Microsoft has launched full HTML device targeting for advertisers, so that they can easily target mobile display ads to all handsets that can render full HTML sites (including sites developed for the PC Web). Such devices include iPhone, Android, and full HTML browser Windows phones and Blackberry devices.
"Targeting full HTML mobile devices is appealing to advertisers for many reasons," says Raj Kapoor of the Microsoft Mobile Advertising team. "Some advertisers wish to reach this audience segment simply due to their increased consumption of mobile media products. Other advertisers wish to use full HTML targeting to target Rich Media ad campaigns to devices that support these advanced mobile ad units, or simply to drive consumers to a more engaging full HTML page designed for mobile screens."
"Still other advertisers wish to enter the mobile advertising space but have not yet optimized their website to render on feature phones or other less featured mobile browsers," he adds. "While these advertisers recognize that the ideal consumer experience is to create a dedicated mobile web site for all mobile users, including those with devices capable of displaying sites originally created for the PC web, full HTML device targeting allows them to easily extend their online campaigns into mobile and reach this engaged mobile audience by driving these sophisticated users to their online destinations."
In the past, as Kapoor explains, advertisers had to keep an up-to-date list of every mobile device with a full HTML mobile browser, and individually target each one. The new feature should drastically reduce the headache associated with that.
The list of such devices continues to grow rapidly, particularly as smartphone usage becomes more and more broad. It is important to advertisers that they reach as many devices as possible if they’re campaign is not targeted at users of just one of them.
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