Mobile Analytics with Bango's Andy Bovingdon

Mobile Analytics and mobile payments services are helping marketers better serve and understand mobile phone user engagement.

As Andy Bovingdon, VP of Product Marketing for Bango remarks about the change in consumer adoption of the mobile channel: “…Analytics is less about measuring clicks and more about consumer engagement”

His company is the leading provider of mobile payment and analytics products for businesses targeting the fast growing market of internet enabled mobile phones and other devices. Bango provides its worldwide clients with accurate, actionable information, including smartphone mobile Internet usage via cellular networks or Wi-Fi

The firms’s reports are far more accurate and comprehensive than from other service providers. They identify mobile user behaviors as consumers browse websites and interact with mobile campaigns.

Bango (see case studies) shows data in real-time helping marketers better track mobile advertising and search marketing results. This helps enterprise and smaller businesses better assess mobile campaign ROI.

Juniper Research estimated that mobile ad spend in 2009 was $500M. In 2010, 90% of surveyed brands say they’re increasing mobile expenditures, expanding the need for highly accurate, complete mobile payment and analytics data.

Yet, according to a 2009 consumer study, brands, agencies and mobile providers are not adequately measuring critical factors that improve engagement, marketing and advertising success.

In the survey of 100 webinar participants, most from the United States and Europe, Bango discovered that 83% of brands don’t use mobile-specific analytic tools, leading to inaccurate data on campaign performance. 17% use some sort of measurement and 27%–around a third—don’t measure at all.

According to Bovingdon, “…traditional PC Web analytics solutions rely on JavaScript, cookies and IP addresses to identify a visiting browser…these techniques alone simply do not deliver accurate results on mobile.” (See the Bango blog for additional articles.)

In 2009, the U.S. accounted for over 29% of the world’s total web browsing, beating out the U.K. Mobile payment use is also growing faster in the U.S. than other countries, requiring better user engagement measurement over longer periods of time. Due to increasing worldwide mobile Web use, Bango’s CEO, Ray Anderson, and Andy stress the importance of the “lifetime value of customers,” who demonstrate low churn and opt-out rates in mobile relationships with brands.

For an enlightening and rather humorous demonstration of Bango’s billing and analytics, don’t miss the company’s online MobiSlim demo where you can test its services in real time with your mobile phone. (Learn how to lose weight by eating radishes and drinking lots of water instead of chocolate bars.)

Andy Bovingdon

Andy Bovingdon is responsible for the interface between Bango products and markets, product requirements, positioning and promotion. He leads the company’s product proposition and strategy, as well, and has over 12 years experience within the global Internet market working for both start-ups and established brands.

Bango Mobile Payments and Analytics

He’s been active with the WWW from its inception and participated in the first Web conference at CERN in 1994. Andy integrated a wide range of Web technologies into the X-desktop product for IXI.

He also introduced the world to the Web-based Desktop (Webtop) while with SCO, and designed the first Internet-based remote application at Tarantella, improving mobile workforce use of mission-critical applications.

Before joining Bango, Andy was Head of Marketing and Product Management for ANT, the leading supplier of Web-based user interface platforms in the IPTV market. Prior to that, he headed up world-wide marketing for Microsoft Research in Cambridge. Andy has a BSc in Computer Science from Staffordshire University.

As he mentions in the podcast interview, he’s also an avid audiophile and lover of technology.

Podcast Interview Summary

During the podcast, Andy and Brian Prows discuss Bango mobile payments, analytics and the 2009 study showing that brands are not adequately measuring mobile campaigns. Additional topics include:

The importance of “relevance” in mobile interactions with consumers. User engagement with mobile devices and consumers is longer lasting than through any other communications channel. To maintain engagement, however, brands must deliver personalized mobile experiences, presenting information, products and services that are tailored to each consumer
How mobile analytics increases marketing ROI and complements payment solutions.
Why it’s critical that marketers and advertisers make consumer mobile transactions simple and seamless from end-to-end, whether engagement occurs via carrier cell towers or through Wi-Fi
The proliferation of a growing number of mobile devices–phones, iPads, Kindles–and and the importance of using analytics to measure user behavior. Andy echoes comments made by other mobile experts saying “everything is going mobile.”
Why many brands are throwing money away by not analyzing consumer mobile interactions beyond basic metrics like type of handset, screen resolution and location, due to marketers’ lack of information and familiarity with the unique qualities of consumer behavior while on the the mobile Internet. Traditional PC Web analytics does not produce accurate mobile measurements
How 4G wireless networks and Wi-Fi impact reporting, critically important for iPhone and other smartphone users.
The growth of entrepreneurial SMB’s with new business models targeted at new mobile markets
Importance of mobile billing and analytics integration to measure ad campaigns correctly and comprehensively
Integrated billing solutions allowing brands and advertisers to easily collect mobile payments, eliminating the need for SMS texting or the PayPal model for purchases, creating a simple, Web-like click-to-buy experience.
Bango’s partnerships with operators and others that enhance the company’s reporting accuracy
Measuring and tracking new mobile Internet devices on cellular or Wi-Fi networks
Growth of mobile engagement levels and messaging via Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites
Future needs in the mobile space, according to Andy, are greater accuracy, higher consumer relevance, increased marketing intelligence and tracking new interconnected mobile devices

Bango Analytics Video