3 examples of effective mobile advertisements every marketer should know

Mobile advertising is a fast-paced, innovative market that has changed the way businesses reach their target audience with effective mobile advertisements (ads). Marketers and advertisers put more than half (51%) of their budget into mobile ads and mobile devices account for 53% of all paid-search clicks. Moreover, mobile accounts for half of all web traffic worldwide. 

In the first quarter of 2021, mobile devices generated 54.8% of traffic worldwide. This outlines why it’s so important to learn how to target users with mobile ads. One of the smartest ways to learn how to effectively implement mobile advertisements that connect with your target audience is to research successful examples, case studies and best practices.

In this guide, we share three examples of effective mobile advertisements – which utilize a wide range of different platforms and verticals – that can be used to inspire your campaigns.

What makes a mobile advertisement effective?

There are many things to consider when optimizing your mobile advertising strategy. Here are some best practices that will be covered in depth in this guide.

• How will you utilize interactive elements of mobile advertising formats?
• How can gamification help you achieve your marketing goals?
• How can you leverage seasonality to capture users’ attention?
• How can you create hyper-relevant campaigns with mobile ad formats?

With this in mind, let’s dive deeper into how to get the most out of mobile advertising to reach your marketing goals.

Everything you need to know to start advertising in apps

3 examples of effective mobile advertisements

1. Instagram Story Ads by British Airways

What are instagram Story ads? 

Instagram Stories ads are effective mobile advertisements that are displayed while a user is browsing Stories created by accounts they have followed. This is a smart way to reach new audiences as this option can include rich media and the ability to ‘swipe up for more’.

How did British Airways implement effective mobile ads with Instagram Story ads?

Rich media such as video ads are great for engaging users, but you can also go one step further to engage your audience. One of the most effective ways to increase engagement with your mobile ads is to include interactive elements. This includes polls, quizzes and other types of interactive features available on social media platforms.

A great example of this is British Airways, who found a way to engage users by giving them a chance to explore London on their device. British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. The travel company successfully used Instagram Story Ads to give users a unique tour of London. While taking a virtual sightseeing tour around the English capital, users could also switch between night and day by tapping their screen. This utilizes the features available on Instagram to make British Airways’ mobile ad more fun, engaging and memorable.

Best practice: Add interactive elements to your mobile ad to increase engagement

Learn more about how mobile app ads work

2. Spotify Ads by Snickers

What are Spotify ads?

Spotify is a leading music streaming service with over 172 million premium subscribers worldwide. The platform offers audio ads with a maximum length of 30 seconds. These are played between songs for users who do not have a premium, ad-free account. Spotify also has video advertising opportunities known as Sponsored Sessions or Video Takeovers.

How did Snickers implement effective mobile ads with Spotify ads?

Snickers is a chocolate bar created by multinational manufacturer Mars. The brand leveraged Spotify to share effective mobile advertisements targeting users that were listening to music outside of their usual genres. Using the brand’s long-running campaign slogan  “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry,” Snickers caught users’ attention with hyper-relevant creative and perfect timing thanks to Spotify data.

The campaign highlights the importance of making ads hyper-relevant to users. This is a smart way to capture the attention of your target audience and ensure that your ads make an impact. In this example, the hyper-relevance is the ad placement while a user is skipping songs. However, other information such as geolocation and search history can also be used to deliver hyper-relevant ads in creative ways.

Best practice: Create campaigns that are hyper-relevant to users to capture their attention

6 reasons why in-app ads should be an important part of your marketing mix

3. Snapchat Ads by Lucky Charms

What are Snapchat Ads?

Snapchat Ads are full-screen, vertical mobile ads. They can be up to 10 seconds long and appear while users are browsing through friends’ Stories and recommended content, such as publisher’s stories. The platform also offers geofilters and lenses as ad formats.

How did Lucky Charms implement effective mobile advertisements with Snapchat ads?

Lucky Charms is a breakfast cereal brand produced by the General Mills food company. The food brand’s logo and mascot is a leprechaun called Lucky. As a result of the company’s Irish-themed branding, St. Patrick’s Day presents an opportunity to leverage seasonality to share effective mobile ads. In the run-up to the Irish holiday, Lucky Charms partnered with Snapchat to design a unique filter that advertised the brand’s magical unicorn cereal.

This filter is another example of interactive and effective mobile advertisements, which in this case could also be gamified. The existing selfie lens experience was gamified by turning the dual face lens into a co-player augmented reality gaming experience.

The campaign achieved more than 12 million Snapchat users that decided to try the Lucky Charms filter. This gave the company a sales lift of 3.4%. More than half of those users were new or lapsed customers. According to the campaign’s ShortyAwards listing, “The Lens and Filter drove strong engagement amongst the target as 6% of users shared the Gamified Selfie Lens – 3 times the share rate benchmark of 2%.” The entry also shows that “Additionally, 1 in every 3 Snapchatters who shared the Lens or Filter saved it to their memories, providing an evergreen effect in the Snapchatter’s camera roll for Lucky Charms.“

Best practice: When possible, use seasonality to leverage the relevance of your interactive mobile advertisements

Another way to deliver engaging ads is through video ads. This is a format that can increase engagement due to the inclusion of rich media. You can learn everything you need to know about Leveraging user video ads on alternative app stores with our guide.

If you found these examples of effective mobile advertisements useful, you may also be interested in learning how to start advertising in mobile apps.