Web Optimization Blog

The mobile web noise is getting increasingly louder and the big bang is coming, as market conditions and influences converge. Several factors will contribute, and all of them are in motion and picking up speed. There’s:

• Abundance - the abundance of mobile devices and our resulting reliance on them
• Controlled cost - mobile content at a price that device owners control and are willing to pay
• Mobile content - whether it is localized information, games, or entertainment, the content has to be content that device owners want, need and can actually get to via their mobile device
• Success measurement - mobile devices are not PCs; the traffic measurement techniques that work on websites do not work on mobile devices; techniques suited to the environment are a must-have

Where does mobile advertising fit into this picture? Everywhere! The abundance of devices is driving advertisers’ desire to solve the puzzle. Apple’s introduction of the iPhone has kicked the device race into high gear. The mobile phones so popular today will be a mere curiosity a couple of years from now as people migrate to new devices with larger screens and better graphics capability. A study released earlier this year by Pew Research indicates that people now say they would have a harder time giving up their cell phone than their landline. For more mobile uptake stats, visit my December post Mobile web access -the next frontier is here. The numbers are compelling.

Device owners must be able to control the costs of their mobile service, and not have ads and associated charges forced on them. Many major carriers have recently announced unlimited plans - a welcome change that will benefit advertisers and device owners. Speaking at the CTIA Wireless show in late March 2008, Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin credited iPhone as the catalyst for changing the way consumers think about mobile payment plans for voice and data services.

Mobile content is an interesting one. People either go in search of the information they need - pull, or they have information presented to them- push. For a content owner that has something of value to offer, its challenge is to create content that is accessible on a mobile device. While this requires different web development techniques, it is completely achievable today. Content owners don’t have to get permission from anybody to make their information available. They must, however, accept the reality that, for real success on the mobile web, their content must be created and optimized for mobile delivery and search indexing. And what will help them tremendously on this front? Site designers that understand the principles of designing accessible sites that meet W3C guidelines Bryson Munier has published an excellent paper (PDF), that describes challenges and gives specific suggestions about how to succeed now in the mobile market.

While site owners have complete control over creating effective mobile web content, that is not the case with their mobile advertising campaigns. Conducting a mobile advertising campaign means interacting with the telecom companies to secure approvals and coordinate delivery of the campaign - a painful and time-consuming exercise. Check out Mobile Marketing Fantasy Vs. Reality for an excellent summary of the current state of mobile marketing.

Mobile devices use operating systems and browsers custom-designed for the smaller environment. As a result, the success measurement methods used to track website visitor activity via PCs does not work for tracking activity from mobile devices. Several new companies that specialize in mobile access measurement have surfaced, including Amethon, Bango Analytics, GetMobile Analytics, and Mobilytics.  Site owners planning to run mobile campaigns will want to/need to accurate track campaign results, and combine those results with their existing visitor data to get a unified picture of their marketing activities.

So, with all the bits converging, when will we see the big bang? Definitely not 2008. The device wars are beginning in earnest, and telecoms are creating rate plans people can live with, so those two bits will come on quickly. Content creation is only a hurdle to the degree that site owners try to pound a square peg in a round hole. Web-through-PC and web-through-mobile device are very different animals. If that premise is accepted as fact, the content battle can be won fairly quickly. The biggest hurdles are the technical ones -how to quickly and effectively deploy and measure the success of mobile content and ads. The telecoms stranglehold on the “trade routes” for pushed content adds a level of complexity, one that has to be solved. These technical issues will take a bit longer to sort out. I’m guessing 2 years. When we look around at this time in 2010, the mobile world will look very different.