Commentary

Mobile Marketing Trends for 2022

December 14, 2021December 14, 2021 by Yogeeta Chainani

1. Mobile marketers must choose their martech stack wisely

Marketers need to choose wisely regarding their tech stack, with an ability to enhance and change it whenever necessary. The global pandemic drove seismic shifts throughout the digital world — for which it is now known as “the great accelerator” towards the use of mobile devices and untapped digital services. According to research from FIS Global, consumers indicated that 58% are spending more of their money online, while 27% acknowledged subscribing to at least one new digital streaming service, and 42% acknowledged that they are purchasing more through mobile devices.

As a result of these changes, customer centricity is more important than ever before. This is a marketing philosophy that aligns with user expectations regarding frictionless interactions and highly relevant experiences. Marketers must be quick to meet these consumer demands, for which they will need martech and analytics technology that enables them to personalize their user experience and adapt to new insights. This is why marketers want more precise targeting capabilities than ever before.

Another example of the rapid changes to the mobile marketing industry is the introduction of Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency, which limited tracking across apps on iOS devices. Marketers should regularly audit their tech stack because investing in the right components will result in scaling faster and a more flexible strategy in the face of new regulations. Moreover, companies that want to grow internationally should work with partners with a global footprint. They can help you stay informed about local and global market intelligence and respond to local regulations and other changes that affect marketing.

2. Automation is critical to the future of mobile marketing

The biggest challenge for marketers often revolves around the complexity of advertising management. Marketers are expected to manage more channels and campaigns than ever before, and the time it takes to perform these manual tasks is becoming impossible without automation. A marketer expected to manage 10,000 campaigns across 10 publishers and 10 sub-publishers may have a million data points to analyze – populating several unwieldy spreadsheets and tables. While analysis is critical, these tasks take valuable time away from marketing experts whose time would be better spent on strategy, planning, and creativity.

Not only is this inefficient, but it’s also unnecessary. As a result, most marketers are turning to automation. According to research from Demand Spring, 96% of marketers have implemented MAP technology over the last year, and 36% are taking six to 12 months to operationalize their solutions for daily marketing efforts.

Automation can take care of laborious manual tasks and enable marketers to spend more time on strategy and creative endeavors. Automation can also increase productivity and return on ad spend (ROAS). Marketers can set the parameters in alignment with their overall strategy so that automated tools can make decisions at humanly impossible speed, increasing this critical metric.

3. Stay ahead of the game by tracking the next wave of regulations in mobile marketing

Mobile marketers — particularly marketing leaders and CEOs — should be aware of the ‘next wave’ of changes that will impact the entire industry. A prime example of this is privacy regulations, which have the power to change marketing practically overnight. Not only do you need to be aware of these changes, but you should also ensure that your partners and suppliers are informed, too. Following Apple’s lead, Android is also taking steps to remove the Android Advertising ID for all users who have opted out of ad personalisation. Given Google and Apple’s stranglehold on mobile devices, these changes affect practically all mobile marketers.

Knowing that these changes are underway, mobile marketers should use this time to build stronger, long-term relationships with their users. This means working closely with partners and adapting their services according to consumer demands. While the fast-moving changes to the industry present several challenges to marketers, this will also present opportunities that can be leveraged for revenue and growth. Limitations such as these can also trigger the industry to innovate their product and marketing strategies.

In addition to being aware of changes to rules and regulations, strong collaborations between partners will be critical to success in 2022. Partners will have to work towards their common goals for several reasons, such as fighting fraud and creating long-term relationships with their target audience. Goals such as eliminating fraud are made possible due to unified data and a close collaborative process between marketers and their technology collaborators.

Yogeeta Chainani is CPO and co-foundeer of Swaarm.