Mobile phone advertising will soon become as critical to the small business owner’s marketing campaign as Internet marketing is now. More than 5 out of 6 households have at least one mobile phone, and recent studies have found that mobile advertising is 3-5 time more effective than online advertising.

But, many people find it hard to understand how mobile advertising works. Articles and reports in the media usually focus on the ways that very large businesses use mobile advertising, which can be irrelevant to a smaller company. Below is a brief explanation of the 2 major types of phone ads available today.

SMS Advertising

With this type of mobile phone advertising, your customers or prospects ask to get text message advertisements from you. You ask them to text a special keyword that you have used in your other marketing efforts, and by doing so they opt in to your mobile advertising list. There are third party vendors that can manage your text message advertising campaigns, the cost can be paid either on an as you go basis or through special pre-paid packages.

Once a customer has opted into your mobile advertisements, you send phone ads to them through text messages (SMS). Those vendors who send coupons and notice of limited time discounts find great success with this form of mobile advertising. Restaurants, retail stores and entertainment type businesses have experienced good success.

Search Engine Mobile Advertising

The other major type of mobile advertising has its roots in the standard search engine you use on the Internet. Basically, a potential customer is looking for something in particular and does a mobile search for the information. Your mobile advertisement appears if it is relevant to the customers search.

Search engine databases are typically made up of merchants who are subscribers to the mobile search engine. There may be a per-click charge, but most just charge a monthly fee, which is a great way to have an online mobile advertising presence while staying on a budget.

Whether you prefer SMS advertising or in-page advertising, there are affordable options available to you for mobile phone advertising.