Online and mobile adverts have generally tended to be viewed as a nuisance, popping up when you’re right in the middle of something or taking up a third of an already small screen. Yet, the number of mobile phone users who actually want to receive mobile ads has increased significantly over the last three years, which is great news for mobile app developers relying on advertising to provide free apps.

In 2009, just 26% of the 2000 adults surveyed by eMarketer were interested in receiving more mobile alerts from brands. Fast forward four years to 2013 and that number has increased to 45%.

Use of mobile alerts by a festival

Obviously, alerts are a little different to standard advertising but they do tend to be much more effective, this is because they are send directly to a users phone, via a notification or text message and can usually be easily accessed at a later date too – making them perfect for offer codes. Mobile alerts are already used effectively by a number of high street banks, which will alert customers when they have a certain amount of funds left available.

86% said it’s important to be able to access local information, with four out of five agreeing that location based ‘alerts’ are useful. This puts the spotlight on ‘local-mobile’ strategies for apps, particularly for retailers and the hospitality industry.  72% said that they may be encouraged to make spontaneous purchases from nearby stores, and 83% said that they would try new things.

Alistair Goodman, CEO at Placecast, said: “When it comes to local offers on their phones, consumers are not only growing accepting, but expecting of them. Savvy brands will carefully consider how much of their digital spend is going too mobile, particularly local-mobile.”

Consumers are not only becoming more accepting of advertising, but they are eager for brands to entice them using alerts, those ads sent directly to a users mobile seem to be much more effective than those which simply sit on a webpage or within a mobile app.

The keys here though are relevancy and intrusiveness. Using GPS services to send users an alert every time they’re within a certain distance of one of your stores could become a little creepy, not to mention irritating. Often advertising, particularly pay per click or keyword-based advertising, misses the mark and is perceived as invaluable and irritating. Due to the personal connection users tend to have with their smartphones, brands need to be aware of being too intrusive and only sending out messages that are truly relevant.

Image source: Flickr