UNIT IV

MOBILE INTERNET IN INDIA

Mobile internet in India has seen a remarkable transformation over the past decade, emerging as
a key enabler of digital connectivity across the country. With one of the largest user bases
globally, India is now a significant player in the mobile internet ecosystem.

DEVELOPMENTS:
1. Evolution of Networks:
 2G and 3G Era: Initially, mobile internet in India was dominated by 2G (GSM)
networks, which provided basic internet services like browsing and email. 3G
networks, which launched in the late 2000s, brought slightly faster speeds,
enabling video calls and smoother browsing.
 4G Boom (2016 onwards): The launch of 4G LTE networks, particularly driven
by Reliance Jio in 2016, revolutionized the mobile internet landscape. With its
aggressive pricing strategy, offering data plans at significantly lower rates, Jio
pushed for widespread 4G adoption. This led to rapid data consumption growth,
giving users access to high-speed internet at affordable prices.
2. Affordability:
 Mobile internet in India became much more affordable after Jio’s entry. Prior to
Jio’s launch, 1GB of data could cost anywhere between ₹200-300, but after Jio,
data became incredibly cheap, sometimes as low as ₹4 per GB.
  Example: Reliance Jio's introduction of free voice calls and low-cost data
packages forced competitors like Airtel, Vodafone Idea (Vi), and BSNL to lower
their prices, benefiting consumers and increasing mobile internet penetration.
3. Data Consumption:
 India became the largest consumer of mobile data globally, consuming more than
12 GB per user per month by 2021, driven by the consumption of streaming
services like YouTube, Netflix, and Disney+ Hotstar, social media, and online
education platforms.
4. Rural Connectivity:
 The expansion of mobile internet is not limited to urban areas. Telecom
companies and government initiatives like BharatNet have been working towards
connecting rural areas. For example, UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and
mobile banking apps have grown massively in rural regions thanks to mobile
internet, empowering small-scale businesses and local transactions.
5. 5G Launch:
 In 2022, India witnessed the rollout of 5G networks, with companies like
Reliance Jio and Airtel spearheading the launch. 5G promises ultra-fast data
speeds, low latency, and the potential to revolutionize industries like healthcare,
education, and transportation through advancements like IoT (Internet of
Things) and smart cities.
CHALLENGES:
 Network Congestion: Despite improvements, urban areas often face network congestion
due to the large number of users.
 Digital Divide: Rural and remote areas still lag behind in terms of stable connectivity and
infrastructure.

Examples Of Mobile Internet Impact:

1. Education: Platforms like Byju’s, Unacademy, and Vedantu have leveraged mobile
internet to offer digital learning solutions. During the pandemic, mobile internet became
the primary mode of accessing online education for students across all income levels.
2. Digital Payments: UPI transactions, heavily reliant on mobile internet, reached billions
of transactions per month. Services like Paytm, Google Pay, and PhonePe enable quick
and secure payments, even in rural regions.
3. E-Commerce: Platforms like Flipkart, Amazon, and smaller local businesses have used
mobile internet to reach a wider audience, allowing users to shop for goods from the
comfort of their homes.
In summary, mobile internet in India has grown exponentially in terms of accessibility,
affordability, and usage, making it a critical tool for digital transformation across sectors like
education, healthcare, and commerce. The future of mobile internet with 5G is poised to unlock
even more opportunities for innovation.
EMERGENCE OF SMART APP PHONES
SMARTPHONE HISTORY:
Smartphones have forever changed the way we live, communicate, work, and stay
entertained. For many, these mobile devices have replaced landline phones, cameras, music
players, and so much more. But how did smartphones become smart?
Below, you’ll find a historical smartphone timeline: How we went from call-only to the catch-all
device we know and rely on today.

1973 — Working prototype of a mobile cellular phone

In 1973, Motorola engineer Dr. Martin Cooper and his team created a working mobile phone
prototype. The first ever cell phone call was made in New York City – Dr. Cooper called Joel
Engel, a rival researcher from Bell Labs. It was the start of a mobile device revolution.

1983 — First cell phone gets approval

A decade later, the first mobile phone, dubbed Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, was approved by the
Federal Communication Commission. Nicknamed “The Brick,” the handheld cell phone weighed
nearly 2 pounds, had a 30-minute battery life, and was priced at $3,995.
In the same year, Ameritech introduced 1G to the U.S.

