The study, published in The American Marketing Association (AMA)’s Journal of Marketing Research, looked at ad testing data from 54 mobile display ad campaigns and nearly 40,000 US consumers. The campaigns covered a number of industries, and products were categorised based on whether they were more ‘utilitarian’ or ‘hedonic’, and whether they required higher or lower involvement when being considered by consumers.

The key finding from the study was that mobile display ads increased brand favourability and purchase intent, but only for products that were more utilitarian (functional) and required higher involvement consideration.

The study authors suggest that mobile ads – which are typically small and convey little information – are only effective if they remind consumers of information they already know about a particular product, and if consumers are already motivated to think about the product information. The authors claim that these requirements are best aligned to functional, high involvement consideration products.