When was the last time you checked your mobile? 

Well, who am I kidding- you might be reading this blog on your phone right now! Or maybe you have your phone sitting right beside you. 

Anyway, the bottom line is, mobile phones are an inevitable part of our lives, and we use them to perform pretty much everything- browsing, gaming, binge-watching, chatting, even shopping! 

As a result, digital marketers have started to shift their interests more into the arena of mobile advertising. With people spending over 5+ hours per day on their dim-lit devices, delivering ads via mobile advertising platforms is one of the best ways for any company to scale their marketing campaigns. 

And by ads, I am not just talking about those non-skippable YouTube ads. Mobile advertising is more than that. Here are some of the most popular channels: 

1. Search Engine Ads

2. Social Media Ads

3. In-app Ads

Two of the most preferred choices are Google and Facebook ads, but you must know that they are not the ONLY options. Both the platforms, because of their popularity, are expensive. You can get a plethora of potential leads via other channels, as well, if you know the right way to target your concerned audience. 

All of these mobile phone advertising platforms work two-ways. On the one hand, they allow the publishers to showcase their brands to their potential audience. On the other hand, they charge them for this advertisement and generate ad revenues. 

Okay, enough with the basics, now let’s dive deeper into every platform that a mobile device offers: 

1. Search Engine Advertising Platforms 

Search engines let you advertise your products on both desktops and mobile devices. But you can use device targeting to cater to your ads only to the smartphone and tablet users. Here, you can publish your ads within the device browsers or in other common search engines. 

However, there’s a difference between a browser and a search engine. A browser gives you access to the internet, while the search engine lets you search for stuff once you are on the browser. 

Here are some general options you get for publishing your search engine ads: 

Google 

Google is, by far, the MOST POPULAR search engine among all the mobile and desktop users. It is no brainer why advertising is so expensive here, but we also cannot overlook the results it gets, as well. 

Types of Google Ads: 

1. Text and Image Ads

2. Video Ads

3. App Promotion Ads

4. Product Shopping Ads

5. Call-only Ads

Basically, you get to target all kinds of audiences from all the possible genres, as Google tries to scrape every information available on the world wide web. In fact, it would be absolutely okay to rely on this advertising platform alone for your next campaign (only if you have the expertise and the budget). 

Bonus- 11 Reasons Why Mobile Advertising Is Better Than Internet Advertising

Bing 

Of course, Bing has a smaller market share as compared to Google, but it is the second-most popular search engine. You get to spend about 70% less for advertising anything on it, plus you get approx 5 billion searches every month. Now that’s HUGE, yet inexpensive! 

Bing ads are very similar to Google ads, the only difference being that Bing and Adwords work on PPC (pay per click) basis. 

Types of Bing Ads: 

1. Product Shopping Ads

2. Text and Image Ads

3. App Promotion Ads

4. Video Ads

5. Website Promotion Ads

Also, you have more control over the location, language, and scheduling. As a matter of fact, Bing has made some valuable partnerships. For instance, if you want to target Kindle users, you must know that Bing is the default browser of Kindle. 

YouTube 

Yes. YouTube is a search engine- a video search engine. And we all know how much time we spend on it every single day (especially this lockdown). Can you recall those abrupt ads that appear out of nowhere? They don’t even buffer! I know, it’s irritating. But they are effective as hell. 

Types of YouTube Ads: 

1. Non-skippable in-stream Ads

2. Non-skippable Bumper Ads

3. Skippable in-stream Ads

4. Discovery/ Search Ads

5. Non-video Banner Ads

Always keep in mind that YouTube is more like an entertainment+information website, and it is tricky as compared to other advertising platforms. Make sure you target your ads carefully, or your audience will immediately skip it- giving you no clicks. You can try targeting the people who search for information revolving around your product, if not the ones who watch related videos. 

2. Social Media Advertising Platforms 

Social media is one such thing that you cannot keep your hands off, especially when you have your smartphones in hand. Plus, social media sites have a better algorithm now, that displays only highly relatable content to its audience. Meaning, your ads will appear only in the eyes of those who are more likely to click on it. 

Thus, out of all the mobile advertising platforms, you can manage to get about 80% of your audience from social media itself. The best way would be to create official accounts on them, but you can still advertise without them. 

Here are some of the social media sites on which you can advertise: 

Facebook 

There is much hype behind advertising on Facebook, the reason being the large user base and successful results. Facebook offers you more targeting options than the other advertising platforms. Thus the CPC is high here. 

Types of Facebook Ads: 

1. Video Ads

2. Slideshow Ads

3. Photo Ads

4. Canvas Ads

5. Carousel Ads

6. Dynamic Product Ads

However, Facebook is more of a personal space for the people. So you have to make sure your ads are relatable as well as captivating enough for the audience, or else they will click on your competitor’s product. 