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

1991 — 2G and lithium-ion batteries
In Finland, 2G launched on the Global System for Mobile Communications.
That same year, Sony and its engineer Asahi Kasei commercialize a lightweight and
rechargeable lithium-ion battery. This was a revolutionary moment in the history of smartphones,
as this type of battery is still used today.
1992 — First smartphone announced and first SMS sent
IBM engineer Frank Canova created a “smartphone” prototype with the code name
Sweetspot. This is considered to be the first true smartphone. It was demonstrated at a computer
industry tradeshow. While successful, it wouldn't be marketed to consumers for another two
years.
‍ In December 1992, the first text message was sent. It read “Merry Christmas” and was
sent from Neil Papworth, an engineer at Sema Group.

1994 — First smartphone hits the market

IBM Simon Personal Communicator, a refined version of Canova’s prototype, became
available to consumers. It had a touchscreen and users could not only make phone calls, but
receive faxes and emails too. IBM Simon also introduced the first apps, like an address book,
calendar, calculator, appointment scheduler, and notepad.
The phone had a price tag of $1,099 and sold 50,000 units in the first six months.

The first smartphone: IBM Simon

1997 — The term smartphone was coined and mobile gaming was introduced
After three years on the market, the term "smartphone" entered the vernacular. It was first
used by Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson to describe its new mobile device called
GS88.
 ‍
The GS88 smartphone
‍
It’s hard to think of a world before Angry Birds, Pokemon Go, or Stumble Guys. But the
reality is mobile gaming didn’t start until 1997.
The first mobile game was Snake. The game was loaded on Nokia’s 6110 hand-held
mobile phones by Finnish developer Taneli Armanto. This launched the mobile gaming
industry, which is now worth up to $152 billion.

Snake game on the Nokia phone

1999 — First front-facing camera phone and GPS
The first commercial camera phone, called the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, was
released in Japan. It had a single front-facing camera. The device could snap up to 20 photos and
send them via email, or snap 2 photos per second and send them via Japan’s cellular network.
The same year mobile phone maker Benefon introduced the first commercial phone
called Benefon Esc equipped with GPS technology. It was primarily sold in Europe but was a
trailblazer for GPS in phones.

2000 — First back-facing camera phone

The J-SH04, released by Sharp, was sold in Japan. It had a back-facing built-in camera. It
could instantly transmit photos via carrier network. It is considered the first mass-market camera
phone.
2001 — Hello, 3G networks
For the first time, mobile phones could connect to the internet via 3G network. This
marked the start of the widespread use of the internet on mobile phones.

2004 — Live-assisted GPS technology

U.S. electronics company Qualcomm invented and tested live-assisted GPS. This
significantly improved live location accuracy.

2007 — First iPhone by Apple

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the world’s first iPhone at the Macworld convention.
Jobs called the original iPhone a “revolutionary and magical product.” The first model had a
touch screen, GPS, camera, iPod, and internet access. Its software capabilities were a turning
point for the smartphone industry.
The first year on the market, Apple sold more than 1.4 million inaugural iPhones.

‍
The first iPhone

2008 — First Android smartphone

The world’s first Android-powered mobile phone entered the market. It was called T-
Mobile G1, also known as HTC Dream. It had a touch screen, QWERTY keyboard and internet
access. The phone physically slid to unveil the keyboard and had a BlackBerry-style trackball to
help navigate.
 T-Mobile G1
2009 — 4G network
Swedish company Telia Sonera released 4G for commercial use. The 4G service enabled
faster data transmission speeds – about 10 times faster than 3G.

2019 — 5G network
Verizon rolled out the first 5G network in the world. It had a relatively small footprint in
Chicago and Minneapolis.
 MOBILE APPLICATION

What is a Mobile App?

To put it simply, a mobile app is a software application designed to function on mobile

phones and tablets. Apps have definitely simplified our lives, to the extent that most of us would
be lost without them today.
A Brief History of the Evolution of Mobile Apps

Before we delve into the history of apps, let us take a quick look at the history of mobile phones.

