Majority of mobile marketers plan to increase video spend in 2018

Most mobile marketers are planning to increase investments in video this year, according to a report released Wednesday by YouAppi.

The CMO Mobile Marketing Guide shows that 85 percent of digital marketers plan to increase their video investment for mobile marketing efforts in 2018, up 10 percent over last year.

More than three-quarters of those surveyed said that video was very important to the customer journey with 71 percent planning to use it for acquisition and 65 percent for awareness. The survey, completed by 425 global digital marketers, was conducted by Dimensional Research in February.

Source: CMO Mobile Marketing Guide, YouAppi

Marketers plan to increase use of video nearly across the board. Social media leads the pack, with 61 percent of marketers saying they plan to use video in social this year — up from 48 percent last year. More than half (56 percent) plan to promote in-app video, 45 percent are planning brand video advertising and 42 percent plan to run video on mobile web — all up from a year ago. However, planned participation in rewarded video dipped slightly from 31 percent to 29 percent year over year.

YouAppi CMO Jennifer Shambroom shared the findings at Mobile World Congress 2018.

“Video gives brands a golden opportunity to personalize and connect directly with the consumer,” Shambroom said. “Eighty-five percent of respondents in our survey will increase their investments in video ads this year. 2018 will be the year that video content surges in popularity and the medium will become king.”

But despite the large numbers planning to invest in video, the report showed a rise in marketers’ concern about ad fraud, increasing from 33 percent to 48 percent year over year. Marketers also expressed worry about measurement (45 percent), targeting (26 percent), and lack of visibility (23 percent).

More mobile marketers also indicated that they plan to invest in marketing technologies such as machine learning (49 percent) and AI (36 percent) to support customer journeys.