The company has now rolled out mobile app install ads that are distributed as sponsored posts users can share.
Tumblr has just announced its latest in social media marketing over mobile in the form of an ad unit that it is calling its “Tumblr Sponsored Apps,” which will give app publishers the opportunity to target Millennials, who are the primary audience of the blogging service.
That demographic being targeted is also a group that is extremely mobile and that are large app users.
The purpose of the social media marketing will be to help to drive users to Google Play and to the iTunes App Store in order to encourage the download of new mobile apps. This is a type of mobile marketing known as “app install ads” and they have been a serious business on Facebook, and Twitter, the two largest social network rivals of Tumblr. In fact, 85 percent of Facebook’s ad revenue comes from mobile, and that company adopted this type of ad earlier in 2014.
That said, the social media marketing strategy at Tumblr is slightly different from that of Facebook and Twitter.
The app install adds are designed to appear as small posts that look somewhat like a card, such as the ones that are found in Twitter streams and Facebook News Feeds. However, they are unrestricted in terms of their format, and are actually posted in the form of sponsored blogs.
The service debuted this week with mobile ads from the Betaworks, Big Fish, and GREE publishers. Their GIFs and photosets were featured, but according to the creative strategy manager at Tumblr, Max Sebala “the sky’s the limit in terms of creative.” Since the ads are actually displayed in the form of blog posts, it makes it possible for readers to share and re-share them throughout the Tumblr network by way of its reblogging feature.
To start, these social media marketing ads will be appearing exclusively on the dashboards of mobile Tumblr users. However, when the content is re-shared, it can be viewed by any user of the blogging network, including both those over mobile and using the service on laptops and desktops.
The micro blogging site has announced that it is close to the release of this option.
It has now been revealed that Twitter’s latest initiative in the area of mobile social media marketing will be the release of a new product that will make it possible for app developers to be able to install ads that will help to encourage application downloads.
This format is called an app install ad and its goal is to help to attract more marketers to Twitter.
Specifically, Twitter is seeking to use the mobile social media marketing opportunity to draw marketers from the game and e-commerce industries. Once the ads within mobile Twitter feeds are clicked, the user is redirected to the page of the advertiser within an app store where the application from the ad can be downloaded.
The social network is likely using this mobile social media marketing move to help keep its IPO promises.
At its initial public offering, Twitter had stated that it would be boosting its mobile ad offerings and that is exactly what this step appears to be. Since November, the stock for the company has skyrocketed by 78 percent and analysts are currently predicting that its annual revenue will increase to nearly double, reaching $1.2 billion by the close of this year. This, despite the fact that user growth has been slowing down.
The mobile channel is a central element to the business at Twitter, as it is over mobile devices that the user base is growing at its fastest rate. Furthermore 75 percent of the company’s ad revenue comes from that channel, alone.
Other social networking companies have been highly successful in the use of app install ads. They were introduced in October 2012 by Facebook and by last year they had brought in 245 million downloads. Candy Crush was advertised by King Digital Entertainment over Facebook and that app has now become one of the most popular games for those devices. King has just experienced its own IPO.
Now, Twitter will be using this mobile social media marketing opportunity for its own purposes and it has been testing its app install ads for a number of weeks to ensure that they are functioning as expected.
