Marketers have lowered their expectations for the growth in the U.K mobile advertising market, as the health pandemic weighs in on their budgets. Mobile Marketers' recent report highlighted the doubt coming from marketers over whether we’ll see a surge in growth in mobile advertising, as the UK looks to overcome economic struggles. Findings from the report that surveyed more than 90 marketing professionals in April and May.
31% of marketers expect their mobile budgets to rise, which has decreased from 56% since the outbreak of the virus based on a yearly report shared by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and researcher WARC.
The amount of marketers that consider mobile marketing as an effective marketing channel in 2020 stood at 79%, which decreased from 86% in 2019. This leaves a higher percentage of professionals who consider mobile devices as ineffective.
Despite the responses, there could be room for optimism. Since the pandemic, online activities have increased and this includes actions from phones. Users depend on their mobile devices for a wide range of activities. By targeting mobile as a marketing channel, that could begin economic growth once again.
The report found that a third (31%) of marketers are looking at mobile video and social media as a priority. As consumers have increased their consumption of digital media, marketers plan on allocating an average of 36% of their budgets to social media and 20% to mobile video, the survey found.
Respondents in the survey also voiced their concerns over factors that are hindering the growth of mobile advertising. (48%) of survey respondents said mobile ad metrics are the biggest problem towards growth.
As the UK economy looks to recover, whether progression in mobile advertising will fall victim to the pandemic, remains to be seen.