Pioneering the shift in consumers moving from traditional to digital mediums, was in 1994 when Amazon founded and launched an e-commerce bookstore (Zahay, 2023). Since then, the evolution of technology has required business models to change and adapt to meet consumer standards and demands around electronic payments, AR, VR, blockchain, and other technologies (Zahay, 2023). Businesses who adopt tech for their customer base have an advantage over those who do not. Over time, the shift of consumers who use mobile technology has exploded, and in 2025, over 91% of internet use is estimated to be mobile (Statista, 2018), while there is a 97% smartphone penetration rate (Statista, 2025).
Mobile vs. Traditional Marketing Advantages
One major advantage of marketing to mobile phone and tablet users over traditional marketing channels is providing customers with the easiest possible way to pay, allowing for maximum sales conversions. Digital payment methods are fast and provide a seamless cross-channel payment experience (de Best, 2025). Additionally, many consumers prefer to pay with digital methods as they always have their phone with them, it is convenient, easy, and secure (Statista, 2022).
Another benefit to mobile marketing is that it offers advertisers superior analytics over traditional marketing channels, including the ability to gain understanding of user behavior and customer journey. Mobile metrics include paying customer acquisition costs, user, session, and event details, revenue per user, return on ad spend, and attribution (Adobe, 2025).
Implementing Mobile Marketing
To increase product awareness and lead consumers to the point of sale, businesses can strategically target mobile users by utilizing QR codes, paid ads and offering incentives, and opt-ins via SMS. Customer loyalty programs have proven successful — as of 2024, consumers averaged 19 loyalty program memberships. From a commerce perspective, over 68% of marketers reported a 1-7x Return on Investment from loyalty programs (Statista, 2025).
Mobile Marketing Constraints
There are several constraints to mobile marketing, one being that consumers get irritated by advertisements. The most irritating advertising medium is social media (37%), closely followed by apps at 30% (Statista, 2018) — both of which are mobile-majority mediums. Further elaborating on ‘irritating ads’ is that of ad fatigue, where a user tires of an advertisement as it is seen more often (Abrams & Vee, n.d.). Ad fatigue can occur because of hyper-targeting mobile users, causing said user to see an ad from a specific advertiser repeatedly. Though mobile marketing has a benefit of obtaining detailed analytics and hyper-targeting users, with that comes privacy concerns. Analytics companies, app creators, and mobile device manufacturers obtain personal user data which has recently been combatted with opt-in requirements, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the ‘California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Ullah, Boreli & Kanhere, 2022).
In summary, consumers and businesses have shifted from using traditional marketing methods to digital and mobile mediums. While mobile technology offers convenience, security, fast payment methods, and superior analytics, it also comes with irritating ads and privacy concerns.
References
Abrams, Z., & Vee, E. (n.d.). Personalized Ad Delivery when Ads Fatigue: An Approximation Algorithm. https://theory.stanford.edu/~za/AdFatigue/AdFatigue.pdf
de Best, R . (2025). Mobile payments with digital wallets – statistics & facts Statista. https://www.statista.com/topics/4872/mobile-payments-worldwide/#topicOverview
Loyalty programs and marketing in the United States. (2025). Statista. https://www.statista.com/study/115522/loyalty-programs-and-marketing-in-the-us/
Mobile advertising and marketing in the U.S. | Statista. (2018). Statista. https://www.statista.com/study/12382/mobile-marketing-in-the-united-states-statista-dossier/
Mobile Marketing Analytics & In-app Analytics | Adobe Analytics. (2025). Adobe.com. https://business.adobe.com/products/adobe-analytics/digital-analytics/mobile-analytics.html
Used forms of payment by reason | Statista. (2022). Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1446125/romania-used-forms-of-payment-by-reason/
Smartphones in the United States. (2025). Statista. https://www.statista.com/study/26643/smartphones-in-the-us-statista-dossier/
Ullah, I., Boreli, R., & Kanhere, S. S. (2022). Privacy in targeted advertising on mobile devices: a survey. International Journal of Information Security, 22, 647–678. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10207-022-00655-x
Zahay, D. (2023). Digital Marketing Foundations and Strategy (5th ed.). Cengage Learning US. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9780357720776