Saturday 1 August 2009

Acquiring a new customer base through the Mobile Medium


It's been a while since I have posted anything to this blog and the reason for that is pretty cliched in that we have been exceptionally busy rolling out various mobile initiatives. It has been quite an educational process too as the initiatives we have been involved in deploying have varied from a simple sms short code to full blown campaigns integrating television, radio, print, activations, online and mobile.

We have spent the last 18 months evangelising about the benefits of mobile but to actually see the results by comparison to the traditional media spend has been fantastic and a real testimony to what we have been sharing.

I'm going to talk about two campaigns, one is complete the other is still running however the ad spend has been the same and the resluts have been consistently similar.

Campaign A - used a mix of all media components to fulfill 2 objectives;
1) Get users to purchase the product
2) Get users to log on to the mobile environment

The mobile environment had information about the product, free content downloads in the form of video and wall paper, a kick ass competition as well as other elements such as the ability to refer a friend etc. Mobile advertising spend was allocated to 2 renowned networks - Admob and the other which I won't mention for various reasons which I'll get into a bit later suffice it to say has a specific purpose and a younger target market with phenomenal stats.

All traffic was directed to one point which was the mobile online space so from a measurement point of view it was very easy to track the performance of the 2 mediums.

The Ad spend in the Admob space was very small to say the least - in fact it was 30% less than what we would normally recommend and by comparison to the total media spend probably came in at around the 5% mark... so very low but what was fantastic to see was the level of interaction achieved off this one medium.

The number of unique visitors that visited the site as a direct result of this ad spend - 8442
The total number of unique visitors - 14757
The number of visitors that entered the competition - 7726
The number of referrals that were sent out by the unique visitors - 7839
The number of downloads - 5883

The cost of acquisition has come in at a very low cost by comparison to the total media spend.

Campaign B - used a mix of print, mobile and activations to fulfill 2 objectives
1) Get users to purchase the product
2) Get users to log on to the mobile environment which would generate awareness of the new product.

The mobile environment has very little information about the product, a compelling competition as well as other elements such as the ability to refer a friend, links to instant messaging and location based information etc. Mobile advertising spend was allocated to 2 renowned network - Admob and the The Grid.

As with Campaign A all traffic is directed to one point which is the mobile online space so from a measurement point of view it is very easy to track the performance of the 2 mediums.

I am specifically only going to be referencing Admob here as the Admob spend is complete and the engagement on The Grid is still in infancy however I will report on the outcome at the end of the campaign.

The spend in the Admob space has been exactly the same as in Campaign A (although we proposed significant more the client cut budgets drastically) but as you'll see the Admob results are significantly similar;

The number of unique visitors that visited the site as a direct result of this ad spend - 8318
The total number of unique visitors - 14604
The number of visitors that entered the competition - Still ongoing will report back on this at the end of the campaign
The number of referrals sent out to date by the unique visitors - 7709

For 2 completely different products and brands the response for the same amount of ad spend on Admob has been almost exactly the same and the cost of acquisition per customer is encouragingly low. The beauty about mobile is that going forward each of these brands now have close to 8000 new customers with whom they can engage at an absolutely negligible cost.

As a mobile acquisition medium Admob has proved it's metal to us and we will continue to utilise this medium in all acquisition and mobile advertising campaigns we are involved with. If you would like more information on this medium feel free to contact us.

We do hear very good reports on the outcome of Google Ad words and will be incorporating that medium into further campaigns to extend the reach and increase traction for brands.

For most mobile campaigns the question is always how do I attract a base of users or how can I engage with a base of users without spamming them. Each campaign objective and deployment being different;
the strategy applied is crucial to the outcome i.e. a viral campaign is the ultimate where the ad spend is negligible yet the traction huge however these campaigns are very difficult to implement as the uptake can never be guaranteed. It is possible though, to spend a little and include a viral element as a part of the campaign to bolster the acquisition process and reduce your spend.

1. Ensure you mobile online environment is actually a true mobile environment in that the site configures to all handsets. This is your first step.

2. Define the relevance of the mobile online space - without relevance the traction in that environment is going to be poor.

3. Define your acquisition strategy, and ensure you are in a position to manage it.

4. Deploy

5. Engage

Voila!





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