 1979 – Japan launched the first automated cellular network for cars.
 1983 – Motorola launched the first commercially available mobile phone – DynaTAC
8000X. The evolution of mobile phones began with this model.
 1989 – Psion released a mobile OS called EPOC
 1991 – GSM launches 2-G cellular networks
 1992 – Nokia launches the 1011m the first GSM phone
 1993 – Apple launches Message pad, the first tablet.
 1994 – The very first smartphone, Simon, was launched by IBM. It contained a few
simple apps like calendar, address book, sketchpad calculator, world clock, notepad,
touchscreen, email capability, and so on. The history of mobile applications starts from
here. Nokia also launched the 2110, the smallest GSM phone then.
 1997 – Nokia includes a game app, ‘The Snake’ in its phone
 1999 – WAP was introduced; Blackberry OS was released and used for pagers. The first
‘app store’ Handango was launched. Web App concept introduced by Java.

At the turn of the millennium, once the Y2K scare was finally extinguished, the smartphone
revolution really took off. The pace of mobile app development picked up, and became
increasingly sophisticated in nature.

In 2002, RIM launched the Blackberry 5810 with pre-loaded apps like ringtone editor, to-do list,
sketch pad, arcade games, and also introduced wireless email.

However, the real game changer was when Steve Jobs’ Apple launched the iPhone in 2007,
which had several apps like photos, maps, weather, and more. A year later, HTC released the
first Android smartphone, the HTC Dream. In 2008 itself, Apple launched its App Store with
over 500 apps, and version 2.0 of their OS. A whopping 10 million downloads took place within
three days of the launch! Not to be outdone, Google launched the Android market. Apple crossed
a billion downloads by year-end.

In April 2010, Apple released the iPad, with 11,000 apps specifically optimised for the device in
the app store. By August of that year, Android app downloads had exceeded one billion. The
word ‘app’ was chosen as the word of the year by the American Dialect Society.
After that, it’s been a whirlwind, with hundreds of apps being added to the Apple and Android
app stores. Customers became more demanding and wanted more features, and more apps to do
new things. Gradually, Blackberry and Nokia phones dropped out of the race, as they didn’t keep
up with the advancements and the progress made by Samsung, Apple, HTC, and the new-gen
manufacturers like OnePlus. In 2011, both Android and iOS app downloads crossed 10 billion. It
was also the year that Google Play Music was launched.

In 2013, over 50 billion downloads took place in both markets; by 2017, over 2.2 million apps
were available in the Apple store, and 2.8 million in the Android store.
Uses of Mobile Apps

Mobile applications have a wide range of uses. Let’s look at some of the most popular ones:

Shopping

One of the most common types of mobile apps are for shopping. There are several sub-divisions
here. For example, Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, etc are marketplaces where shoppers can find
different brands and products all in one place.

Then there are individual ecommerce apps of businesses – like the Nike store, Ajio, Tata Cliq,
and any small local business. These apps make it convenient for shoppers to buy whenever they
want without leaving home.

Games

If you have teenagers at home, you know what I’m talking about! But it’s not just young kids,
even adults play games – there are many word games, puzzles, and brain-stimulating games apart
from arcade games.

One of the earliest popular games was Tetris. Multi-player games like PUBG had taken the
world by storm at one point. Some of the other hugely popular gaming apps include Temple Run,
Angry Birds, Candy Crush, etc.

Rideshare

Uber revolutionised the way people commuted! By simply entering their pickup and drop
location, people could reserve a cab ride. Ola and Lyft are other examples.

Food

Food aggregators made it super simple to order food from home. Users can browse through
dozens of food providers, place orders, and get delivery at their doorstep within 30 to 45
minutes. Uber Eats, Swiggy, and Zomato are the most popular food aggregator apps. Chains like
Domino’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, etc. have their own apps as well.
Banking

Paying card bills, opening or breaking fixed deposits, transferring money – all of this can be
done with a few taps on your smartphone now. Every bank has its own app.

Ticket Booking

Airlines, railways, and bus companies all have their own individual apps that let you book tickets
on the go. You can compare prices, check availability, choose the class and more in minutes.
Travel aggregators like Expedia, Kaya, GoIbibo also facilitate flight and train bookings.

Image Editing

Now anyone can edit photos and enhance them, thanks to apps like Canva, InShot, and
Photoshop.

