Better metrics needed to drive big mobile spends: CTIA panel

By Dan Butcher

April 1, 2009

Mobile's eye

LAS VEGAS - The lack of solid metrics and key performance indicators is to blame for lackluster brand investment in the mobile medium, according to a panel at the CTIA Wireless 2009: Mobile Life conference.

This panel outlined which metrics are needed to drive substantial investment in mobile and how a multitude of new benchmarks can showcase mobile's capabilities compared to other media. Better measurement and reporting concepts unique to mobile are needed to drive greater mobile adoption, according to the panel.

"Consumer expectations and advertiser expectations are very different, and we have to understand the value chain for advertisers, who need to look at use cases in a way they can really measure conversion rates," said William Hsu, vice president of AT&T Interactive. "We have the most information about consumers of mobile content, and we will always protect privacy of user, but that being said, the mobile ecosystem cannot fulfill its true potential without carriers supporting ad networks with targeting to enable more effective campaigns.

"We're trying to figure out how we can enable and participate in various parts of the value chain that carriers don't typically participate in," he said. "The good news is that click-to-call is performing extremely well and we're seeing higher click-through rates with mobile local search than we're seeing online.

"Look at the use case, what your end goals are and understand the key benchmarks."

Jason Spero is vice president of marketing at AdMob

Carriers have the ability to provide a level of targeting that is more granular than online, but the various parts of the fragmented mobile ecosystem have yet to find a business model that works seamlessly for all the links in the chain.

Creating mobile-specific metrics -- and optimizing the existing ones for mobile -- would go a long way toward inspiring big-brand advertisers to increase their mobile spend.

"Mobile is a digital platform, and it can be measured, but it is a question of definitions, for example, what do you mean by a unique user?" said Richard Williams, executive director of Verizon Wireless. "CTIA, MMA and IAB are working on definitions, what are the actual metrics, so make sure that you're giving input into these organizations so that definitions are standardized.

"It's not here today, but there are ways of measuring the viral spread of mobile campaigns, such as watermarking to track when consumers forward a MMS or SMS message," he said.

With 270 million-plus U.S. mobile subscribers, mobile has scale. The trick is getting brands comfortable with how ROI is tracked.

Smartphones are driving growth of mobile data consumption, from the mobile Internet and applications to location-based services, full-track music downloads and video.

That trend will continue to grow. Just last year, 96 percent of 18-29-year-olds used one or more mobile data services.

In the U.S., smartphone sales represented 23 percent of all new mobile phone sales in the fourth quarter of 2008.

"The platform has scale, not only smartphones but feature phones as well," Mr. Williams said. "Over the next couple of years, it will be interesting to see how mobile phones change the dynamic of how brands interact with people."

One thing everyone agrees on is that location is a valuable commodity to increase the relevance of ads.

"Mobile is local -- that's what makes mobile different -- and it is going to require consent to use location as part of relevancy equation," said Patrick Parodi, chief marketing officer of Amobee. "Hopefully the consumer benefits as a result of the ad being relevant."

While Google Maps and mobile social networks have gotten consumers to provide that information, carriers hold that information for the most part.

"Operators in Europe, particularly in the U.K., have aggregated data about mobile consumers to provide for the first time in the history of media, information not based on panel of a couple hundred people, but census-level data," Mr. Parodi said. "Carriers need to get engaged -- carriers that do have a billing relationship with customers need to step up and turn this into a more mature medium, because until it gets measured and audited, media agencies and brands are going to be reluctant to spend the big bucks."

The panel emphasized the need to keep the consumer in mind at all times.

"Not everyone has a flat-rate data plan, so unless it's carrier white-labeled, the user may be paying to watch an ad, which is limiting," Mr. Parodi said. "You're not going to have a holistic view unless carriers are involved in frequency capping."

While targeting mobile consumers still leaves something to be desired, mobile ad networks in particular never hesitate to remind brands that there are measurement and targeting mechanisms that are unique to mobile.

"Anybody who's spending money in mobile need to know how many unique customers they are reaching and they can target those consumers by type of device, network speed, location, consumer demographics and various other metrics," said Jason Spero, vice president of AdMob. "Mobile provides great click-through rates and engagement, because consumers only view one ad per page and they're early adopters looking to consume information on their handset.

"We're focused on what happens after the click to measure whether the ad was able to drive or elicit the desired behavior, whether it be clicking through to a landing page, downloading mobile content or click-to-call," he said.

Because of off-deck offerings and the coming wave of WiFi-enabled handsets that can surf the Internet without using carriers' networks, among other factors, some panelists said that carriers sharing their data is not the whole story.

"Operator data is a catalyst, but I don't agree that until that happens the big buys aren't going to happen," Mr. Spero said. "It's a continuum, a progression of targeting and relevance information -- the more you have, the better you can serve advertisers and consumers."

Brands continue to ask: "How do I buy mobile and make sure what I'm getting?" It would help if the various players in the mobile ecosystem would share consumer data, even with competitors.

"Mobile needs to deliver types of results that advertisers and consumers need, different ways to measure if they're getting what they need, frequency and reach," Mr. Spero said. "That consumer data can be passed along, driving greater relevance for what brands deliver."

Comscore and Nielsen measure audience composition by site ID, and publishers have registration information that can provide targeting to specific demographics such as age and gender, while mobile social networks and mobile sites like Accuweather and Mapquest usually get consumers' zip code.

"We're dealing with a fragmented market, and as more and more devices support WiFi, they don't have to run on carrier networks, so the collection of data goes back and forth in the cloud, if you will," said Michael Bayle, senior director of global mobile monetization/general manager of Yahoo, Sunnyvale, CA. "We need reliable metrics to inspire confidence among advertisers in what they're buying.

"Yahoo leverages consumers' PC profiles and we allow users to opt out of that," he said. "There is no line item for mobility, so budgets coming from traditional media and digital budgets.

"Mobile media is cannibalistic of online, but the most effective cost-per-lead comes from mobility-based campaigns, and mobile is much more viral than PC campaigns."