Welcome to the second half of our mobile advertising blog series! In part 1, we discussed how in-app ads are the future of mobile advertising and now, we’re shifting our focus to mobile sites and the important role they can play in advertising strategies. Currently, there are more than 72 million mobile web users and 69 million mobile app users, and both numbers are estimated to reach over 100 million by 2013. We’ve heard the debates regarding which is better (we’ve even had the debate a few times ourselves) and have concluded that both mobile app advertising and mobile web advertising are significant in today’s advertising efforts.

Apps (good ones) generally have easier navigation and interaction, use rich-media and phone functions (i.e. camera and GPS), and don’t necessarily need an internet connection. The rise of “bigger screen” tablets not only call for better apps, but also more mobile web browsing. An Adobe survey stated that 66% of mobile users prefer to retrieve information through mobile browsing instead of mobile apps. Even though apps can serve many purposes and have the advantage of being downloaded onto the desktop to develop long-term relationships, it can be tedious and overcrowding to download and install an app for every little thing you want to do – sometimes a simple mobile search will suffice. Furthermore, multiple versions of apps need to be developed for each smartphone platform and only 38% of the US own an app-compatible smartphone, as opposed to the universal mobile site. On top of that, app developers need to share revenue and get approval from the app store in order to be published or make any changes.
More awesomeness ahead »