Hotel Booking

Vacationers can make all their accommodation bookings in advance by browsing the options and
making comparisons on different sites like Booking.com, Agoda, MMT, and more. The bigger
hotels may have their own apps too.

Social Media

Who can live without social media in today’s world? These apps help people stay in touch with
friends and family, share news, photos, debate, and a whole lot more. Instagram is the most
downloaded app of all.

Other wildly popular apps are X (Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Snapchat,
Telegram, etc. There are also specific apps for dating, like Tinder and Bumble.

Meetings

While Skype was already functional, the pandemic necessitated having apps that allowed people
to conduct official meetings online. Zoom became the most popular app, followed by Google
Meet and MS Teams.

Entertainment

Lastly, apps to stream music, like Spotify, and streaming movies and TV shows like Hulu and
Netflix are also widely used by people all over the world.

There are apps that help you stay fit by reminding you to count your calories, exercise, count
how many steps you walked, and so on. This can motivate the users to lead a healthier lifestyle.
Of course, this is not a comprehensive list, there are many more – but these are some of the most
widely used types of apps.
TYPES OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS:

There are three basic types of mobile apps based on the technology used.

1) Native Apps

These are created for a specific platform or operating system. There are native apps for Android
and iOS devices, and other devices out there. As they are built for a specific platform, you can’t
use an app built for one platform on another – like, an iOS app can’t be used on an Android
phone.
Technology

Mobile app technology used to build native apps are React Native, C++, Objective-C,
Java, Python, Kotlin, and Swift are used to code native apps.
Pros:

 Faster and better performance

 More efficient utilisation of device resources
 Delivers optimised experience to users by using the native device interface
 Ability to access contacts, Bluetooth, NFC, Photos, and other device features as they
connect with the hardware directly
Cons:

 Duplication of effort as each platform needs its own app

 More expensive and time-consuming
 Users have to download new files to reinstall whenever the app is updated
 Consumes more storage space

2) Web Apps

These are the responsive website versions capable of working on all mobile devices or operating
systems as they are delivered via mobile browsers. They behave like native apps but are accessed
through web browsers. They are responsive websites that adapt to the device UI of the user.
Basically, when you install a web app, you are just bookmarking the website. Progressive Web
Apps are native apps that run within browsers.
Technology

Languages like Ruby, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, etc. are used to code web apps.
Pros:

 Eliminates the need for OS or platform customisation

 Reduces cost of development
 Doesn’t not eat up device space
 Updates are pushed over the web in real time, eliminating the need for update downloads
Cons:

 Web apps are completely browser-dependent

 User experience may vary as functionalities of browsers differ
 They work minimally offline – no data backup, screen refresh, or new data offering will
take place

3) Hybrid Apps

A combination of the native and web apps, hybrid apps are wrapped within a native app, and can
be either downloaded from the app store or have their own icons on the device. They look and
feel like native apps though they are web apps in reality. They feature responsive design and are
high-performing, and can also run offline.
Technology

A combination of mobile app technologies comprising native APIs and web technologies are
used to build hybrid apps: Objective-C, HTML 5, Swift, Ionic, and so on.
Pros:

 Hybrid apps can be developed faster and more economically

 It can help prove viability of building native apps
 They load quickly, and are ideal where the internet is slow
 Deliver consistent UX
 Less code maintenance thanks to single code base
Cons:

 Less powerful
 Slower while running
 MOBILE MARKETING
What is Mobile Marketing?
Mobile marketing is any advertising or marketing campaign that promotes products or
services through mobile devices. By connecting with customers through mobile devices, you can
create a cohesive customer experience. Most people always have their phones with them,
allowing you to connect with customers in real time. Mobile marketing is used to attract
customers in an interactive and personalized way.

