Mobile billboard advertising are messages formatted to appear on company Web sites that provide mobile services, such as cellphones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), or ads that can show up directly on someone’s iPhone or smartphone as either text or image ads.
As a local business, you’re interested primarily in the direct-to-device option.
Mobile search — and consequently, Mobile billboard advertising — came to be because search engine providers and mobile network service providers (Verizon, T-Mobile, and so on) realized that people running around with their cellphones and PDAs wanted to do local searches. (Say your car went phlooey on the road; you want to use your cellphone to find a local tow truck.) Mobile searches were a no-brainer.
In the industry, mobile search is more formally referred to as searching with local intent — and it’s become obvious that mobile device users are just bristling with that intent Say a cellphone or PDA user launches a local search on Google (or one of the other search engines). Among the things that will pop up are ads, such as the ones we discuss earlier in this chapter in the “Running pay-per-click ads” section.
But here, the super-important key fact is that the searchers are out and about, right now. Odds are, at this very moment, they’re searching for something with immediate local relevance to them (like the aforementioned tow truck). Otherwise, they wouldn’t be searching at all.
This means that the sales trigger is just waiting to be pulled — and smart local business find a way to capitalize on that immediacy. Some offer ads that, when clicked, notify the mobile user of a special, limited-time sale, a free giveaway, or the option of being connected directly to your business phone — which can all happen immediately.
Movie reviews, maps, menus, store locations, and hours of operation are perfect items to put just one simple click away on millions of mobile phones. A great case in point:
Someone searching for Thai restaurants sees your mobile ad, clicks to find out your location and read your menu, and then gets connected directly to your take-out number. How cool (not to mention, profitable) is that?
Earlier in this chapter, we discuss how traditional pay-per-click advertising can be a relatively cost-effective sort of expense, and mobile PPC is largely the same in those regards. And if you decide to go the click-to-call-your business-right-now route, you use something known as pay-per-call. You don’t bid against anyone; you just pay a few dollars for each call that someone makes to your location through your Mobile billboard advertising.
Here’s a biggie, though: Most major search engines let you do the same sort of geo-targeted mobile ads that you can do with your primary online search engine ads. Plus Google Mobile, Yahoo! Mobile, and Bing Mobile can help you seamlessly extend your desktop-targeted campaign to local mobile users.
As you might expect, lots of new and simple resources have sprung up in the mobile marketplace to help put your business front and center with consumers on the go. These include
✓ Bango: http://bango.com
✓ mobileStorm: www.mobilestorm.com
✓ Mobile Visions: www.mobilemarketing.net
Local businesses that can benefit most from Mobile billboard advertising include restaurants, laundromats, movie theaters, florists, taxicab companies, salons, locksmiths, and similar businesses
