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The Billions In Mobile Ad Money Nobody Can Grab

Posted by samzenpus on from the cleaning-up dept.

jfruh writes "Here's a pressing mystery: despite users spending an increasing amount on their mobile phones, mobiile advertising only produces 20% of the revenues per page that web advertising does. This seems like a big opportunity for somebody, but a whole complex of reasons might mean that it isn't just a matter of someone being smart enough to do mobile ads right. The whole advertising industry, which in many ways still resembles the Mad Men-era old boy's network, simply may not be equipped to cope."

6 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Cant be done "right". by Kenja · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The screen real-estate on a mobile device is too tight for an add to be non-intrusive and simply piss people off. Annoyed customers are not paying customers.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Cant be done "right". by Roogna · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Annoyed customers are not paying customers.

      Hulu could stand to learn from this. In general their ads are just what they are, but they always have that "Is this ad relevant to you?" thing up in the corner. There's some ads that I dislike, so much, I actually take the effort to click no on. Surprisingly I then continue to see those ads over and over again. This generally just annoys me to the point where I would never, ever, purchase whatever product that is, or from whatever company is advertising.

      Ironically the advertisers could get a much bigger bank for their buck by not wasting money showing a particular ad to people who have already said that the ad doesn't interest them.

    2. Re:Cant be done "right". by bitt3n · · Score: 5, Funny

      The screen real-estate on a mobile device is too tight for an add to be non-intrusive and simply piss people off. Annoyed customers are not paying customers.

      they should take advantage of the speaker phone, so when your GPS detects you're walking by CVS, your phone announces "TIRED OF DEALING WITH THAT EMBARRASSING INCONTINENCE PROBLEM YOU GOOGLED ABOUT? WHY NOT PICK UP SOME DEPENDS AT 5% OFF WHEN BUNDLED WITH YOUR HERCEPTIN PRESCRIPTION?"

      --
      how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
  2. Mobile ads are a waste of time, space, and money. by JustAnotherIdiot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Be honest those of you who have a smart phone, when is the last time you saw an ad on it and seriously thought about even clicking it, much less spending money on what was shown?

    --
    What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
  3. Re:Mobile ads are a waste of time, space, and mone by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I saw an ad once that interested me, but I didn't click on it simply because it would have exited the app I was in and switched to a web browser. If my phone had the equivalent of a taskbar that allows you to quickly and easily switch between open programs, then I probably would have clicked it. Of course, that was one ad in the seven months I've owned a smartphone.

  4. Re:Mobile ads are a waste of time, space, and mone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Android has a task bar type thing. When you hold the "Home" button for 3 seconds it brings up you most recent applications. Tapping on an application pulls it's most recent state from the stack and restores it exactly as you left it.

    --Sparksis