50% of mobile ad clicks are accidental, according to a recent study from GoldSpot Media. This finding strikes fear into the hearts of any marketers who thought mobile ads are the answer to dropping CTRs for desktop banners. The good news is that there are still ways of improving mobile ad targeting so that the ads are displayed for the right user at the right time.

Some ad clicks on mobile devices happen accidentally simply because the screen is smaller and the touch operation is less accurate than using a mouse or touchpad input. That being said, you can also minimize what’s causing users to tap the banners unintentionally by applying a highly accurate device targeting for all mobile ads.

The targeting must be based on a device detection solution which can equip your ad server with the knowledge of detailed device characteristics for every requesting device. Here are the main reasons to implement this solution into your ad platform or, if you’re an advertiser, search for the platform that does it right.

1. More user engagement

Ads can provide brand exposure to potential customers but advertisers usually pay more attention to a measurable outcome of campaigns in the form of clicks, conversions and sales. Engaged visitors, who generate a lot of pages per session and longer time spent on site, are also important in terms of calculating ROI for ad spend.

With accurate device detection it is possible to make sure that the ads reach the customers who are likely to interact with them and eventually buy the product or service. This can be based on the screen size, device make and model, OS, etc. For example, an advertiser selling iPhone accessories would want to the ads to be strictly targeted at iPhone users. In this case, exposing the ads to Android or Windows Phone users would be a waste of the campaign budget.

2. More targeting options for advertisers

When it comes to mobile targeting it’s not only about accuracy but also about the depth of the targeting available. This is solely dependent on the capabilities of the device detection solution used by the advertising platform. Here are some of the device targeting options that may be available:

• Make and model
• Operating system
• Browser
• Device year released
• Screen sizes and screen resolution
• HTML5 support
• Network connectivity

These device characteristics can help advertisers craft targeted ad campaigns which resonate with a very specific audience. For ad platforms, more campaign options mean a significant advantage over competing solutions which may not offer device targeting at such a granular level.

3. More accurate ROI measurement

Of course not all mobile ad campaigns need granular device targeting other than ensuring that the banners display well on all devices. When this is the case, accurate mobile targeting is still essential due to the fact that the ad platform has the capability of reporting on ad campaigns at device level. Advertisers receive a detailed breakdown on as many device data points as the detection solution provides.

In the case of DeviceAtlas, there are 180 device properties available. This helps the advertiser to calculate the ROI for the ad campaign which can drive decisions on allocating advertising budgets.

4. Improved web performance

Ronan Cremin, DeviceAtlas CTO, wrote  in 2016 that the average web page size had reached over 2.2MB, which equals the size of Doom install image. In the case of many websites, a large part of this number relates to advertising, such as heavy scripts, banners, trackers, pop-ups, etc.

Given the recent spike in mobile ad blocking, the advertiser’s role is to avoid ads which can aggravate users by reducing web performance and making the core website content unusable or simply not visible. These are the main reasons why so many users decide to block advertising. While you can't prevent users from blocking the ads, you can at least get the ad targeting right to make the ads as fast loading as possible.

5. Bot traffic mitigation

Up to 48% of web traffic may be generated by bots and crawlers. While this is problematic for all companies, the ones selling ad inventory must pay extra attention to ensure that advertisers are not charged for bot-generated clicks and impressions. This can be done by applying a device detection solution which is capable of identifying all non-human visitors to filter them out from campaign results.