Mobile advertising is growing – everyone knows about it. But few of the players in the Ukrainian e-commerce market understand how to use it and how effective it is. Analysts and market participants fuel the excitement with positive forecasts. For example, Netpeak notes a 40% increase in mobile traffic in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. And according to the results of a study by Prom.ua, in 2014, Ukrainians began to buy 25% more from mobile gadgets. The opportunity to get new customers and attract attention to their service encourages e-commerce players to pay more and more attention to mobile advertising. But only a few actively use this promotion tool. Naturally, those who have a mobile application benefit the most from mobile advertising. And it is quite convenient for making purchases. For example, Anna Perevoznik, Marketing Director of Aukro.ua, believes that the use of mobile advertising is work for the future, since most Aukro.ua users are still more comfortable making purchases from the regular version. But the auction is going to continue using this promotion tool. “Since the share of purchases from mobile phones and smartphones on the site has doubled in a year, we plan to increase the mobile advertising budget,” she says. Ivan Omelchenko, head of the art department of the F.ua online store, believes that this type of promotion acts as a trigger for user actions: “Mobile advertising has a good advantage - it is a call to immediately call the online store.”
Companies for which a mobile application is the main source of orders note a trend in the growth of the number of customers who place orders from a smartphone. CEO of the online service Eda.ua Evgeny Kazantsev says that more than 30% of site users place orders using a mobile application, and their number continues to grow. “With such indicators, we cannot ignore the use of mobile advertising to increase conversion,” says Kazantsev. According to him, when assessing the effectiveness of mobile advertising, the company does not count orders, but the number of installed applications. This is explained by the fact that the user can download the application, but start using it later, if necessary.
However, many market players still underestimate mobile advertising. According to Prom.ua, only about 2% of online stores in Ukraine have been adapted for visits and purchases from mobile devices. Maria Lyakhova, PR manager of Tickets.ua, says that their service is not currently running active mobile advertising campaigns precisely because it is adapting the mobile version of the site and improving the application. "We are waiting for our agency to decide on promotion channels and plan to launch more mobile tools in the summer," says Lyakhova.
But the classic mobile advertising tool - SMS mailing is losing popularity. It is too expensive. "The client base is constantly growing, and the price of an SMS message has increased by almost 30%. For us, this has become an additional argument in favor of using alternative tools of targeted communication," explains Arkadiy Kanyuka, executive director of Divan.TV. According to Valeriy Krasko, head of the paid traffic department at Netpeak, the cost of mobile traffic has been declining over the past six months. "According to our data, the cost of switching has fallen by approximately 13% compared to the first quarter of last year," Krasko clarifies. According to many experts, the growth of mobile traffic in Ukraine will continue, and with the introduction of 3G communications, it will increase even more.
