Updated October 31, 2026. By EPR Editorial Team.
Mobile marketing is the practice of reaching customers on their phones through five channels: the mobile web, SMS and rich messaging, apps, location-based targeting and mobile advertising. In the United States, 56.4% of online holiday transactions in 2025 happened on smartphones, so a fast mobile website is the first thing to build. Apps and location features come later, and only where customers have a reason to use them.
Key takeaways
- Smartphones drove 56.4% of US online holiday transactions in 2025, according to Adobe Analytics.
- Google indexes the mobile version of a site first, so content missing from mobile is missing from search.
- SMS works best as an opt-in channel for existing customers, and it requires written consent in the United States.
- Most brands do not need an app. Banking, transit, delivery and daily-use retail are the clear exceptions.
On this page
What are the five mobile marketing channels?
The five mobile marketing channels differ in cost, speed and role, and the strongest programs give each channel one clear job instead of splitting budget evenly. The table below shows the job each channel does best.
| Channel | Best job | Main limit |
|---|
| Mobile web | Landing page for search, ads, email and social traffic | Slow pages lose visitors before they act |
| SMS and rich messaging | Direct, opt-in messages to existing customers | Needs written consent and carrier registration |
| Apps | Repeat use by habitual customers | High build cost and low install rates |
| Location-based marketing | Local offers inside an existing loyalty program | Depends on users sharing their location |
| Mobile advertising | Reach and installs across search, social, video and in-app inventory | Desktop creative resized for a phone performs poorly |
Why does mobile come first?
Mobile comes first because smartphones now carry most online purchases and Google judges sites by their mobile version. Adobe's analysis of the 2025 US holiday season found that 56.4% of online transactions happened on smartphones, up from 54.5% in 2024. Adobe described 2025 as the first full year in which mobile made up more than half of online spending. Online spending in the period reached a record $257.8 billion, up 6.8% year over year, and mobile share peaked at 66.5% of online sales on Christmas Day.
Two further Adobe figures show where mobile still falls short. Buy now, pay later accounted for $20 billion of holiday spending, and 82.2% of those payments came from phones. Mobile drove 56.4% of spending but only 38.8% of returns, which means shoppers still switch devices for some tasks.
Google completed its move to mobile-first indexing in July 2024, so it evaluates the mobile version of a page first for indexing and ranking. Content, structured data or internal links that exist only on the desktop version are effectively invisible to search. Google's Core Web Vitals add a page-experience layer: Largest Contentful Paint measures loading, Interaction to Next Paint measures responsiveness, and Cumulative Layout Shift measures visual stability. Interaction to Next Paint replaced First Input Delay on March 12, 2024. Good scores do not guarantee rankings, but they predict how a site feels on a phone, and that shows up in bounce rate and conversion.
How should a mobile website be built?
A mobile website should load quickly on real phones and make the main task obvious, because a fast mobile site usually returns more than an app for most brands. Fixing the mobile site lifts paid, organic, email, SMS and social traffic at the same time. The steps below are listed in the order most teams get results.
- Test pages on mid-range phones and mobile networks, not only on a developer's laptop.
- Remove or defer heavy scripts and third-party tags, since too much JavaScript is the most common cause of poor responsiveness.
- Show the main action (buy, book, call or find a store) without scrolling.
- Shorten checkout with guest checkout, address autofill and wallet payments such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
- Keep mobile content equal to desktop content, because indexing starts with the mobile version.
- Send links from email, SMS and ads to the right page, and open the app through deep links when it is installed.
How do SMS and RCS work for marketing?
SMS is a direct channel that works best for customers who have opted in, and it is strongest for order updates, reminders, flash offers and member perks. Response rates are usually reported as higher than email, but many published figures come from vendors, so brands should measure their own results. In the United States, marketing texts require prior express written consent, carrier registration and compliance with quiet-hours rules. EPR's SMS marketing guide covers consent, list-building and message design in detail.
Where does RCS fit?
RCS, or Rich Communication Services, is the upgrade path for business texting. It supports images, carousels, quick-reply buttons and a verified sender profile that shows the brand name and logo instead of a bare phone number. Apple added RCS support to the iPhone Messages app with iOS 18 in September 2024. Business messaging availability still depends on carrier and region, so most programs run RCS with an SMS fallback. It suits visual categories such as fashion, retail and travel, and trust-sensitive ones such as banking, where a verified sender helps customers spot legitimate messages.
When is a branded app worth building?
A branded app is worth building only when customers have a repeated reason to open it. Banking, airlines, transit, food delivery and daily-use retail meet that test, because the app is real infrastructure for the customer. Most other brands get more from the mobile site, messaging and ads. Brands in the first group should read EPR's app marketing guide, which covers store optimization, retention and privacy-safe measurement.
How should push notifications be used?