Objective Of Mobile Marketing:

In the above paragraphs, we have discussed the different types of mobile marketing.
Once your organizations are fully convinced with the adoption of a long-term mobile marketing
strategy. The management has to clearly define the objectives they want to accomplish from
mobile marketing.
 New lead generation
 Customer retention
 Detailed information on the goods and services of the company
 Future plans and product launches
 Brand engagement

TYPES OF MOBILE MARKETING / FORM OF MOBILE MARKETING:

Growing the number of mobile users and also growing the number of ways companies
may drag the mobile phone users to use their services. Some of the services, which are currently
followed, are listed below:

1. SMS Marketing
 Marketing making use of cellphones by sending SMS (Short Message Service) started
and grew in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia. It became the most practices
marketing channel to interact with more end-users to generate profit. SMS became the most
reliable and genuine way of marketing, unlike email. A list of rules and conditions are created, to
be strictly followed where you can send the SMS only to your opt-in list instead of purchased
one. This helped avoid spam practiced by companies.
Shortcode, long codes were used to send these SMS, which was unique for each user.
SMS promise approximately above 90% open ratio and response as it contains only inbox, not
spam-box. This feature promises good profit and higher subscribers.
As per the graph results mentioned above the number of mobile users especially
smartphones in the year 2014 grew more than the desktop users. This makes sure that using SMS
ad will let you contact more people and the number of SMS read will be higher than the number
of emails opened by the subscribers.

2. MMS Marketing
Sharing images, text, audio, video is easy on smartphones, tablets, etc. Multimedia
Message Service gives an opportunity to the companies to share their product advertisement
using MMS services. All the companies can use the MMS Application to personal service to
send and receive the MMS.
Sharing images, video, and audio is more interacting than a simple text SMS.

3. App-Based Marketing
The next pace after SMS and MMS is the applications designed dedicated to a brand.
These applications will be some paid and most free which can be easily downloaded in the
smartphones, tabs. This will be a kind of mini-website or mini-interface, which you may run on
your mobile device easily as on desktop. These apps allow direct interaction, payment, and
advertising.

4. Location-Based Marketing
This simply is a method to share your ad messages to your subscribers based on the
location. The location can be tracked through the GPS chip in the mobile device and like this,
ads can be shared containing area-wise offers.

5. Mobile Web Marketing

Generate web pages and web forms design, which is perfect to be viewed in the mobile
defines mobile web marketing. Every provider has set up its own instructions to generate a
design perfect for a smartphone. This generates the option to view services, purchase goods, and
hence grow the communication with your subscribers.

6. In-game Mobile Marketing

 With growing technology the demand for richer games in increased. The brans insert
their banners, ads in these games, or integrate the complete game in their application to drive the
crowd and grow the subscribers and hence the profit.
This can be compared to Facebook who has integrated a lot of games in it to grow the signups
just to play the game and keep the traffic growing.

7. Push Notifications
This is a system developed and used by Apple where whenever a message is received it
appears on the screen as a notification. With the applications generated by the brand, this feature
is quite useful in order to keep the user updated about the new offers, coupons, new stock, etc.
Keep your subscriber engaged and up-to-date about all new introductions in your application.
This makes the promotion an easy way.

8. Proximity system
The proximity system helps the brand to track the user and send the SMS as containing
information in a certain close geographical area. This required the use of GSM which then
defines the SMS-CB (Short Message Service- Cell Broadcast). Through this GSM-based SMS-
CB, the brands target their subscribers in the decided near the geographical area and broadcast
the SMS when the mobiles are tracked nearby. This is a good system of sending the ad SMS to
drag the attention of the subscribers.

MOBILE MARKETING STRATEGIES

Some of the most important types of mobile marketing strategies include SMS marketing,
social media marketing, location-based marketing, proximity marketing, and in-app marketing.
Here’s how these mobile advertising strategies work.

1. SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is marketing via text messages. It’s also known as text message
marketing or text marketing. This is a permission-based mobile marketing strategy in which
brands send promotions, deals, coupons and other alerts straight to potential customers’ phones
via text messages of 160 characters or less.
One of the reasons SMS marketing is such a powerful mobile advertising strategy is
because text messages have high deliverability, open and engagement rates. The stats show that:
 SMS open rates range from 90-99%
 90% of SMS messages are opened within 3 minutes
 Click-through rates can be more than double that of email
That’s likely because most people have their phones with them most of the time, and because
they get push notifications for incoming text messages, making those harder to ignore.
Since text messages are so short, many marketers include a link where recipients can get more
product information, or a code that triggers a follow-up message. One best practice for SMS
marketing is to avoid overusing it; this tactic is most effective for time-sensitive promotions.

