Mobile is where commerce is going. However, the question for businesses is how to get there - smaller screens and lower attention spans mean utilizing different techniques if a company wants a piece of this growing pie.The Cost Per Window Shopper ModelTraditional cost per click (CPC) and cost per thousand (CPM) campaigns face a growing wall of resentment from companies and consumers, although impression based and non-conversion action based campaigns do work.Companies are tired of paying money for low conversion CPC campaigns and misdirected CPM campaigns that lead to window shopping. Consumers are tired of having their window shopping interrupted with intrusive, irrelevant content. Both of these situations are exacerbated in the mobile space. Companies are watching CPC and CPM prices rise for competitive keywords as new business flows into the mobile platform. Consumers only have room on mobile screens for relevant information; huge flashing ads are much more annoying on this screen than on a desktop, where they can be easily ignored or pushed to the side.Window Shoppers Aren't Clicking Any MoreLeading digital marketing research agencies have reported that Facebook suffered a 15% drop in its Facebook ad click-through rate year over year in 2015. However, click to install rates increased 32% over the same period. The cost of CPI is also dropping on both Android and iPhone devices, and customers can expect anywhere from 30 to 33% of clicks from the mobile Facebook ad program to convert into an install. Other major platforms such as Twitter have yet to fully assess their CPI programs, but market experts expect the same type of performance.What does all of this mean?Online consumers, especially those on smart phones and tablets, are learning how to ignore irrelevant ads even more than before. However, they are engaging more with targeted material. If a business pays per install, they are getting more value than ever before when compared to paying per impression or per non-converting action.CPI - The Future of CRM?The latest Facebook statistic not only points to higher ROI for CPI campaigns, but also more effective customer interaction. A high install rate gives a much higher chance for engagement when compared to traditional CPC and CPM ads, both of which give a company around four seconds to make an impression, if that. 25.5% of iOS device users and 29.1% of Android device users will keep an app for at least a day (with 100% keeping it for more than four seconds). Companies gain even higher retention rates if they sourced the customer from Twitter (25% higher retention) and multiple reminders on more than one platform increases retention as well, to a point. If you use better techniques to get your potential customers to install, you have a much higher chance of actually making an impression instead of just paying for one. Your customers appreciate your brand more, and you spend less money as well.Savvy marketers are using their initial time with the consumer well. In some cases, apps also function as information grabs that give the company a chance to remarket even if the consumer deletes the app relatively quickly. The stats on remarketing continue to impress, and if a company can build a call list of hot leads from app downloads, its chances for an ongoing improvement in customer relationships vastly increase over time.
