Part 2 of 4: Cell Selling – Dan Sinker on Mobile Advertising

Previously, professor of Online and Mobile Journalism at Columbia College Chicago Dan Sinker discussed when apps are applicable. Now, he continues to delve out advice on all things mobile.

EIM: What are your thoughts regarding effective mobile ads? It seems like a lot of people will ignore them, we ignore ads pretty much any time we go on the internet.

DS: I think that people definitely ignore them, though they are much harder to ignore. If I’ve got a window on my desktop that’s 1200 pixels wide or 1800 pixels wide, and there’s a 300 by 300 pixel ad on that window, I can very easily filter that thing out. If I’ve got a mobile site up or a mobile app that even has even a 60 pixel high banner, I’m going to at least see it. I may not click on it, but click numbers are not bad right now on mobile.

My general feeling in what mobile ads I’m seeing is that the inventory isn’t there yet to produce totally relevant ads. I should be able to see an ad that is Chicago-specific, is specific to the content that I’m looking at, and theoretically should be able to appeal to me in some way or another. That’s the only option in advertising.

In some ways those options get better with mobile because you suddenly have the location factor to be able to search stuff up, but your inventory needs get better at that point because what’s relevant location-wise is a very finite thing. What’s relevant to me here in Chicago might not be relevant if I lived in Tinley Park. I’m not going to suddenly come into the city because there’s a lunch special down the street.

Next up: the importance of mobile sites. In the meantime, check out Dan on Twitter.