2. Social Media Marketing

Many smartphone owners use them to access social media. Statista shows that globally,
Facebook has more than 2.8 billion monthly active users, with YouTube, WhatsApp, and
Instagram close behind. With all of those users in one place, it makes sense to use social media
as one of your main mobile marketing strategies.
Social media makes it easy to create a personal connection with your customers via
comments and messages. You can also increase brand awareness and boost your
conversions with customer referrals and recommendations.
Though some companies choose to focus on organic social media posts, it’s increasingly
common to use social media advertising to guarantee that you’ll reach the right customers. Some
options include:
 Facebook ads, or boosted (promoted) posts
 Promoted tweets on Twitter
 Shoppable or promoted pins on Pinterest
 LinkedIn ads or promoted posts
Typically, this mobile marketing strategy lets you create an audience with demographic
information, and set campaign goals, budgets and durations.

3. Location-Based Marketing (GPS)

Location-based marketing uses the GPS function on smartphones to help marketers show
promotions and relevant content according to users’ locations. Sometimes location-based
marketing is called geotargeting or geolocation marketing.
Research shows that the global location based advertising market, which was already
valued at more than $62 billion USD back in 2019, is expected to grow at a rate of over 17%
from 2022 to 2027. This type of marketing results in more engagement and a better response,
because it is more relevant to where mobile users are and what they are doing.
For example, you can show a promotion for a restaurant to someone who’s in the area and
encourage that person to visit the restaurant. Coach used location targeting to drive thousands of
visits to its stores, so this is a proven way to increase foot traffic.
4. Proximity Marketing
Proximity marketing is another form of location-based marketing. This lets you use
Bluetooth to figure out where potential customers are, and target them with appropriate
promotions.
One example of this is beacon marketing, which relies on physical Bluetooth-enabled
devices in or near stores. These send short-range signals to mobile devices, which people see
when they are near your location. This is another proven way to drive foot traffic. Toyota used
proximity marketing to attract more customers likely to buy at local car dealerships.

5. In-app Marketing
Smart marketers can’t ignore the app market. According to Business of Apps the top five
apps include TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram — but there are hundreds
of thousands of other apps, which is why in-app advertising has become a key mobile
marketing strategy.
Types of in-app advertising include:
 Display advertising like banners that appear at the top or bottom of a mobile screen
 Native advertising, which are promotions styled to mimic the app environment
 Video ads
 Interstitial ads, which appear in between app actions. For example, sometimes these
ads appear when moving from one game level to another

FIVE MOBILE MARKETING TOOLS FOR SUCCESS:

The 5 mobile marketing tools you’ll need include GroundTruth Ads Manager, geofencing
advertising, weather targeting, audience targeting and brand insights.
1. GroundTruth Ads Manager
 GroundTruth Ads Manager is a single platform that allows you to reach up to 120
million monthly visitors with mobile marketing. The technology is third-party verified and
allows you to target potential customers based on the places they visit and the stores they shop
in.
Customization options include distance, direction and click-to-call and you can use
GroundTruth’s cost–per-visit model to ensure you only pay when someone actually visits your
store. GroundTruth Ads Manager makes it easy to track progress with in-depth location
analytics.

2. Geofencing Advertising
Geofencing advertising is another important form of mobile advertising which creates a
virtual boundary around a location. For example, you can use this to identify a building or
shopping area. GroundTruth uses its proprietary Blueprints technology to ensure that your
geofence is accurate.
Once you create your geofence, you can show mobile ads to people who fall within the
area and who meet your criteria. This approach combines GPS with audience insights to help you
improve the efficacy of your mobile ad promotions. This is an accurate and highly scalable form
of mobile advertising.

3. Weather Targeting
The weather affects consumer behavior. Sometimes people may choose to stay in or go
out, and at other times it affects what they buy. Either way, you can use weather targeting to
make your mobile marketing even more effective.
GroundTruth’s network of weather sensors is highly accurate, allowing you to target
mobile advertising according to prevailing or expected weather conditions. You can serve ads
depending on UV index, wind, temperature, and weather alerts. You can also combine weather
targeting with other forms of location data to make your ads even more relevant and actionable.

