Why We Need To Fix The S#$@ Mobile Ad Experience.

2017 is the year of the mobi…

Just joking, we’ve done that to death.

So the quick facts. We spend a lot of time on our mobiles – checking it up to 90 times a day. We spend a lot of advertising dollars on mobile too – about 37 billion dollars globally, jumping to over half of total digital spend this year.

The data and capabilities have evolved. Targeting has improved and the audience is now at mass scale. Mobile advertising is the right place to be for many of our clients.

But even with all these advancements, one thing that hasn’t changed much..

The ad experience.

Which for the most part (excuse my French), is still a shit time for all.

I can hear the naysayers saying this is the way it has to be. Publishers have to find ways to increase revenue – and they do this through increased ad-space on a page for brands. More impressions and more reach. Agencies and brands show concern for this, but they usually care more about their super engaging high impact ad (note: engaging only to them - not many others won't blink an eyelid) Consumers bear the brunt of all this – with a sub-par mobile experience that leaves them feeling frustrated and annoyed.

Some also argue that this is the price to be paid for content that is essentially ‘free’. The ads are the cost of entry. I did agree with that for some time, but we aren’t in 2010 anymore. Nowadays, we can switch off, and we are. Netflix. Spotify. Subscriptions that remove ads. Free apps that remove ads too – as per the latest ad-blocking statistics.

• The IAB latest ad-blocking study showed 1 in 4 Australian's use some type of ad-blocking technology.

We can't let this upward trajectory continue any further. It leads to a worse end game for all involved - less revenue for publishers, less reach and higher cost of entry for brands, less ‘free’ content on the web for consumers.

So what is being done? Well fortunately, one group is taking a stand. Late last year, the IAB, along with Facebook, Google and other major publishers launched The Coalition for Better Ads – a group that would use their power (hmm...good and bad), research and development, and knowledge to improve the ad experience for all.

This is starting to take effect - with Google confirming they will begin to block ads that don’t hit the new standard across all Chrome browsers from 2018. That's a massive hit. So, who will be next?

This is a good change. Yes, we can argue that this is again the biggest players abiding by their own set of rules - but it’s a start. With IAB and reputable advisors involved the consumer will finally have a voice. To illustrate this further the group have released their first cut of research which surveyed 25,000 consumers to find out what ads annoy the most vs the least - and what we all should use to improve the ad experience.

An example is shown below with a scale of -1 (most annoying) to 5 (least annoying).

Alongside the above ads, see below key formats deemed very annoying by consumers - a few which have been deemed 'award-winning’ in the market here in Australia.

• Auto-play in-article mobile videos
• Full screen scroll-over mobile ads
• Large sticky ad on the bottom of mobile page

It will be fascinating to see if The Coalition for Better Ads decides to come down hard on the premium publishers who sell this inventory.

In the meantime, my advice:

-         Be guided by research - For all media agencies, creative and clients – mobile will be an essential part of advertising moving forward. Use this type of information as a starting point to inform creative solutions and recommendations.

-         Get to the point with mobile. There is nothing wrong with a simple mobile display ad which conveys your story quickly. Actually, it’s preferred – and 3 seconds or less is the rule or you’ll lose the consumer to the scroll. If you want deeper engagement – look at longer form content or other places to advertise that can better convey your message.

-         Be as relevant as possible – Mobile can deliver high reach, but that isn’t good enough for a lot of brands. Targeting and capability allows for context and relevance – use it to make sure you aren’t just getting in the way of a mobile experience.  

So, before everyone gets sucked into buying more auto-play video ads, claiming efficient reach and scale, or an intrusive side-push ad which is going to get great engagement, albeit only because it takes 5 tries to close the ad unit - let’s just stop and think about the shit ad experience.

Mobile is the future of our advertising. Think customer first – before they switch off for good.

You can read more detail on the full study on the Better Ad Experience here: https://www.betterads.org/research/