The adoption of 5G will have far-reaching consequences, propelling autonomous vehicles, infrastructure, advertising, and IoT into the next generation of connectivity. Its impact will be most evident in the network’s speed, with download rates of up to 10 gigabytes per second, and in the proliferation of IoT devices, of which Gartner projects there will be 20.8 billion by 2020.
As advertisers seek more efficient ways of reaching their audiences, 5G adoption will herald a significant shift, dramatically accelerating load speeds and initiating a move toward in-app advertising. At long last, advertisers will enjoy faster, more targeted means of reaching prospective consumers where they actually spend their time.
Breaking barriers for in-app advertising
For many advertisers, this new world order will arrive not a moment too soon. Given persistent problems with 4G’s plodding pace, advertisers have emphasized desktop web over mobile web or in-app placements.
While consumers spend nearly 70 percent of their digital media time on mobile rather than desktop, according to figures compiled by comScore, it’s not difficult to see why advertisers are nevertheless opting for the latter. The Media Rating Council notes that mobile ads, including both mobile web and
in-app ads, take five seconds to load on average, about twice the time it takes for ads to render on desktop web.
Nearly three quarters of app users expect apps to load within three seconds, and nearly two thirds of users will abandon an app that takes longer than five seconds to load. This is especially germane to advertisers: Consumers spend up to five hours a day on mobile devices, and they spend 87 percent of that time using apps, compared to only 13 percent
browsing mobile web. To meet consumers where they are, then, advertisers need more viable mobile solutions.
Lightning-speed 5G will shrink load time, while also speeding up downloads from the cloud, access to storage, and streaming from within apps - breaking down the barriers to in-app advertising and making it a more enticing option for mobile advertisers. Moreover, the proliferation of IoT devices will equip advertisers with tremendously valuable user data – not just from their mobile devices, but from the many connected devices they use and interact with throughout the day.
With this data in their toolboxes, advertisers will be able to implement smarter targeting, deliver more relevant and personalized content, and fill gaps in their understanding about users’ behavior even when users aren’t on their mobile devices. The treasure trove of information unlocked by IoT connectivity also promises to help advertisers better measure online to offline ad conversions. Consider a furniture brand holding a spring sale. Enhanced location tracking could indicate to the brand’s advertising department how many consumers visited brick-and-mortar stores after viewing in-app ads, providing an invaluable tool for gauging the campaign’s sway and cost-effectiveness.
Unleashing new opportunities
Though 5G will deliver unprecedented efficiency to existing formats, it will also unleash opportunities in new and emerging spaces.
Take VR. Brands are in the nascent stages of experimenting with it, but their ventures into the field have largely consisted of creating individual experiences without ad integration. As 5G comes onto the scene, however, a wide variety of new formats will become viable for advertisers - including HD, VR and AR, and 360-degree video.
Deutsche Bank forecasts that there will be 154 million mobile VR users by 2020, forging a new space in which advertisers can enrich their content. Though the field is still burgeoning, a recent study found that 360-degree
VR ads perform substantially better on key metrics, including click-through rates, viewability, and video completion. VR photos scored 300 percent higher click-through rates than regular 2D images, while 360-degree videos saw a 46 percent increase in video completion rates compared to regular videos.
Faster connectivity, better outcomes
The plethora of benefits 5G promises to bring will be especially appreciated by advertisers, who will be better able to match formats to user behavior. Advertisers will harness the power of mobile to deliver faster, more targeted in-app advertisements while leveraging increased connectivity to better measure user conversions and serve more interactive, higher-performing formats in-app.
Faster connectivity is a matter of more than enhanced convenience and user experience. For advertisers, it will be nothing short of a game-changer.