunningham of ironSource claims that mobile providers aren’t as focused on making international communication as seamless as texting the person next to you (for more on this subject, take a dive into WeChat). Cunningham also believes there will be a push to move away from impressions and focus on data that reveals more about how to actually get conversions, rather than just visits.
• According to Techstar advisor and mentor, Eamonn Carey there is going to be a shift from less free advertising to more quality content for a small price. Carey belives that, ““The future for mobile apps is in creating a product people are willing to pay for. Advertising can’t sustain a business.”
• “Mobile banking will be ubiquitous in a few years.” -Monty Munford, mobile and social strategy consultant for Paramount Entertainment and Liverpool FC.

Though the site is a little outdated, I still think it’s incredibly relevant. Check out the rest of the interviews on the current and future states of mobile marketing right here.

Have any thoughts on where mobile marketing may go in the next few years? Leave a comment below! Any and all new information is always appreciated.

Cheers,

Aubrey McNeil