Want to know how your competitors are performing on Facebook? 

Here Is How to Find the Best Performing Facebook Ads Using PowerAdSpy

Snapchat 

It was not very long ago when this social media platform was not very popular, but it is definitely a hype among the teens, in particular, now. Although the Snapchat ads are not abrupt and have fewer scopes of audience targeting, they are still good enough to get a couple of hundred potential consumers. 

Types of Snapchat Ads: 

1. Web View

2. Articles

3. App Install

4. Long-form Video

5. Sponsored Geofilters

6. Sponsored Lenses

With an active user base of over 166 million Snapchatters, who spend over 30 minutes in this app and open it over 18 times per day, Snapchat will definitely bring you a tremendous share of audiences pretty quickly. 

Instagram 

Instagram is one of the most effective advertising platforms that recently gained a lot of audience’s attention. Various users even prefer searching for profiles directly on IG and buying directly from there. It is very common, especially in the case of clothing and apparel. 

Types of Instagram Ads: 

1. Explore Ads

2. Stories Ads

3. Video Ads

4. Photo Ads

5. IGTV Ads

6. Carousel Ads

7. Collection Ads

8. Instagram Shopping Ads

Instagram is one of those advertising platforms that require extremely well-crafted videos/photos. As a digital advertiser, you need to make sure your content stands out, or the audience will scroll past it immediately. 

You can manually search and note the type of ads that your competitors publish on Instagram or use tools like PowerAdSpy to scrape them on your behalf in no time. 

Pinterest 

Apart from being a social media platform, Pinterest also works as a search engine to search for images. It is the best place for creating brand awareness, to be very honest. As the number of Pinterest users increases day by day, people have started using the mobile app version instead of the desktop version now. 

Types of Pinterest Ads: 

1. Promoted Pins

2. Promoted Carousels

3. Buyable Pins

4. Story Pins

5. Promoted App Pins

6. Promoted Video Pins

Using keywords is an inevitable part of an advertisement campaign, but Pinterest gets the most specific result for each keyword. Meaning, your audience will be highly targeted. Out of all the mobile advertising platforms, Pinterest is somewhat a new one. 

Twitter 

Twitter is, surprisingly, gaining more popularity than Facebook and Instagram these days. Lockdown made people explore everything new, and Twitter seems to capture everyone’s attention. For sure, it’s an addictive platform, but it is also great for advertisement. 

Types of Twitter Ads: 

1. Promoted Accounts

2. Promoted Tweets

3. Promoted Trends

The best part about Twitter ads is that their layout doesn’t make them look like an ad. Meaning, the ads blend in with the layout, decreasing any chances of your potential audience scrolling them down. 

Btw, here are 7 Proven Social Media Engagement Strategy To Boost Your Business Growth

3. In-app Advertisements 

Almost all the apps come with advertisements, these days, and charge you for the version without ads. People seldom go for the premium version, meaning, they are bound to watch the displayed ads. But the type of in-app ads depends on the type of app you are using. 

Types of Web Browser Ads: 

1. Pre Roll Video Ads

2. Text and Images

3. Native Ads

4. Push Ads

5. App-Promotion Ads

6. Website Promotion Ads

7. Promoted Articles

Some of the most common web browsers are Opera Mini, UC Browser, Chrome, and other in-built browsers. However, if you install a game or any other application, then the types of ads you will get will be very different. 

Types of In-app Ads: 

1. Push notifications

2. Overlay ads

3. In-app banners

4. Post-click landing page ads

5. Overlay ads

6. Rich media ads (an ad that offers an interactive experience)

7. Native ads

8. Full page interstitials ads (an ad that popup to cover a user’s entire mobile screen)

9. Skippable and Non-skippable Video ads

Out of all the mobile advertising platforms, the in-app ads are the most effective in getting more clicks, especially when the ads are pretty catchy. It is because people often operate these apps during their leisure time, and do not mind checking out something new that pops up in their screens. 

Also Read,

Get Pinterest Followers For Free Using These 12 Tips

Facebook Ad Rules Updated You Might Have Missed

05 Tips To Exercise Safe & Responsible Marketing During COVID-19

The LayMan’s Guide: Facebook Ad Bidding Strategies (Lowest Cost and Target Cost)

Conclusion 

Mobile marketing might look a bit limited in the case of resources and a number of advertising platforms, but now you know it is actually contrary. 

Publishing mobile ads is not only easy but also pretty effective. A majority of internet users, in fact, operate on their smartphones instead of a laptop or desktop. 

Did you find this blog useful? Is there something I missed? Want to add or suggest something? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I would love to hear you out.