If you have subscribed from any website using your phone, you are more likely familiar with these mobile content offers.

But if you have lesser knowledge or no idea about it at all, we will be teaching you what exactly mobile content offers are, how to run them, and the reason why they are popular mobile CPA offers today.

Before we get deeper into the discussion, I want the readers to know that the networks are using different names for the mobile content offers.

Sometimes they are addressed as Premium SMS, Pin Submits, Mobile Subscriptions, etc. But to make it simple, we will be calling it as Mobile Content Offers.

What are Mobile Content Offers?

In short, Mobile content offers are mobile products that users can pay or subscribe to. 

One of the most popular examples of mobile content offers that we have come across at one point or another in our life is ringtones subscription. Usually, users subscribe to the services and new ringtones will be sent to the user’s mobile phone on weekly basis.

Back then mobile content offers such as ringtones were being promoted through newspaper and magazines (Nokia guys! Hands Up!).

As for now, advertisers have widely expanded their mobile content offers out from ringtones services and offer several other products that utilize carrier billing such as antivirus, utility, wallpapers, games, astrology, sweepstakes, videos and the list goes on.

How Do These Mobile Content Offers Work?

Every user subscription to any mobile content offers will directly be charged on their phone bill. In some cases, the bill can also be deducted from the credits available on the user’s phone.

Since the billing model is via user’s mobile carrier, the users don’t need to make payment for their preferred content using a credit card or other form of payment. With this, the conversion process will become simpler.

As for the ways users can subscribe to the mobile content offers, there are several ways in the industry. We call the process of users subscribing to the mobile content offers as flows. Here I will explain every flow briefly so you can understand before picking mobile content offers to run.

Direct Billing Flow

This only works when carrier is able to identify user’s mobile number to make a direct billing.

Most of the time direct billing flow is associated with 3g connection and users have to be on their carrier data connection in order for direct billing to convert. There are 2 types of Direct Billing Flow.

1-click: 1-Click Flow is used when users only have to click on confirmation button on the offer page once to be subscribed and get billed.

2-click: 2-Click Flow is similar as 1-Click, except it requires an additional confirmation before the user gets subscribed and billed.

You might be asking why they have 2-click when 1-Click is way easier to convert. Well, it’s due to regulation of certain countries being implemented that restricts some advertisers to use only 1-click, mostly due to users accidentally getting subscribed for products that they do not intend for.

SMS Billing Flow

This flow is mostly associated with WiFi connection. This conversion flow only occurs if the user enters their phone number on the landing page, Later on, users are sent a message by the carrier to reply for a confirmation (MO) or pin code to key into a landing page (MT).

Now, what’s MO and MT?

MO (Mobile Originated): MO Flow is used when users enter their phone numbers on the landing page and get SMS or text message regarding the mobile content offers they want to subscribe. Then, users have to confirm their subscription through SMS replies.

MT (Mobile Terminated): MT Flow is used when users enter their phone numbers on the landing page and get a PIN code that is sent to their mobile devices regarding the subscription they have made. To confirm the subscription, the users have to revisit the network or page and submit the acquired PIN code.

Which Flow converts best?

After seeing all of the flow processes, perhaps we can say that the Direct Billing Flow (1Click & 2 Click) is the best of all, as the conversion flows require simple actions from the users and seamless conversion process to the users.

However, not all advertisers are using Direct Billing for their offers because of the restriction issues implemented to the markets of the countries regarding the use of this conversion flows.

Another reason why SMS billing flow are still used despite being counterintuitive is that advertisers are not restricting themselves to promote products through carrier connection which direct billing requires. With SMS billing flow, advertisers are able to make conversions on Wifi or even desktop traffic.

1-click & 2-click offers convert the best on targeted Carrier traffic. But there are also times when SMS Flows convert better because users are on WIFI traffic.

If you’re buying traffic in bulk, sometimes it makes sense to split test both Direct Billing Flows, and SMS Billing Flows. You might just realize the latter converts better in certain situations.

Why Run Mobile Content Offers?

Several benefits in running them Mobile Content Offers:

• Newbie Affiliate friendly
• Cheaper traffic on tier 2 & 3 Geo
• Easy conversion flows
• High payouts
• Easiest to test out and acquire data
• Unlimited scalability as offers usually have no caps

How to Run Mobile Content Offers?

There are no specific or best ways in choosing types of traffic that will suit mobile content offers best. In general, mobile content offers could work with any type of traffic types, including POP, display, etc.

Since there are various types of traffic to test, the safest practice is to ask for advice from your respective account managers. More than usual, account managers have bird’s eye view on what kind of traffic works best on what kind of offers.

Based on the conversion flows mentioned above, although payouts will be higher and conversion are still possible with SMS Billing flow (MO & MT Flow), we have to keep in mind that conversion rates on SMS Billing Flow will be lousier than Direct Billing Flow (1-click & 2-click Flow).

If you are on a smaller testing budget, don’t target WIFI traffic.
It’s cheap, but cheap traffic doesn’t mean anything when it doesn’t convert at all.

Something To Take Note Before Wrapping Up

Important aspects of running mobile content offers are to be very precise in targeting the right traffic to be able to maximize conversions and not let any traffic get wasted.

Direct Billing Flow (1-click & 2-click Flow) will state the Geo & Carrier to target.

SMS Billing Flow (MO & MT Flow) will state the Geo to target.

Still, with varying policies being implemented in each country and carriers, the best practice before running each offer is to clearly understand all conversion requirements and restrictions of every offer.

Investing in a reliable tracker with carrier detection feature is necessary for running an effective mobile content offers campaign. Reasons being that we want to be able to track that we are sending the right traffic for the offers to be able to convert.

Another reason is that, even though most traffic sources allow us to buy traffic by chosen carrier, but there will be times that traffic sent could be from WIFI or another unchosen carrier. With tracker in place, we could block traffic from unwanted sources or have proof for a refund on getting unusable traffic.

Conclusion

Despite being one of the easiest vertical to convert, there are still big and growing opportunities for monetizing in mobile content offers.

Technavio’s market research analyst estimates the global mobile content market to exhibit an impressive market growth rate during the forecast period. The increasing adoption of smartphones and tablets is a critical factor that propels growth in this market and results in its striking market value of more than USD 170 billion by 2019. – Technavio

Wewe Media is one of the leading networks that focused exclusively on building a huge database of Mobile Content Offers. Check out our offers on our weekly updates and Sign up to open an account with us.