Why Is It Important To Test Ad Units On Your Mobile Site Or App?

By Amy Vale

It’s becoming increasingly accepted that rich media and innovative ad units gain the attention of consumers, creating a higher probability of increased CTR (click-through rates), according to Mobile Marketer. InsightExpress also found that mobile advertising is four and a half to five times more effective than online advertising. This is due to various factors, including the lack of clutter in mobile, typically one ad per page, and mobile pages them¬selves generally tend to be very clean. Also, the proportion of the ad on a mobile screen is greater, so it gets more attention from users. But what about the ad unit itself – what works best and how do you test this as a publisher?

The size of ad units can have a significant impact on the performance and earnings of mobile ads. As you know, not all advertisers create ads for all display sizes, and not all ad blocks hold the same number of text ads. For this reason, it is essential for publishers to test ad units for different sections on their mobile sites and applications. By testing ad units you will have a greater chance of increased click- through rates and other conversion metrics.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau, IAB, has recently launched an initiative to test mobile formats. They selected five mobile ad concepts to test for possible inclusion in its Standard Ad Unit Portfolio, which currently does not include any mobile formats. The Mobile Rising Star initiative, announced earlier this year, seeks to create new canvasses for brand advertising on digital platforms. The five winning ad concepts, selected from a pool of more than 60 entries, include the “Filmstrip,” “Slider,” “Adhesion Banner,” “Full Page,” and “Push.” Once a Rising Star unit has been selected, it will go through a testing process and, if it’s successful, it will be inducted into the IAB Standard Advertising Unit Portfolio.

Yet another great example is Facebook. The social networking giant is currently monetizing its mobile app through the testing of a new ad unit - Sponsored Stories. Earlier this month, Facebook began allowing advertisers to specify that they wanted their ads only shown in mobile, and now we are getting a deeper look at how Facebook mobile ads perform. According to a recent TechCrunch report, Mobile Sponsored Stories are getting over 13 times the click-through rates and earn 11.2 times the revenue per impression (eCPM) on mobile compared to Facebook’s desktop ads, and 1.93 times the CTR and 2.65 times the eCPM of Sponsored Stories on the web in the two weeks since Facebook began selling them separately from online ads.

The Facebook example and the IAB initiative underline the fact that the testing of mobile ad unit is critical to the performance and earnings of mobile ads. IAB’s aim to include a “winning” format into its Standard Ad Unit Portfolio highlights how essential it is for publishers to recognize the different strengths in various ad units and concepts, and Facebook’s new ad units, “Sponsored Stories”, which are specially designed for mobile ads, has had stunning results in terms of click-through rates. Are you testing your ad units for different sections on your mobile site or app?