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According to Wikipedia "Mobile advertising is a form of advertising via mobile (wireless) phones or other mobile devices. It is a subset of mobile marketing.". It's isn't a recent topic at all but has gained importance in recent years with the increase in mobile sales.

This article will discuss some guidelines[1] used in Mobile advertising. These guidelines were originally developed by members of Mobile Marketing Association[2] and will show the best practices to advertise on mobiles. You should take into account that these guidelines follows a global standard, but in some cases might not be suited to use in your region. Please also consider searching for specific information.

The topics here will be divided by media channels: Mobile WEB, Mobile APP, SMS, MMS.

Contents 1 Mobile WEB 1.1 Graphical banners 1.2 Wap 1.0 Banner AD 1.3 Text AD 2 Mobile APP 2.1 Advertising Methods for Applications 2.1.1 Scrolling Text 2.1.2 Notification Pop-up 2.1.3 Using Data Loading Time 2.2 Ways to Send Advertisement To Applications 2.2.1 Via GPRS 2.2.2 Via SMS 2.2.3 Via Bluetooth 3 SMS 4 MMS 5 References

Mobile WEB

The Mobile Web refers to brower-based web services such as the World Wide Web using mobile devices[3]. Actually there are three ad possibilities for use on mobile web:

- Graphical Banners
- Wap 1.0 Banner AD
- Text links

Graphical banners

Color graphical banners are the most used ad in Mobile Web Advertising. Images are used in the campaign.

• Images are static or animated;
• Images can be placed anywhere in the website;
• Aspect ratio should be 4:1 (standard) or 6:1 (for high-end devices);
• Automatic resizing should be avoided;
• Image formats are: .PNG, .JPEG and .GIF for static and .GIF for animated banners;
• Recommendations for image width are: 120, 168, 216, 300 pixels;
• The recommended size is dependent on the format and width chosen, but should not be more than 5KB for static and 7.5KB for animated banners;

Wap 1.0 Banner AD

Black and white graphics ad type that target older phones. These are very region specific but a standard wasn't published yet. Please refer to [2] and look the Table 5.

Text AD

Advertising in text format. Can be used in older or modern phones. It's campaign dependent.

• Use advertising indicators in the text, e.g put the word Ad before the text to emphasize that it is an ad: "Ad: - advertisement here";
• The indicator should be positioned in the corners of the text;
• Characters limit varies from 10 to 24;
• Screen size has no effect on text ads;

Mobile APP

Advertising inside applications on mobile is in general advantageous for free applications, Though every one can use it. The more your application is widely accepted the more your advertisement will be seen via your app and more you can earn on it.

Advertising Methods for Applications

Typically in application you can show advertisement using following methods:

Scrolling Text

You can have Ticker scrolling on top pr bottom of your application screens showing advertisement and also can have some particular area with text scrolling in vertical direction.

Notification Pop-up

On event of receiving advertisement you pop-up a screen showing that advertisement. But this should not be used much as this will interfere user work flow and which creates a bad impression to user.

Using Data Loading Time

Once the advertisement is received then we can show it when application is busy in some internal work for which user is needed to wait, then on wait screen with loading notification we can show that advertisement text and images.

Ways to Send Advertisement To Applications

Whats the beauty of advertisement if it can't be dynamically updated? So there are few methods you can choose from on how to send advertisement to your application.

Via GPRS

This is the most efficient way in respect to sending adv as you can send Images and text. But the restriction is that user have to pay for data charges and you need to have a server for you application.

Via SMS

This is also quite nice way of approaching for advertising, cause even if device don't have GPRS connection or functionality it will be surely having SMS capabilities. And since user is not paying for receiving SMS, all the cost is on you, that you can forward to the companies who wants to use your advertising gateway. Also using SMS, on a wide range you can send advertisement location specific.

Via Bluetooth

Well this is less used method but quite precise to user location. You can have bluetooth server installed in public areas where when user enters will receive that location specific advertisement. It really great for Big shopping mall, for advertising there products.

SMS

Advertising trough Short Message Service (SMS). It's the most supported format for ad.

• Limit the advertisement to 160 characters;
• The Advertiser must be visible in the ad;
• If URL are used, then use the short format (20 character);
• The header should reflect the consumer query so it wont be confused with spam;
• Try to avoid abbreviations and grammatical mistakes;
• Use punctuation to make the message clear;
• Take into account that line break could be consider as 2 characters;
• Check if the network operator supports accented letters;

MMS

Allows the campaign to use Text, sound and image making it more rich.

• Images can be static or animated;
• Use 1:1 aspect ratio as possible as it will make the ad visible in most mobile phones without the needing of scroll;
• The advertisement can be placed before or after the original message;
• Images format are: .JPEG and .GIF for static, .GIF for animated;
• Actually there's no guidelines regarding the audio;
• It is recommended that the file does not exceed 100kb;

References

[1] Guidelines - Wikipedia - [1]
[2] Mobile Marketing Association's Mobile Advertising Guidelines document [2](pdf)
[3] Mobile Web - Wikipedia - [3]