• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 25, 2015

According to eMarketer estimates, mobile ad spending in the US will jump 50.0% this year to reach $28.72 billion, or 49.0% of digital ad spending. But, client-side marketers, polled in March 2015 by Econsultancy with Adobe, still struggled with mobile measurement. Just 51% measured user engagement and return on investment from mobile efforts.

Tracking users and results across screens was an even bigger issue, says the report. Fewer than three in 10 marketers used cross-channel tracking or visitor stitching (identifying the same user across desktop/apps as a single user) for mobile marketing.

As a result, marketers were often stuck with a limited understanding of their mobile customers. About two-thirds said they knew what proportion of their traffic came via mobile devices, and seven in 10 knew what devices their customers used. Beyond these basic metrics, marketers lagged, notes the report.

Just half of respondents understood how mobile fit into the customer journey across devices and channels. Only 35% could track customers across different devices when they chose to authenticate and log in to the experience. A similar percentage understood the nuances of how customers used tablets and smartphones differently, issues that can all hold back targeting and personalization throughout the customer experience.

Other research points to similar issues with tracking customers across screens, says the report. In a March 2015 study by Signal, 51% of marketers worldwide reported that they did not have a single view of customers/prospects across devices and touchpoints. In comparison, just 6% said their current solution provided an adequate single view of their customers.

Econsultancy polling, in association with ResponseTap in March 2015, found that only 5% of client-side marketers worldwide had a seamless integration of customer touchpoints across channels that allowed for exploitation of opportunities. Just under a quarter had integrated channels but were channel-focused, not customer-focused.

The report concludes by saying that, as marketers place a greater emphasis on targeting people, not devices, going beyond simple mobile measurement and understanding customer behaviors across screens is a must.

For more about eMarketer, please visit here.