Category: Featured News

Mobile ad spend is increasingly aimed at native social advertising

BIA/Kelsey research has shown that this one area is taking a considerable share of marketing budgets.

Marketers are increasing their mobile ad spend in very specific areas. New research shows that both sponsored content and native advertising are becoming an increasingly important focus.

This is particularly true since mobile ad blocking has become such a popular practice among consumers.

The BIA/Kelsey chief analyst and vice president of content, Michael Boland, said that “Native social advertising is the big headline of this forecast.” He added that the FAN and news feed add success from Facebook has provided a new perspective on advertising. As a result, “we’ve dialed up native social’s share of the mobile ad revenue pie.”

Trends in mobile ad spend have also shown that Snapchat and Instagram are moving in similar directions. These include changes to boost the attractiveness and impact of native social formats for marketers.

The report also underscores the falling mobile ad spend when it comes to banner advertising methods.

Mobile ad spend Advertising MarketEven before this report was published, it was clear that banner ads have already fallen out of favor on Facebook. The platform determined that they don’t have very much value when compared to native and video advertising methods.

Boland also explained that the growing use of ad blockers has only accelerated the mobile marketing industry’s trends. As a whole, mobile advertising is moving away from banners and toward material that is immune to blockers. This primarily includes content marketing.

Boland stated that the millennial generation is also being taken into account. For them mobile ad spend on native social ads is more important than any other adult generation. Therefore, marketers grabbed hold of this style and use it to take aim at this extremely important demographic.

This shift is clearly visible through Snapchat. That platform is exceptionally popular among the younger generations.  It recently made some marketer-friendly changes. Among those changes include the automated application programming interface (API) designed for its ad partners. With rapid growth in its user base and great engagement metrics, Snapchat uses native advertising over any other method. It is completely free of banner ads and while this may seem limiting, it has been vital for user trust.

The Samsung Pay app has launched in Australia

This mobile wallet has now made its way Down Under and aims to replace cash and train tickets.

In the competitive world of mobile payments, the Samsung Pay app has now launched in a new market. Australians have another mobile wallet choice in this area where there are many rivals but where adoption is scarce.

Mobile wallet apps have not been taking off at the rate expected by many of the companies behind them.

The Samsung Pay app was launched as a result of a partnership with both Citibank and American Express. The goal is to be the first contactless mobile payments platform to truly take off in the country.

Australians who use Samsung smartphones can pay at contactless terminals through those mobile devices. They simply need to download the mobile wallet and connect it with an American Express or Citibank card. That said, they cannot use Citibank and Amex branded cards from other banks with this mobile application.

The Samsung Pay app lets consumers complete payment transactions through tap and pay terminals.

Samsung Pay App Mobile PaymentsThis has made Australia the fifth market to be able to use Samsung Pay. Before Australia, the countries using this mobile app have been: Korea, the United States, China and Spain. That said, Singapore followed closely on its heels, having launched only days later.

Samsung Pay will function on any Galaxy smartphone, provided it has at least Android 6.0 Marshmallow or higher. Its interface is designed to be simple and straightforward with a swipe to pay format. Samsung claims this makes it just as easy to pay with a smartphone as it is with a card. In fact, the company said it might be even easier for some.

The Korean consumer electronics company also identified four secure steps that are taken to complete every Samsung Pay app transaction:

• Open payments by swiping up from the home screen
• Select the desired card
• Place your finger on the home button so you can verify your fingerprint
• Tap the smartphone against a contactless terminal

The mobile payments system uses tokenization to make certain that card details remain private. They are never shared with the merchant.