Research: Mobile Web Ads Beat Apps

The research seems to suggest that although applications may be a good way to reach a company’s most loyal customers, they may not be the best way to engage a more casual consumer.  A small percentage of loyal customers may be willing to download the ad-supported app of a favorite retailer. But consumers accustomed to the online model are more comfortable connecting with advertising that they encounter on mobile-optimized websites.

Android device users are much more likely to make ad requests than iPhone or BlackBerry users. Almost 40 percent of Android users made such requests in April, compared with 29.8 percent of iOS users and 24.8 percent of BlackBerry users.

The report delivered some interesting findings regarding the growing precision with which mobile advertisers are identifying their audiences. Marketers are quickly moving away from the carpet bombing techniques used in early mobile ad campaigns. The report indicated that marketers have continued to refine the ways in which they reach mobile consumers. Fifty percent of advertisers on Jumptap’s network employed at least one targeting parameter in their ad campaigns. Fifteen percent of targeted campaigns used location as a parameter; fourteen percent used handset type. Age was the criteria in 7 percent of targeted campaigns; country was the criteria in 5 percent.

Not surprisingly, consumers with household incomes above $50,000 “were more than twice as likely to engage with ads” as those with lower incomes. And although Jumptap’s network reaches men and women in even numbers, the report indicated that men engaged with mobile advertising a surprising 62 percent more often.

Young people have, apparently learned to tune out mobile advertising much more effectively than their parents. According to the report, consumers over the age of 40 were almost five times likelier than younger consumers to click through on mobile ads they encountered through surfing.

Mobile Web and ad-supported app figures take into account and are applicable to only those consumers with smartphones. But adoption of smartphones has accelerated dramatically. According to research released by the Nielsen Company in March, smartphones will overtake feature phones in the U.S. market by the end of 2011.