Mobile doesn’t have to be baffling. To guide you on making the most of the channel that never switches off, some industry pros present their top tips.

1. Use a relevant call to action

Jeremy Crooks, managing director at technology company Criteo, insists on using a relevant call to action. He says: “Although awareness campaigns are valuable, mobile advertising is more effective for direct response. The most effective calls to action I have seen are discount coupons, buy-one-get-one promotions and free items. Using third party retargeting vendors who construct personalised, and dynamic ads on the fly based on user behaviour are also very useful in increasing conversion from mobile ads.”

2. Optimise for all devices

“Ensure whatever you are advertising is optimised for all devices,” recommends Julie Mathers, head of online at hardware store Masters. “Customers might begin their journey on mobile but 90% of users cross devices to finish their goal.”

3. Know your publishers

Gary Wheelhouse, chief digital officer at Harvey Norman, says: “Know where your ads are appearing. The sites your ads appear on are an important factor in your mobile advertising campaign, as they determine the quality of the audience your ads are targeting. Make sure that your advertising solution engages, not just in programmatic buying, but that it also has a direct relationship with high-quality publishers. Brand safety is everything, and if you want genuine leads from a quality audience, you need to know where your ads are appearing.”

4. Segment your audience by device

Rob Marston, founder of mobile marketing expert company Zeus Unwired, says you have to understanding your tablet audience is different to your smartphone audience. It’s important not to confuse them.

“Smartphone users tend to ‘snack’ for content, consuming bite-size chucks of information on the go,” he says. “However, tablet audiences are mostly at home, after 7pm using the device for entertainment and 94% are using wi-fi. This offers advertisers the opportunity to deliver richer content to an older, wealthier and iOS focused audience with a higher propensity to buy than both desktop and phone. Build a separate Tablet approach and prosper from this lucrative segment.”

5. Don’t look at mobile in isolation 

Domain marketing manager Shahrooz Chowdhury says you need to take a step back. “Your customers only know one brand so invest in your tech stack and CRM program so you can understand migration between devices, timing, visit purposes and ultimately the mindset that drives that behaviour and attribute goal value accordingly.”

“Location-based cross-channel personalisation can reduce your CPAs but you’ll need to understand the nuances of the audience driven by each publisher, and how they act along the path to conversion.”

6. Look beyond the click-through

“Truly successful mobile advertising understands that mobile is highly situational and that people are time poor on a handset and don’t want to spend too much time form filling,” says Jonas Jaanimagi, head of media strategy and operations at real estate advertising outfit REA Group. “The entire advertising experience must be considered beyond the click-through and can never simply be treated as a smaller version of desktop.”

7. Determine the metrics that matter on mobile

Head of search at media agency Ikon Communications, Simon Dunwoody, says it’s crucial to understand the different role mobile plays for different brands. “The type of content that is consumed on mobile is often much shorter form than desktop – think about the best way to engage with them and subsequently what constitutes success on mobile,” he says.

“All too often, advertisers carry over the same metrics from desktop when they’re simply not relevant on mobile – as an example, think about a consumer engaging with your store finder, it’s a much stronger signal of intent to visit the store on mobile than it is on desktop and therefore the correct value should be attributed to this interaction.”