Push notifications work best when a user action triggers them instead of being sent in blasts. Ask for permission at a moment when the value is clear, tie each message to something the user did or cares about, and cap frequency, because over-notifying is a common reason users switch notifications off or delete the app.
How do mobile ads and location marketing work?
Mobile ads work when the creative is built for the phone, and location features work when they sit inside a loyalty program customers already use. Mobile ad inventory is broad and relatively inexpensive compared with desktop display, but much of the creative running against it is still a desktop banner scaled down. Brands that build mobile-native creative consistently outperform brands that repurpose desktop assets.
| Format | Where it works |
|---|
| Vertical short-form video (9:16) | TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, covered in EPR's video marketing guide |
| Search and local ads with call, directions or click-to-text | Local and service businesses, where phone searches often carry immediate intent |
| App install and engagement ads | Social platforms, Apple Ads and Google app campaigns |
| Rewarded and playable in-app ads | Mobile gaming, covered in the mobile gaming playbook |
| Creator-made video | Phone feeds, where creator content often outperforms brand-made spots, as the creator economy coverage explains |
Since Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency, targeting and measurement on iPhones depend more on first-party data, aggregated attribution and testing. Brands can build email and SMS lists, use on-site and in-app behavior, and measure incremental lift instead of relying on user-level tracking alone.
Location features include check-in offers, proximity coupons, store finders and loyalty tracked by place. They depend on users sharing where they are, so they succeed only when the value is obvious and the permission request is honest. Brands should state what location data is collected and why, and make sure app store privacy disclosures match actual behavior.
Why do mobile payments belong in the funnel?
Mobile payments belong in the marketing funnel because friction at checkout loses sales. Wallet payments, saved cards and buy now, pay later options reduce typing and speed up purchases, which is why BNPL usage skews so heavily toward phones. Wallets also act as a marketing surface through loyalty passes, offers and tickets stored on the device.
How do AI answers affect mobile search?
AI answers affect mobile search because shoppers increasingly ask an assistant for recommendations before they open a store or run a search. Adobe reported that generative AI referral traffic to US retail sites rose 693.4% year over year during the 2025 holiday season. Brands earn mentions in those answers through accurate websites, structured data, reviews and third-party coverage. EPR explains the discipline in its guides to AI communications and generative engine optimization.
What consent rules apply on mobile?
Mobile marketing runs on personal data and personal devices, so consent is part of the craft. The core obligations are easy to list and easy to underestimate.
| Area | Obligation |
|---|
| Texting | Written consent, carrier registration, opt-out handling and quiet hours in the United States |
| Tracking | Permission before tracking users across other companies' apps and websites on iOS, and lawful consent under rules such as the GDPR in Europe |
| Location | Clear permission and honest disclosure of collection and use |
| Minors | Extra duties for audiences under 18, including state app store age-verification laws such as those in Texas and Utah |
| Disclosures | App store privacy labels and Google Play's data safety section must match actual behavior |
These rules change, so any program should be reviewed with qualified counsel. This guide is not legal advice.
How should mobile marketing be measured?
Mobile marketing should be measured by following the customer across channels instead of crediting the last tap. Useful measures include mobile conversion rate and its gap to desktop, mobile page speed and Core Web Vitals, checkout completion, SMS list growth and opt-out rate, app installs and cohort retention, and revenue per channel. Brands should compare mobile and desktop funnels separately, because phones are strong for discovery and quick purchases while longer or higher-value decisions often move to another device. Because no single tool sees every cross-device journey, teams combine analytics, attribution, incrementality tests and simple surveys that ask customers how they found the brand.
What does a 30-60-90 day mobile plan look like?
A 30-60-90 day plan moves from audit to fixes to testing, and each phase has a clear output. The plan below suits a brand starting from a standard website and no mobile program.
| Days | Focus | Actions |
|---|
| 1 to 30 | Audit | Test the mobile site on real devices, review Core Web Vitals in Search Console, walk through checkout on a phone, compare mobile and desktop conversion and content, and review any SMS program for consent records and registration |
| 31 to 60 | Fix and build | Fix the slowest and most-used pages first, shorten checkout, add wallet options, rebuild the top paid creative as vertical video, and launch or clean up an opt-in SMS list with a clear sign-up offer |
| 61 to 90 | Test and scale | Run structured tests on messaging, offers and creative, pilot one new channel such as RCS or a location-based loyalty feature, and shift budget toward the channels that produced retained customers |
For the wider marketing context, see EPR's marketing section and its original research.
Sources and notes
Adobe Analytics 2025 holiday shopping data (period November 1 to December 31, 2025), as reported by Adobe, Digital Commerce 360 and Reuters. Google Search documentation on mobile-first indexing and page experience. Industry reporting on Apple's RCS rollout. Statistics change, so check the current figure before citing.
