Apple Passbook, Google Wallet Apps Now Include Ads

A new generation of mobile ads have made their way to Apple Passbook and Google Wallet.

On Friday (Feb. 20), mobile marketing company Vibes announced the release of WalletAds, a technology that allows consumers to save branded content and provide offers directly to their Apple Passbook or Google Wallet by tapping on a mobile ad.

WalletAds addresses the issues currently plaguing mobile advertising, which includes banner ads that drive consumers to secondary commerce sites, where research shows nearly all consumers abandon their shopping carts. Or, they are directed to download an app, requiring extra steps, thereby increasing the chances a consumer will lose interest in the advertised product. In turn, these problems create low purchase rates from mobile ads.

Instead, Vibes WalletAds aims to solve this issue by providing consumers with the opportunity to save the content and open the offer directly from their phones via a mobile wallet.

“Mobile advertising is broken, but the rapid growth of mobile wallets is set to change that,” Vibes CEO and co-founder Jack Philbin said in a company news release. “By making the consumers’ personal mobile wallet the post-click destination for any mobile ad they click on, we are giving them a far more effective way to respond to the ad, which will in turn bring greater ROI for advertisers.”

Vibes outlines four key ways in which WalletAds improves mobile advertising on both the advertiser and consumer ends: persistence and retargeting takes advantage of the staying power of mobile wallet content; prime placement highlights the ever-increasing popularity of the mobile wallet; device detection automatically delineates between Passbook and Google Wallet; and measurable ROI allows businesses to specifically measure and analyze the results of their mobile advertising expenditures.

Vibes also cited a Forrester Research study that predicts significant growth for mobile wallets in 2015. According to the study, more than 50 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in loyalty and coupon benefits on a mobile wallet, and 41 percent of marketers plan to implement mobile wallets within the next year.