Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on their smartphones, tablets, and/or other mobile devices, via websites, email, SMS and MMS, social media, and apps.

Mobile is disrupting the way people engage with brands. Everything that can be done on a desktop computer is now available on a mobile device. From opening an email to visiting your website to reading your content, it's all accessible through a small mobile screen. Consider:

  • 80% of internet users own a smartphone.
  • Mobile platforms, such as smartphones and tablets, host up to 60% of digital media time for users in the U.S.
  • Google anticipates search queries on mobile devices to surpass desktop searches by the end of 2015.

Effective mobile advertising means understanding your mobile audience, designing content with mobile platforms in mind, and making strategic use of SMS/MMS marketing and mobile apps.

According to Mobile Marketing Report 2018, there are over 3.5 billion individual mobile Internet users. Users spend an average of 69% of their media time on smartphone devices. Mobile is the dominant platform for searches, as 48% of buyers use smartphones to start searching with a search engine. Mobile devices drive 80% percent of global Internet usage.

Technology in the mobile marketing space evolves fast. The feature phone ecosystem from just a few years ago was a highly fragmented space and channels like SMS were popular due to their ubiquity. But now, the popularity of Android and iOS smart devices has radically transformed the mobile marketing environment, blurring PC, Web, and mobile channels. New data on consumer behavior shows that apps are now a preferred channel for consumers. Time Spent on Mobile is Mostly in Apps In a new survey from eMarketer, mobile now accounts for 12% of Americans’ media consumption, triple what it was in 2009. The shift towards apps from mobile web is now also very clear, with the average smartphone owner spending 127 minutes per day in apps. That’s over two hours per day.

How Does Mobile Marketing Work?

Mobile marketing consists of ads that appear on mobile smartphones, tablets, or other mobile devices. Mobile marketing ad formats, customization, and styles can vary, as many social media platforms, websites, and mobile apps offer their own unique and tailored mobile ad options.