The Mobile Advertising User Experience

While everyone understands that mobile adoption is ubiquitous, many advertisers are unprepared to effectively take advantage of mobile communications, especially the "long tail" of very small businesses and solo entrepreneurs.

Many businesses fail to adequately appreciate the importance of the online customer experience for the desktop version of their website, let alone their mobile web presence, if they indeed have one.

People have far less tolerance and patience for frustrating experiences on their mobile devices than they do on desktop devices. Consumers are often out and about when using their mobile devices and therefore have far less time to fill out an online form, for example, than they would at work or home. Especially if they have to scroll back and forth to fill out a form designed for the desktop experience.

Additionally, online transactions are typically much easier to perform on a larger screen than those mobile devices offer. The resistance to buy via a mobile device increases as the price of the purchase rises.

Finally, there's the lack of understanding how to best employ mobile advertising.

A lot of first-time Google advertisers tried AdWords out without thinking through the experience of the person clicking on their ads and as a result, the ads failed to perform. Many of those advertisers concluded that AdWords didn't work and abandoned the tactic.

I suspect the same dynamic is holding true of mobile advertising.

Here are some stats about the mobile experience: