Sunday, September 28, 2014

A New Way to Monetize Mobile Messaging Platforms

Despite the insanely high valuations of popular mobile messaging apps like Whatsapp ($19B) and Snapchat ($10B), it is still unclear what will be the best monetization strategy of these apps moving forward. One such app, Pinger, has been experimenting with a new type of native advertising that they believe not only has a much higher CTR than the average mobile ad campaign, but may also add to the user's messaging experience.

Pinger will tag certain words or phrases and detect them within your conversation with friends. For example, if you were to type "I hate my phone" or "I need a new phone" in a message, a message from Virgin Mobile would be pushed to your inbox. If you messaged something like "I want see a movie", you might get a trailer for Ninja Turtles in your inbox. The idea is to seamlessly insert the ad into your conversation almost real-time, so it seems less like a distraction and more like a helpful addition or solution. So far, Pinger has seen a high average CTR of 20% for its native inbox messaging, as opposed to the 1.37% average for other native mobile advertising.

Is this an ingenious idea, or is it just another way that advertisers will be able to infiltrate into our private conversations and lives? As a heavy user of messaging apps, I know I am much more likely to click on an ad that has seemingly been delivered personally to my inbox, Sometimes, as in the examples above, the ad may seem like it relevantly inserts itself into my stream of conversation and decision-making. However, I can easily see it getting out of control and having my Whatsapp inbox, which is currently filled with fun group chats and shared content among friends, turn into my Gmail inbox, which is now mostly a junkyard of promotional emails and spam. That is not something I am looking forward to.

Source: http://adage.com/article/pinger/messaging-platforms-hot-ad-model/295098/

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