4. Audience Targeting
Ever wondered how to leverage offline behavior to increase foot traffic? You can do this
with audience targeting. This mobile marketing tool lets you reach customers based on factors
like:
 Demographics
 Online and offline behavior
 Past and current behavior
 Interests
 Location
The result is that you can reach customers with mobile marketing at the time when
they’re most likely to buy. For example, if a customer has visited your brick and mortar store,
you can send them an offer based on their behavior in-store. Or you can send a message to
someone who’s out and about based on how they interacted with your website.
And you can combine audience targeting with location marketing and geo-fencing to make your
mobile marketing even more targeted and relevant to your potential customers.

5. Brand Insights
One of the best ways to increase foot traffic to your store is to understand what’s really
happening with your visitors. GroundTruth’s brand insights tool provides location analytics and
other insights including market share, foot traffic, brand affinity and more. This can help you
really hone in on the right mobile marketing campaigns to attract your perfect audience.

Mobile Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing:

Mobile marketing engages customers through their mobile devices, traditional marketing is
any marketing that is not online. Traditional marketing can include newspaper, television, radio,
and billboard ads. Typically, traditional marketing is one-way communication, whereas, with
mobile marketing, customers can interact with your business through mobile advertisements.
Here are some examples of the main differences between mobile and traditional marketing:
 Reach Audiences –
 traditional marketing reaches a more general audience
 mobile marketing allows you to reach specific customer segments.
 Engage Audiences –
 customers cannot directly respond to traditional marketing because it is a one-way
message
 customers can interact with mobile marketing content.
 Time –
 when you stop running a traditional ad it is over, making it a good short-
term strategy;
 mobile marketing exists forever online, making it a more long-term strategy.
 Measurability –
  it is more difficult to measure the success of traditional marketing campaigns;
 mobile marketing campaigns are easier to measure because they target specific
audiences.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Marketing:

Mobile marketing allows you to reach highly targeted customer segments and engage
with them through relevant marketing campaigns.

Advantages:
 Accessible and Immediate – you can reach an audience from anywhere at any time, the
fastest way to communicate with customers
 Global Audience – people have mobile phones across the world, so you can reach who
you choose
 Multiple Channels – provides flexibility and opportunity to reach customers through
websites, apps, text, social media, and more
 Personalization – mobile devices are an extension of the user, so any information
customers receive from their mobile devices will seem much more personal to the
customer
 Viral Potential – content is easily shared creating free exposure and the potential for your
content to be shared everywhere

Disadvantages:
 Little Room for Error – hard to fix any mistakes before they are seen by customers,
potential for a negative first Potential for
 Bad User Experiences – bad ads can also go viral, which can be detrimental to your
business
 Navigation Issues – different devices have different screen sizes making it difficult to
standardize an image, some people may not want to or be able to go to your ad with their
type of device
 Privacy and Permission – people are concerned about privacy on their mobile devices, so
consider how customers protect themselves online and offer ways to opt out of
communications
 Constant Updates – technology is continually updated, so you will constantly have to
educate your team on how to use the latest updates and ensure your customers also know
how to access your ad with new updates
 MOBILE ADVERTISING

What is mobile advertising?

Let’s start with the basics. Mobile advertising is a marketing method displayed on smartphones
and tablets through paid channels. Whether it’s banner ads in mobile games or SMS ads, mobile
advertising is one of the most effective methods to advertise in today’s digital age.

Mobile marketing vs. mobile advertising

Marketing and advertising are oftentimes used interchangeably, but wrongly so (even outside the
world of mobile).

Mobile advertising is a paid methodology utilizing channels like in-app ads, banner ads, text
ads, and rich media mobile ads. On the other hand, mobile marketing encompasses the broad
practice of marketing on mobile devices, which includes mobile advertising.

Traditionally, mobile advertising includes banner ads, interstitial ads, video ads, rewarded
ads, playable ads and more (which we’ll cover in more detail in chapter 3).

As to the most prominent mobile advertising platforms, these would include Google Ads, Meta
ads, Apple Search, AdMob, Tube Mogul, and Airpush.

Broadly speaking, Mobile marketing can come in many forms — including non-paid methods
such as content marketing, interactive augmented reality (AR) campaigns, and check-in
coupons.
Starbucks’ mobile marketing strategy is a combination of many effective tactics including geo-
based engagement, digital payments, robust loyalty program, and an effective notification
system.

