72 per cent of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) will increase or maintain the same mobile advertising spend in the next 12 months, according to a survey of 1,300 companies conducted by Borrell Associates. Of those increasing spend, 65 per cent expect to increase spend by up to 30 per cent in the next 12 months.

49 per cent of those questioned that have done some mobile advertising in the past say a higher ROI would prompt them to increase ad spend even further. 26 per cent said that they would prefer to pay for signups (the email addresses and social networking handles of consumers interested in their businesses) rather than clicks (19 per cent) or impressions (6 per cent).

Given that a large percentage of mobile advertising is sold on a cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM) pricing model, Pontiflex, which commissioned the research, believes that the survey highlights a disconnect between SMB marketing preferences and advertiser offerings in the marketplace.

In addition, 75 per cent of SMBs said that the ability to target ads by location was very important or somewhat important in a mobile advertising campaign.
Additional findings of the survey include:

• 77 per cent of SMBs say that the ability to analyze campaign performance is somewhat important or very important.
• 75 per cent of SMBs say that the ability to optimize campaigns in real time is very important or somewhat important.
• Of the SMBs who plan to increase ad spend, 32 per cent of SMBs plan to increase their mobile ad spend by 11 – 20 per cent over the next twelve months.
• 46 per cent of SMBs would be very interested or somewhat interested in a self-service solution for mobile ads.

Pontiflex runs a mobile signup ad platform called AdLeads. With AdLeads, SMBs can run geo-targeted ads on top of mobile apps. They only pay when someone signs up to hear from their business. Since its launch in March 2011, more than 5,000 businesses have signed up for AdLeads.

“Mobile advertising is growing, but hasnt kept pace with the rapid adoption of mobile devices,” said Zephrin Lasker, CEO and co-founder, Pontiflex. “This survey shows that SMBs need real returns from mobile advertising, and CPC and CPM pricing models are just not working for them. SMBs want to use mobile ads to grow their businesses. To help them do so, the industry must innovate and try new things, and thats what we are doing with AdLeads.”

You can see detailed survey results here.