A new survey of small and medium businesses (SMBs) lends strength to the argument that paying for leads is preferred over paying for clicks or impressions, at least when it comes to mobile ads.
The survey, conducted by Borrell Associates on behalf of self-serve mobile lead-gen platform Pontiflex, found that 26 percent of SMBs would prefer to pay for sign-ups (i.e., the email addresses and phone numbers of people interested in their business) as a pricing model for mobile ads, while 18 percent would prefer to pay for clicks. Six percent would prefer to pay for impressions, while 52 percent of respondents don’t know which they would prefer.
These findings highlight a gap between what SMBs prefer when it comes to mobile marketing and what advertisers are currently offering, according to Pontiflex.
“This survey shows that SMBs need real returns from mobile advertising, and CPC and CPM pricing models are just not working for them,” said Zephrin Lasker, CEO and co-founder of Pontiflex, in a press release. “SMBs want to use mobile ads to grow their businesses.”
A recent study from TradeMob asserted that 40 percent of mobile ad clicks are “useless,” which makes SMBs’ preference for sign-ups over clicks look even wiser.
Meanwhile, for its new mobile ad units Facebook is currently charging on a cost-per-click basis, but will eventually switch to a pricing model based on app downloads.
According to the Pontiflex survey, 45 percent of SMBs said their spending on mobile media will stay the same in the next 12 months, while 27 percent said it will increase – that’s 72 percent of SMBs that will either maintain or increase their spending on mobile media in the next 12 months. Twenty-four percent said they don’t know, while 4 percent said they will pull back their spending on mobile media.
Of those SMBs planning on increasing their spending on mobile in the next 12 months, 42 percent plan on boosting their spending by 11-20 percent, while 20 percent are planning an increase of 21-30 percent. Ten percent of this segment plans on increasing their mobile spending by more than 50 percent.
The survey also found that 31 percent of SMBs said they are somewhat likely to incorporate mobile elements in their advertising and marketing efforts to reach potential customers in the next 12 months, while 18 percent said they’re very likely to do so, and 13 percent don’t know or aren’t sure. Meanwhile, 23 percent said they’re not very likely to do so, while 9 percent said they’re not at all likely and 6 percent said they won’t be buying mobile in the next 12 months.
A higher ROI would prompt 38 percent of SMBs to increase their mobile ad spending in the next 12 months, while 41 percent said they don’t know and 21 percent said it wouldn’t increase their spending.
By Jason Hahn
