Top Mobile Marketing Trends in 2024

Mobile experiences dominate just about every part of the consumer marketing landscape and understanding how to embrace this growing channel in 2024 is challenging. A great place to start is by monitoring trends in mobile marketing, so you understand what consumers are doing, what they care about, and how their behaviors and expectations are shifting.  

Consumers are driving this ship, embracing things like mobile live streaming, mobile commerce, and increasingly defaulting to their mobile devices for entertainment, community, and problem solving. Understanding which trends are impacting mobile as we head into the next half of 2024 can help you realize its  potential. We’ll start by defining mobile marketing, providing some tangible examples, then diving into the trends. 

What is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is a digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching target audiences on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Mobile marketers tailor content, ads, and marketing strategies specifically to engage with mobile users. This often means leveraging mobile-specific features like location-based targeting, SMS notifications, and in-app marketing.

Mobile Marketing Examples

The most effective mobile marketing strategies go beyond simply placing ads on mobile channels or slapping banners inside mobile apps. They take full advantage of mobile-specific features and user behaviors. This requires that marketers take an omnichannel approach to mobile – one that considers all digital channels like email, social, and website personalization in tandem with mobile. Let’s look at some examples:

• A craft store uses geolocation to send targeted mobile push notifications to customers who are near a physical storefront. The notifications include personalized product recommendations based on the customer’s previous browsing and purchase history on the store’s mobile app or website. The notifications also include a limited-time mobile coupon code to encourage in-store visits and purchases.
• A local taco place encourages diners to sign up for their loyalty program via their mobile app. After joining, customers receive a personalized welcome email from the manager, inviting them to log into the app to receive free nachos and salsa on their next visit. This connects the physical restaurant experience with digital channels like email and the mobile app.
• A grocery store focuses on allowing customers to move seamlessly between channels like online, in-store, and mobile app experiences. Shoppers can use the app to “scan and shop” from within the store, make purchases within the app or on the website, and schedule in-store pickup or delivery. They can also get customized coupons based on their purchases sent to their email. No matter the channel, they’ve got their customers covered.

Advantages of Mobile Marketing

There’s a lot to love about mobile marketing. Here are some benefits of leveraging this channel in your marketing approach:

• Instant reach and audience access – According to 2023 data from the Pew Research Institute, 90% U.S. adults say they go online every day and 41% say they’re “almost constantly” online. 85% of Americans now own a smartphone. That’s pretty big, as far as audiences go. Mobile gives marketers access vast and diverse customer bases. It’s where the people are.
• Easy content sharing – Mobile apps often have content sharing and engagement features baked into the interface (e.g., share, like, and reaction buttons). The ease of sharing content like videos and social media posts makes mobile an effective way to expand the impact and reach of a given ad, message, or asset.  
• Personalization – Like most digital channels, mobile allows marketers to personalize messages and offers based on user preferences, behavior, and past purchases. You can further personalize messaging with mobile-specific criteria like location, proximity to a store, type of device, and other mobile-specific metrics.

Disadvantages of Mobile Marketing

While mobile marketing offers many advantages, there are also some challenges to consider which include:

• Fierce competition – As advertisers flock to mobile to reach customers, it’s becoming more difficult to stand out. You need to create a compelling, personalized mobile marketing strategy to capture users’ attention.
• Mobile optimization requirements – Having a mobile-friendly web site is not optional. To ensure a seamless user experience, businesses must invest in mobile optimization for their websites, landing pages, and content. Failing to do so can lead to high bounce rates and lost opportunities.
• Potential to miss certain demographics – Despite the widespread adoption of mobile devices,  some audiences can be difficult to reach on mobile. Older generations and individuals with incomes lower than 30K per year are less likely to have access to a smartphone. Education also plays a role, with people who have some college more likely to own a smartphone compared to people with a high school education or less.
• Screen size limitations – The smaller screen size of mobile devices limits the amount and type of content that can be effectively displayed. Marketers must therefore adapt creative, messaging, and overall strategy so that it’s more appropriate for phones versus larger screens. 
• Privacy concerns – There’s an increasing focus on data privacy, businesses must be transparent about their data collection practices and ensure that they comply with relevant regulations to maintain user trust.

Top Mobile Marketing Trends

Now for the top mobile marketing trends for 2024 which will help you plan how to integrate mobile into your overall marketing and personalization approach. We’ve compiled this list from top industry sources like Adobe, HubSpot, Pew Research, and Mobile App Marketer. 

Trend #1: Social video is on the rise

We’re seeing a growing emphasis on short-form videos like those on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. HubSpot reports that 90% of marketers who use short-form video plan to continue using it or increase their investment in short-form video this year.

Trend #2: User-generated content (UGC) on mobile

According to The Consumer Technology Association, UGC accounts for 39% of weekly media hours. That is, content created by consumers on platforms like Twitch, TikTok, and YouTube is being watched by consumers for 39% of their overall media-viewing time.  This content is readily accessible and easily consumable on mobile devices. Most consumers say they find UGC more authentic and credible, to the point that it influences their decisions on what brands to purchase from or support. 

Trend #3: Mobile commerce (mcommerce) is on the rise

Consumers love to shop on their phones. According to Adobe, 41% of consumers shopped regularly on their phones (daily or weekly), with retail sales from smartphones expected to increase by 50% from 2022 to 2025. 

The convenience and seamless experience of mobile shopping is driving this trend, as consumers can easily browse, compare products, and make purchases anytime from their devices. Mobile-friendly payment options like digital wallets are also contributing to the growth of m-commerce by providing a secure and streamlined checkout process tailored for smartphones.

Trend #4: Augmented reality (AR) is gaining traction

The Mobile AR market reached $17 billion in valuation in 2022 and is projected to grow to $36 billion by 2026. A big reason for this is that AR technology is becoming more accessible and trusted brands like Ikea and Sephora are taking advantage of AR to sell products virtually. For example, Ikea provides previews of furniture that viewers can see in their own home environment, while Sephora has a personalized “try before you buy” digital makeup experience. 

Trend #5: Gamification is boosting mobile engagement

Gamification, which is a technique that uses fun and engaging video game elements to get users’ attention, is a growing trend on mobile. Elements like awarding points for purchases, hosting challenges and contests, and adding interactive features like quizzes to marketing campaigns make them more interactive. Push notifications alerting rewards customers that they have coupons or rewards is an example of a gamification element.

Trend #6: Mobile Personalization 

As personalization grows more ubiquitous and sophisticated, it’s become a crucial element of mobile marketing success. Marketers are increasingly using data and AI to tailor content, recommendations and experiences for individual mobile users. 

According to Adobe, effective digital marketing performance is closely tied to the level of insight a business has into the customer journey. It makes sense, then, that mobile marketing personalization works best when tied to the total journey so that customers can move seamlessly from their computers to their phones to the physical store and back again.

Trend #7: Influencer Marketing is Still a Thing

Influencer marketing, especially with micro and nano influencers, continues to be popular when it comes to mobile.  According to Udonis, about 65% of consumers have made purchases thanks to influencer recommendations. It’s important to work with influencers that resonate with audience and can create authentic, engaging content.