M&A Report: Social trumps Mobile for advertisers

Advertisers are always looking for a solution to the dreaded ROI problem and this usually means marketers are among the first to jump onto new platforms. This seems to have been a mistake according to a recent report from Petsky Prunier.

by Kristina Knight

Their latest M&A Report indicates that marketers have quickly adopted social platforms and advertising networks into their advertising strategies but have not been as quick to adopt mobile arenas.

The report found that from January through June 2008, advertisers pushed more than $1 billion into social network advertising. Meanwhile, advertising networks have received another $700 million ad dollars. Comparatively, mobile platforms have seen an increase in advertising dollars but not nearly the same amount of the budgets that social areas have cornered.

Because of issues with connectivity, problems with mobile sites loading and/or mobile sites not being created with mobile screens in mind, advertisers have found advertising in that arena to be troublesome.

Is this a mistake on the part of advertisers?

Possibly. According to several recent reports, the initial problems with the mobile arena have been addressed. And, with the addition of products like the iPhone, consumers are beginning to log on to the mobile web in great numbers. By ignoring this marketplace advertisers are doing themselves a disservice.