Mobile App vs Mobile Web Advertising: Which one worth more?

Using mobile advertising is a good way to interact with target audiences. However, which mobile medium can achieve better result and ROI? Some marketers would say in-app advertising, but some others may have different opinion. Let’s compare the performance of mobile app and mobile web. 

The advantage of in-app advertising

Many marketers said using in-app advertising can easier to achieve their goals, such as able to measure lifetime value of users post-install and manage the acquisition costs. In addition, many of them believed it is worth more to spend on in-app advertising rather than in-web advertising. Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers’ report indicated that nearly 90% of time people spend on media through mobile app, whereas the rest happens via mobile web. Besides, it is more effective to identify the sources of traffic volume by in-app advertising. It also allows the audience to click straight through to do installation. Mobile app is becoming one of the most important mediums in digital media. 

The advantage of in-web advertising

A lot of articles explained how mobile app advertising is more effective than mobile web. However, some studies showed completely different results.  The research conducted by Morgan Stanley claimed that mobile web audiences are two times more than app audiences. The research also mentioned most of the mobile traffic come from mobile web browsers compared to mobile app according to many publishers. One important reason is the mobile users are quite selective when they download apps. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, people are spending a lots more time using mobile app then mobile web; however, it may not explain the whole picture. Many mobile users spend so much time on apps that they would use daily, which possibly lend the report favor in apps.

It is continuously debating the effectiveness of mobile app vs. mobile web, and each side has its strong argumentation. It is difficult to say which one is better than other because it depends on the different situations and circumstances. IAB’s study pointed that mobile users value both in-web and in-app almost are the same; therefore, including both mediums in a media plan would be a good choice.