Mobile advertising campaigns that include a store locator function grew 47 percent month-to-month, according to a new study from Millennial Media.

In Millennial Media?s November Smart report, the ad network found that the retail and automotive sectors in particular used location to bolster their campaigns and looked at how commerce is increasingly becoming a post-click action for ads. The study also looked at how mobile is being used in the telecom industry.

?As advertisers continue to use mobile as a channel to reach local consumers, features like Store Locators can be an effective way to drive direct store traffic,? said Mack McKelvey, senior vice president of marketing at Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD.

Mobile holiday
For the month of November, Millennial Media?s mobile campaigns focused on features to drive in-store traffic and commerce, per the report.

Thirty-one percent of all mobile campaigns included an option for consumers to place a call, and 18 percent of campaigns used a mobile commerce element.

Sixty percent of campaigns on Millennial Media?s network directed users to a site, either optimized for mobile or Web, showing the growth of Web browsing on mobile devices, which is a 7 percent increase month-to-month.

Additionally, a whopping 26 percent of campaigns led users to an application download, which is increasingly becoming a popular way for brands to promote their mobile apps to consumers.

Rounding out the destinations category, 14 percent of campaigns took users to a custom landing page.

Marketers are also increasingly using mobile advertising to keep their mobile footprint substantial with 28 percent of clients saying that they used the medium to keep their in-market presence.

Mobile commerce also played a large part in the campaign mix for mobile advertisers and represented 18 percent of post-click actions on campaigns, signaling a 64 percent month-to-month increase.

?During the crucial holiday shopping season, advertisers wanted to give consumers multiple purchasing options, and mobile commerce was a great way for them to do this,? Ms. McKelvey said.

Mobile communication
The telecommunications industry also played a big role in Millennial Media?s ad campaigns in Novemeber.

Sixty-eight percent of telecommunications companies used the ad network to launch or release new products to the market, showing how brands tapped mobile to drive device sales for the holidays.

Sixteen percent of companies used mobile ads to get consumers to sign-up for its services.

Tying a campaign to a commerce element was especially popular for telecommunication companies and was used by 68 percent of mobile-only campaigns.

Click-to-call features were also prominent in mobile telecommunications ads with 84 percent of campaigns using them.

The growth in mobile advertising by telecommunications industry is due in part to the launch of new mobile devices at the end of the year.

For example, Barnes & Noble?s Nook, Amazon?s Kindle Fire and HTC?s Vivid all became available to consumers in November and offers marketers new and creative ways to incorporate mobile into their mobile advertising strategy.

?Telecom brands have found success leveraging mobile to advertise the releases of their latest smartphones and tablets,? Ms. McKelvey said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York