Category: Apps

In-store visits see 80 percent increase from mobile ads

| June 11, 2015

Within the first day of viewing, these smartphone advertisements generate considerable consumer response.

As mobile ads move from being in their early infancy toward the next phase in their maturity, many companies and marketers are still scrambling to try to find the right metrics to be able to measure their effectiveness.

A new report has now revealed that these smartphone and tablet ads can have a large affect on consumers.

The report was issued by NinthDecimal, a mobile intelligence firm based in San Francisco. What it revealed was that mobile ads that were having an impact on the behaviors of the consumers who saw them, and that this affect was on the rise. The study used data from 2014 in the second and fourth quarters . It measured advertisements displayed through Android and Apple apps, though not those that were displayed by way of web browsers. What was shown in The Mobile Audience Insights Report was that within the first day following the viewing of a mobile advertisement, there was an increase of 80 percent of in-store visits.

The report states that this helps to reveal more about the impact of mobile ads, which had previously gone unmeasured.

Mobile Ads increase in-store visitsIn order to come to this conclusion, NinthDecimal both developed and used a Location Conversion Index, which it calls the first ever measurement of the real world behaviors that are the result of engagement over mobile advertisements. According to the company, it based its data on the results and actions of 1535 mobile users who were selected at random, on top of billions of different data points from campaigns that its clients ran on its platform.

What the outcome of the data analysis found, said the report, was that while the impact of mobile advertising can be a considerable one, it is not consistent from one industry to the next nor is it the same from one store to the next. Distance to the nearest store location also plays a role in the outcomes that were measured.

Interestingly, retail mobile ads, for example, were able to generate the greatest results for driving consumers into brick and mortar shops when those shoppers were already between 2 and 5 miles away from the store when they saw the ad. That represents a success rate that was 24 percent better than the average.

Microsoft is using mobile apps to draw users

| June 11, 2015

The company is hoping to win over device owners with a spectrum of Android and Apple compatible applications.

Microsoft has been releasing a range of different mobile apps that are compatible with Android and Apple iOS operating systems in order to help to draw the attention and usage of those device users.

The company has been acquiring startups to help to give its own mobile application offerings a boost.

For example, Microsoft recently purchased a tech startup from Germany called 6Wunderlkinder. Now, it is able to offer mobile apps that compete with some of the core applications that had previously been used on other operating systems. For example the Keep app on Android or the Reminders application on Apple now has competition through the Wunderlist that was created by the newly acquired company.

That is only one example of several moves that Microsoft is making in order to draw users for its mobile apps.

Mobile Apps - MicrosoftAt the same time, the company continues to promote its own Windows operating system for mobile devices. That said, in the grand scheme of things, the number of consumers who are actually purchasing devices based on that OS are quite low compared to the number of people who are using Android and iOS based gadgets. Therefore, the company is ensuring that it will be able to appeal to a larger market by ensuring that its smartphone apps will run on the most popular platforms and not just its own.

The offerings from Microsoft include its Office programs for Android and iOS, which it created itself and released earlier in 2015. That said, it also has a calendar application called Sunrise, which was developed by a company that was purchased by the tech giant back in February. For its email application, it uses Accompli, which was the result of a purchase of another startup.

So far, the mobile apps that Microsoft has been offering – including its own and those developed by startups that it has acquired – have been receiving considerable praise from tech reviewers. It could be that the company may be starting to redefining its niche within the new device marketplace.