Yes we know, mobile use and tablets are quickly on the rise. In most cases less than 15% of all email campaigns are now being viewed on a desktop browser. So what does this mean to the average person? Nothing really, except for the convenience that comes with opting for a mobile device, over having to walk over to your dusty desktop.

But what if you’re an advertiser? How is mobile affecting your online sales?
If you’re an advertiser developing an email marketing campaign, understanding your audiences preferred mode of viewing (operating system) is equally as important as understanding your recipient demographics.

Therefore, let’s look at the statistics. Below you’ll find the advertiser statistics for the past 30 days for an online auto insurance company, as well as the device breakdown, from a corresponding email advertisement during the same period.

Notes: Advertiser pays upon a completed 4 page submit

Advertiser Statistics

 

 

 

 

 

Affiliates Statistics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highest converting Operating system : iPhone

Lowest converting operating system: Windows & Linux

As an advertiser, here are some things to consider when reviewing these results.

1. Is your landing page mobile optimized? Is it easy to navigate with easy drop down menu and choices? Does your page load quickly?
2. Have you split tested your landing pages, using fewer or additional page fields?
3.  Do you offer a click-to-call feature?

All the above features are critical when trying to optimize your offer or the types of traffic you’re looking drive.

These are a couple of great resources to measure page load time and what your website looks like from different mobile devices:

http://validator.w3.org/mobile/: measures the mobile friendliness of a site/offer.
http://www.mobilephoneemulator.com/:this emulates links for offers to see how they’d display.

Be honest with your Affiliates
Sharing is indeed caring, so share your findings. Most affiliates are very skeptical of any statistics normally given to them by an advertiser and with good reason. Advertisers want to drive traffic, hence they might be tempted to use results that favor higher conversion rates and not the actual traffic.

Affiliates ask the right questions
When asking about corresponding conversion rates, ask about operating systems. If the above advertiser noted that conversions were twice as high on mobile and your user database is comprised of 70% mobile users, wouldn’t it make more sense to drive traffic to those users instead? The increase targeting will decrease your mailing cost while increasing your EPC’s, keeping both affiliate and advertisers happy.

Ace Tip: This isn’t to say you should ignore desktop traffic. On the contrary, if the advertiser had noted that clicks were almost 10x as high on desktop traffic as they were on mobile, you might find this a great way to increase engagement on your emails. ..but that’s just my two cents.