Coronavirus: How is the pandemic impacting mobile advertising

COVID-19 has been affecting us in every way possible. Schools have shut down, business conferences, sporting events, and concerts have been canceled, and almost every country in the world is now on a crisis alert.

Governments around the world have made efforts to contain the virus by prohibiting public gatherings and enforcing stay-at-home orders. As a result, internet usage has increased by 50%, and Vodafone believes this demand will continue to rise. 

The world is in a Great Lockdown, and we can expect the world economy to experience the worst recession since the Great Depression and the Global Financial Crisis.

What is the Impact on Businesses, and Which Industries are Hit the Hardest?

The crisis is challenging for all industries, but for mobile marketers, it poses a contradictory challenge. On one hand, people are engaging with the media more than ever, but on the other, the economic recession is putting a strain on marketing budgets.

Back in March, the New York Times Company saw a slowdown in advertising bookings due to “uncertainty and anxiety” caused by the coronavirus and expected to see a decline in advertising revenues. Likewise, Needham analysts predicted that Facebook’s ad revenue would be affected as well.  

These are five (5) stats to help you better understand the impact of the virus on mobile advertising: 

1. Retail email open rates are 40% higher than pre-COVID-19: Insights from BounceX suggest that email open rates as of April are up 40% from levels before March.
2. Social ads CPM for brands declines to $0.81: SocialBakers has valued the average social ad CPM (cost per thousand impressions) for brands at $0.81, which has steadily declined since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. This recent estimate is less than half the CPM in November 2019, which had peaked at $1.88. 
3. Over 67% of COVID-19 related content is brand safe: GumGum found over 7M unique pages from March to May and classified over 67% of those pages as brand safe. 
4. Activity on Facebook’s messaging apps has increased more than 50%: Facebook outlines how the coronavirus pandemic has increased usage of its messaging apps, especially in countries that are more affected by the virus. 
5. 95% of consumers are spending more time on in-home media consumption: GlobalWebIndex highlights changes in consumer behavior during the coronavirus pandemic. For example, over 50% are watching more streaming services, and 45% have increased their time on social media.

What Should Businesses Do With Ad Spend at This Time? 

As more and more people stay at home and are increasing their internet usage, your target audience should aim at online consumers staying at home. 

It might not be beneficial to cut back on mobile ad spend for now, and more useful to increase it instead. Even If CPMs normalize in a few weeks, at least you’ll have captured a good market share or brand visibility while it was available.

Check out some of Export Portal’s blog posts to keep you entertained while you stay safe at home!