4 Strategies for Increasing Your Mobile ROI

Guest Author Jul 17, 2012 Tweet

The following answers are provided by The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.

They were asked the following question:

If you’re using mobile advertising, which opportunities or strategies have provided your business with maximum ROI? Are the results you’re seeing compelling enough to entice you to spend more of your marketing budget on mobile web yet? Why or why not?

1. Discovering the Best Conversion Spots

“We’ve been doing mobile search marketing and advertising, specifically in Google. The best way to really get the maximum ROI for us has been to really dig deep within the data. When launching a campaign, we let it run for a few weeks and then really analyzed exactly when users of mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) were not generating the most traffic, but when we had the best conversion rates at exactly what times. Based on the current data, PC/desktop users convert better than mobile users, although we can see that segment growing as more people are becoming accustomed to making a final purchase via mobile. This can be specifically said for an age demographic of 20-35. Also, based on the current data, we are not enticed to spend more money than we are budgeting.”

- Pablo Palatnik, CEO at ShadesDaddy.com

2. Organic Is Better in Food and Marketing

“We recently launched several mobile apps, and after a brief experiment with mobile advertising (and a negative ROI), we decided to focus on organic search – users who are using the search function to find an app in app stores. We spent a few days focusing on ASO – app store optimization – so that we could rank higher in mobile search. We updated the titles, descriptions, and keywords of our apps and almost immediately started seeing an increase in downloads and usage. This one-time investment has already paid off, and will continue to benefit us over time – whereas paid advertising felt like a bottomless pit. Looking back, we’re not surprised as we’ve had a similar experience for our web-based application. In search (mobile or web), organic is better than paid.”

- Bhavin Parikh, co-founder at Magoosh Test Prep

3. Responsive Design Maximizes ROI

“Building our website using responsive web design has given us the ability to optimize our website for any device (mobile, tablet, etc) without the additional overhead often associated with mobile websites. This makes content creation, shopping carts, and search optimization easier to manage while still giving the best user experience to people accessing the site with smart phones, tablets, laptops, or desktops. It also means the URL is the same for any device – which is good brand strategy. Keeping the content fresh means updating one site, one time. Efficiency of web design translates to customer satisfaction and fewer man-hours wasted for maximum ROI.”

- Nick Reese, founder at Microbrand Media

4. Touch Screens Pay Off Big Time

“Mobile advertising is great, because whether folks are commuting or sitting waiting for a coffee, they’re browsing the Internet. When we first started mobile advertising, we brought people to our standard website. The smartest strategy we’ve taken is to optimize our sites for mobile – the touch-screen experience in particular. That way, the mobile user is directed to a site that’s appropriate for her or his current browsing experience. Since we updated our browsing experience we have seen a significant increase in iOS conversion rates. People who are browsing on mobile are more likely to be good shoppers – they’re not at the office! Make sure to attract them with compelling ads, but then optimize their shopping experience.”

- Aaron Schwartz Director of Player Personnel at Modify Watches