Once you understand the huge opportunity that mobile traffic presents, the need for a responsive layout is easy to fathom. But there are still several rules you need to abide by if you want to ensure that your media is getting across on all platforms and devices. What we’re really talking about here is exercising care with media. No, not Medicare, not Obamacare - Media care!
This industry is all about reaching customers with teasing advertisements and eye-catching creatives. The thing is, mobile traffic has its own set of rules. At the end of the day, if you want to guarantee that your audience is seeing all those stunning beauties featured in your banners - you better believe you must choose the right mobile-friendly media types.
This week, we'll go over some of the principles that should help steer your media choices in the right direction to ensure that you're getting the most out of your responsive site, and all mobile traffic that comes with it.
Rule #1 - Flash should be avoided at all costs
There’s a reason Steve Jobs hated Flash.
“Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.”~ Steve Jobs
While arguably the most common and known rule of them all— Flash banners, and Flash in general, have no business being on your responsive website; especially not if you designed your site with a Mobile First mentality.
Flash is just simply not supported by enough devices.
It’s actually quite sad when you think about it… Flash banners in general, pack a wallop. We’re fans of the way Flash banners look, and the high potential for conversions by featuring them. It’s also no coincidence that we recommend webmasters with Desktop traffic to continue to promote these.
So, what’s the best compromise?
Why, adjusting your banner formats accordingly to the bulk of your traffic stats, of course!
Really, it’s as simple as that; that’s what we call a true winning combination. Oh, and if you did happen to forget Rule #1 - and you’re using our ad tools and displaying Flash banners on your mobile-visited sites, not to worry.
Lucky for you, we take care of everything. All of our Flash banners in our Ad Tools section feature a backup JPEG image for those who are unable to view Flash. This way, none of your traffic goes to waste.
Not only that, but remember, we redirect users to the right mobile versions of all our offers if they're not on the right device.
Keep Everything Within Easy Reach
When you create your sales funnel, you want your user to get sucked in.
The top of the funnel is widest, and that's where you’ll cast the widest net - with your mobile conscious Media. The goal is to have everything your visitor needs included in the funnel - especially with Media. It should always be within reach, so your visitor never has to leave your site to view it.
This is especially true when it comes to converting mobile traffic.
Remember, mobile users may have to leave your site to be able to view commonly used file types such as PDF files- and that's only if they have the right application to access them.
We bring this up because this doesn’t usually occur with Desktop traffic. In a worst case scenario, the file will open in a new window tab or they’ll be prompted to pick an application to open the file.. but the visitor won’t actually LEAVE your site. Unfortunately with some smartphones, visitors get taken away from your site.
Your visitor leaving your site over something like this is a big no-no.
If you keep some of you content in downloadable files such as the PDF example above, your user is GONE - usually in some other app. Good luck getting him back into your funnel!
Size matters
Size matters when it comes to mobile traffic. Yeah, we’re talking about excessively large and bogged down files that won’t load very well on mobile devices… what did you think we were talking about?!
As we told you a couple weeks back, timing is everything when it comes to keeping your visitors on your site. According to KISSmetrics, 40% of them will leave if the content doesn’t load within 3 seconds; 47% of them expect the page to load in 2 seconds or less.
No pressure.
Fortunately, there’s a pretty easy way to remain within this ideal “target zone” when it comes to loading times.
First, always double check your work and test a page after you integrate media— if it loads slowly for you on a decent connection, there’s a good chance this will load even slower for others.
Second, using a free tool like WebPage Test can be to your advantage; a tool like this gives you concrete data to work with to improve slow loading times. Simply enter your URL to test your page speed and get a visual breakdown of what content is taking up the most bytes.
Back to our size point, remember, SIZE DOES MATTER!
As much as any of us would like to believe our own content is sooo great and spectacular… at the end of the day, your visitors have things to do and places to be. They ain’t sticking around long if you can’t get your media in check. Regardless of how hot the girlies are.
Does that mean your videos should remain short & sweet as well? You bet it does.
We know that mobile media has seen the biggest traffic growth explosion since 2014. With that said, the need to optimize it is more important than ever - especially for relevant file types.
And the winners are…
So, since we’ve been talked a lot about this, here are some of the best media file formats you can use on mobile traffic on both IOS and Android with a special mention for the formats in green that we consider to be your top choice:
The Ultimate Mobile Media Care Chart
| Media | Format(s) |
| Image | JPEG, GIF, PNG |
| Sound | MP3 - MP4, M4A, AAC |
| Video | H.264 |
Concerning these video formats, we strongly suggest you refer to IOS and Android's developer recommendations regarding the nitty gritty.
The Ultimate Guide to Marketing & Sales Funnels
If you're willing to go one step further, then we recommend giving this guide a read.
It's complete with even more details on how to successfully set up and optimize your sales funnels so you get maximum ROI.
There are even live video examples teaching you the ins and outs of online marketing funnels.
Final Food for Thought
In any event, always remember that your site should ideally load in under 3 seconds for the average 8 MB (per second) T1 broadband mobile connection. Beyond this, it’s considered web obesity— and you may want to consider a diet..
You can also check your average page speed with Google PageSpeed Insights for both desktop and mobile. Try to avoid the red exclamation mark - but don’t get too discouraged if you don’t achieve a “green” speed: even the most successful sites don’t always achieve this.
Next, we've saved the best for last. Check out the best Responsive WordPress themes in our conclusionary Part 4 post.
Continue reading:
Be Responsive! Part 4 - Responsive WordPress Themes:
See ya soon!
