Best Practices for Mobile Phone Coupon Campaigns

Mobile coupons are a great way to incent consumers and can provide direct means of tracking marketing efforts and measuring ROI. Here are five tips and best practices for developing effective mobile coupon campaigns based on recent campaigns we ran for our clients. 1. Leverage geo-fencing technology A hyper local ad targeted to geo-fenced areas (a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area) can be a very effective method to capture attention, especially when location names are called out within the marketing message. Take full advantage of mobile ad technology and deliver coupons when consumers are out shopping near relevant retail locations. We recently generated over 6MM hyper local impressions during a holiday mobile coupon campaign by using Google AdMob.

2. Harness the power of mobile search Serve mobile ads to people who are searching for your brand or product on their mobile device. This is usually a good indication that consumers are considering making a purchase, and providing a coupon as incentive can give them the extra push they need to commit to buying. Check out Offer Extension mobile formats from Google Ads to see how this tactic can be implemented.

3. Use SMS for coupon delivery Text messages are a great form of personal communication. If you have consumers who have opted-in to receive marketing information via SMS, (don’t spam strangers; it’s illegal) use it as the preferred way of getting in touch with them. SMS produces engagement rates six to eight times higher than retailers normally achieve via email marketing when used for redemption.

4. Consider the logistics of coupon redemption Ensure your consumers will have no issues redeeming their coupons, both in-store and online. Sometimes barcodes cannot be scanned from phone screens, so always have a backup alphanumeric code that cashiers can type into the system. Also, allow the consumer to easily save the coupon for later.

5. Promote Share & Save options Sharing coupons with social networks is a low-effort action for the consumer and a great way to spread the word about your brand or product. Incentivize consumers by offering increased rewards for sharing with a designated number of people or posting on a social media outlet. Curebit is a notable platform for social referral.