A mobile phone ad, or mobile advertising, is a type of marketing that uses mobile phones to generate advertisements. By sending advertisements to cell phone users, marketing companies can effectively reach billions of people. Mobile advertising has proven to be more efficient than Internet advertising, though the two are often compared.
Mobile Web Banners and Mobile Web Posters are the most popular types of mobile advertising. A Mobile Web Banner refers to an advertisement that is placed at the top of a mobile phone screen. A Mobile Web Poster is similar to a Mobile Web Banner, only this banner is placed at the bottom of a phone's screen.
Short Message Service (SMS) advertising is another type of mobile phone ad that tends to gain favorable results. A SMS advertisement appears on a user's phone as a short message; these messages often look like normal text messages. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) advertising is another way of reaching consumers. MMS messages pop-up while a user is attempting to play a game, or download Internet content.
Prior to the establishment of the Mobile Marketing Association, there were no guidelines set in place regarding mobile phone advertising in the US. Once this non-profit association was established, various mobile phone ad marketing guidelines were established. Thus, all mobile advertising companies must adhere to these rules prior to sending out any kind of phone message.
Using cell phones to distribute advertisements to users is a crucial part of the marketing industry. With the introduction of the cell phone, marketers found that users could be reached quickly, and that ads were difficult for users to avoid. Many companies rely now on the mobile phone ad to spread the word about a product or service. While this type of marketing has proven extremely effective, there is also one major drawback to the mobile phone ad.
Even though billions of people around the world use cell phones, not all of these devices are capable of receiving advertisements. Due to different cell phone plans and different cell phone capabilities, advertisers wishing to reach low income consumers cannot rely upon mobile advertising. In these cases, television, radio, and billboard advertisements are still better marketing tools. Still, the average mobile phone ad does reach a large market, and this is the number one thing that mobile advertisers take into account when creating advertisements.