It’s no secret, tablets are taking the world by storm, and are quickly gaining followers in the business world, in schools, and in the homes of many technology lovers.   They are the popular trend that gives you the capability to be mobile and at the same time, connect to the internet, check your email, have a video chat as well as capture images and video.  These interactive devices are intended to be portable, with small proportions and a lightweight design.   This surge in tablet popularity, has defined the tablet as an advertising medium that should not be ignored.

According to Juan Anotonio Giner in his article from the The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard:

In my opinion, tablets, like the Internet in the past, are fantastic opportunities, not just devices on which to perform the same old tricks.

As media consultant Daniel Ambrose wrote on his Online Publishing Insider blog:

It should be clear…that if reaching the maximum number of readers and customers-and customers for advertisers-remains a key strategy for media companies, they’ll be doing that on a wider and wider range of devices and platforms…Companies that do so will thrive.  New opportunities are emerging every day that their staffs will recognize and exploit.  Companies that don’t will see the future pass them by.

My work as a Paid Search Marketing analyst has uncovered data to support these theories.  When looking at the advertising campaign for a recent client, the mobile budgets were split between overall Mobile, Android, iPad, iPhone, Palm, and WAP devices.  24% of the spend was assigned to iPad devices and these campaigns returned almost 100% of the mobile revenue, resulting in a ROI that was 300% better compared to the mobile categories average.



Along the course of the of the six month timeframe (January 2011-June 2011), as budgets were increased for the iPad campaign, the revenue gain followed a similar steep incline.  ROI peaked during mid-term, lowest month being in May.

The data in this example infers that people are more likely to convert from an iPad than a typical mobile phone, maybe because it has usability closer to a desktop or laptop computer.  Tablets have the functionality that resembles standard computers and thus allow for easy comparison, different screens, larger surface, etc.   Other mobile devices should not be overlooked when developing a marketing plan.  Consumers might tend to use mobile phones as a conversion vehicle when they are closer to being ready to buy, meaning that they that are further down the purchase funnel.

Tablets should be regarded as a major player in the ever-changing advertising landscape.   I have only skimmed the surface of this marketing opportunity and more testing is needed to fully discover tablets’ full potential.   Advanced analytics models would be the perfect tools to allow for real-time testing – shifting dollars to see what kind of maximum ROI tablets have the ability to produce.

For the latest from Organic on its modeling and advanced analytics capabilities, be sure to check out these other pieces from the Organic Marketing Intelligence team:

“5 Steps To Measure The ROI Of Digital Media Channels”
“Winning the Consumer’s Share of Mind – How to Tell if Marketing is Working”
“If It Can Save Lives, Why Can’t It Sell Salt?“

Monica Stromberg is in Marketing Intelligence at Organic.