Why marketers shouldn’t get hung up on mobile metrics.

Marketers continue to struggle with issues regarding mobile metrics. However, some of these problems stem from misconceptions about the possibility of mobile measurements and data availability. Below, we will give part of an interview given by eMarketer Craig Palli, director of strategic planning at Fiksu, a provider of mobile marketing technologies. From the article below, you will learn how marketers get the wrong idea about mobile and why some common misconceptions about mobile advertising are still held in people's minds.

- What are the main misconceptions regarding mobile advertising?

The first and biggest misconception concerns data in mobile. If you work in the mobile application market, as a result, you cannot collect good data. However, the reality is that the capabilities of the metrics in the mobile are at least as good as the measurement capabilities in the desktop.

“But if the measurement capabilities in the mobile are comparable to the desktop, where do these common misconceptions come from?”

They follow from the fact that in the desktop everything is based on cookies, and cookies are not used in mobile applications. Marketers say, “I can’t use cookies, so I won’t be able to measure their effectiveness.” The reality is that in fact it’s even easier to conduct metrics in mobile applications, because Apple and Google provide advertising identifiers. But most digital metrics infrastructures are not built around these mobile IDs.

- So, if it turns out that the mobile is very measurable, does it mean that marketers are fixated on the measurements because the results in the mobile are difficult to compare with the desktop?

Many brands do not yet know what it is worth comparing the results in mobile with. In fact, they should pay attention to different metrics. In the desktop, you look at such parameters as - how many impressions I received, how many unique visitors were on the website? And how much time did they spend on the site?

In mobile, you replace these indicators with how many downloads I received (if we are talking about the application)? How many unique users interacted with the application? How much time did they spend in it? How many actions did they commit there?

There is a paradigm in mobile that is close to the desktop, but you just need to modify the metrics a bit, to become more mobile-friendly. After that, all the data is presented in a much more pleasant light.

Of course, certain differences exist.

You will undoubtedly gain more value in the mobile because it is a marketing experience with many events. If I am Procter & Gamble and want to show ads for one of my applications, I can register millions of impressions, many clicks, and these clicks will lead people to the application store directly to my page. Great, isn't it?

But from the side of brand marketing, they also get the consumer on the page of their application, where it is possible to immerse the user in the atmosphere inherent in the brand, through descriptions and calls to action. Then, if the user downloads a branded application, then the brand is constantly present on the user's mobile device. And as soon as the user starts to run the application, he interacts with the brand again and again.

In general, a ton of benefits can be derived from mobile in terms of brand marketing. The benefits you get are far superior to what you can get on the desktop. So mobile is very measurable.

Still, the mobile industry has yet to overcome obstacles in the eyes and minds of marketers regarding the difficulty of understanding data. Let's assume that the average marketer buys mobile advertising and understands that he needs to work with the advertising identifiers of Apple and Android. The next thing they will probably say will be: "I do not have available data to buy an audience, and some third-data providers do not have enough information to work with them."

The reality is that a lot of mobile data is beyond this. Marketers should be smart enough to say, “OK, and what good sources of data are there to create an audience?” and then realize that once having selected and built this audience, they will be able to access it better and more often than this could happen on the desktop. Marketers need to look for other partners than those with whom they worked when advertising on the desktop. BYYD • Mobile Advertising Platform