These tactics allow Starbucks to cash in $1.6 billion of preloaded money simply from their
rewards program.

For example, Japanese fashion brand UNIQLO allowed mobile users to check in to any of their
stores to receive an exclusive coupon using geo-based segmentation, social media, and in-app
engagement.

Another example of mobile marketing is Lucasfilm’s promotion of “The Mandalorian” through

an AR app, which allowed fans to interact with Mandlorian heroes from the comfort of their own
homes.

The mobile ad ecosystem: a brief overview

To say there are many moving parts in the world of mobile advertising would be an
understatement. Here’s a brief overview of how it works:

Basic terminology
 Brands – meaning the companies that advertise their products or services.
 Agencies – the liaison between brands and ad networks (and sometimes ad exchanges).
 Publishers – the platforms where ads are shown to relevant audiences.
 Mobile ad networks – aggregate advertising inventory and pair them with appropriate
advertisers.
 Mobile ad exchanges – automate the buying and selling of ads programmatically.

Benefits and challenges of mobile advertising

Now that you’re familiar with the basic terms, let’s talk about the opportunities and challenges in
the world of mobile advertising. With increasing privacy changes, comes increasing challenges
to solve. Here’s what to expect.

The upside

1 – Advertisers reach more users via mobile phones. Research shows that more than half the
global population owns mobile phones, which has gained mass adoption in both developed and
developing countries. As of 2021, 72.7% of Americans own a smartphone.

2 – Hyper-targeted advertising. Mobile advertising utilizes profitable data points about your
target audience, providing your iOS14+ users have consented to their data collection. This
includes demographics, device, mobile connection, operating system, preferences, hobbies,
location, habits, and spending behavior.

3 – Placement and timing. Since smartphone users carry their phones with them at all times,
advertisers can leverage geolocation and send timely offers to consenting users at the most ideal
time of day.

For example, providing you’re an Android or a consenting iOS14+ user, you might get a
Starbucks promotion when you’re a block away from the store. Alternatively, you might be
encouraged to visit a certain gas station while using a GPS navigation app.

4 – Cost effectiveness. Despite the recent challenges around access to user-level data, mobile
advertising still boasts higher conversion rates and more granular segmentation than traditional
channels, which proves to be much more cost effective for advertisers at scale.

The downside
Increasing privacy measures. As Apple rolled out the ATT framework and Google moves
towards a cookie-less browser experience, more and more privacy measures are being put in
place.

Marketers and publishers are finding alternative solutions including

utilizing SKAdNetwork, Data Clean Rooms, predictive modeling, and leveraging cohort
analysis. More on this later.

Fraud. Mobile ad fraud has been a challenge for marketers since the practice began. Whether
it’s bots, fake installs, device farms, or install hijacking, bad actors will be where the money is.

And as mobile advertising spend continues to scale massively, there will be an increasing need
for more accurate measurement and fraud detection.

MOBILE ADVERTISING TYPES AND FORMATS:

Mobile ads can come in many shapes and sizes, depending on their purpose, context, audience,
and category. Here are the most common mobile ad types and formats:

1 – Banner ad unit. Time-based rectangular ads that appear at the top or bottom of the screen.
They can include text, image rich media, or videos. Banner ads are the most common and easy to
implement.

2 – Native ads. Ads that replicate the look and feel of your app or website while appearing
‘native’ to the user. These ads are especially effective on long-form written content and can be
created in the form of image or video ads.

3 – Rewarded ads. Ads that incentivizes users to engage by rewarding them with in-game
benefits after they play a game, complete a survey, or watch videos.

4 – Video ads. Ads with video and audio, which may come in multiple formats including
bumpers, skippable in-stream, non-skippable in-stream, outstream, in-feed video, and masthead
ads.

5 – Audio ads. Audio-only ads that are utilized on music and voice applications including
Spotify and Amazon Echo.

6 – Playable ads. Provide a playable, shortened version of a game designed to give users a taste
of the full in-game experience. Playables are highly interactive and drive the highest CPMs for
gaming apps.

7 – Interstitial ads. Ads that show between breaks and transitions and take up the entire screen,
typically between levels in games.

8 – Text ads. Text-only ads that are utilized on search platforms like Google and Bing.