What Performance Should You Expect from In App Ads?

Mobile is on everyone’s minds these days. Whether you are talking about iOS v. Android devices or wondering just how many people have smartphones these days, there is plenty to discuss.

As marketers we are most interested in who has them and if they respond well to advertising. eMarketer points out some data around the performance of in app ads that is, well, not exactly awe-inspiring. First, there is a look at some data from a Lab42 study about just how many in app ads users click on.

Of course, I can only speak from a personal perspective but I don’t know if I have clicked on more than 10 ads anywhere in my life so to see that even some 30% have clicked on 6 or more in app ads is interesting to me. Of course, the other 70 percent is at 5 or less clicks with 20% of those surveyed never clicking on an in app ad.

The article then looks at another angle of the mobile advertising space which is the in app ad that asks the user to get another app so they can receive an incentive. People like incentives but the apps they download to get them don’t get the same love as this chart from a Pontiflex study shows.

With only 3% of the respondents using the new app often and 37% uninstalling the app and the rest of the respondents being pretty indifferent to the app this makes for an interesting discussion. If someone has downloaded your app for an incentive, received the incentive then ditched the app is that a success? What we need to know is if those incentives are redeemed and turn into business. The staying power of this method of advertising is questionable, though, at least based on these findings.

Part of the problem is that there is simply too much noise. The winners in anything in the Internet space will be those that are able to keep it simple while cutting through the excess crap that clutters up the Internet like a side street bazaar.

In 2012 how do you plan to fight the noise in the online space? Is there a way to get it done consistently or is this simply an exercise in hoping you can do enough that some messages rise above the din to be a success?