Mobile users between the ages of 18 to 34 years old are strongly receptive to mobile ads, with 47 percent having clicked on a mobile ad in the past three months, according to a new report from RadiumOne.

The findings also suggest that this age group in particular values personal connections as a means to purchase products and services through their mobile devices. For marketers, this means they have an opportunity to reach these users by leveraging their interest in sharing content.

?Mobile advertising poses one of the greatest opportunities for marketers, yet many brands and agencies are at a loss for the best way to leverage mobile to reach consumers especially in the 18-34 demographic branded ?Generation C? by Nielsen and NM Incite?s U.S. Digital Consumer Report,? said Kamal Kaur, vice president of mobile and display at RadiumOne, San Francisco. ?This is one of the most elusive yet lucrative markets for brands to reach.

?Our findings help marketers better understand this age group, and their personal ?connection? with each other as well as their propensity to consume media content, socialize and share experiences through devices,? he said. ?Marketers can leverage this propensity to share content ? from coupons and promotions to pictures and videos.

?These findings are good news for marketers, they have an untapped opportunity to speak directly to consumers with the right message, at the right time, on the right platform ? mobile.?

Time to share
The findings suggest that sharing offers with friends is happening at a faster pace on consumers? mobile devices compared to desktop.

This provides an important opportunity for brands to reach this consumer demographic when they use mobile to identify social connections, gain insight about consumer behavior on mobile devices and analyze real-time interests.

Key findings include that 50 percent of respondents used their smartphones to share offers such as coupons, sales and ads with friends. The rate of sharing was one to three times per month for 31 percent of respondents, three to six times per month for 16 percent and more than six times for three percent.

Additionally, 41 percent make purchase decisions based solely on recommendations from friends and family while 38 percent are driven by sales based content.

Focusing on mobile
Other findings include that 54 percent of consumers in this age group made a purchase from a mobile device in the last six months. Of those, 32 percent made one to three purchases, 14 percent made three to six purchases and nine percent made more than six purchases.

Additionally, 55 percent of respondents used their mobile device to comparison shop at least once per week. Of those, 33 percent use it one to three times, 14 percent use it three to six times and eight percent answered to using it six or more times.

Mobile is also playing a key role in the media consumption habits of this demographic, with 39 percent having viewed between one to five videos each day on their smartphone while nine percent viewed more than five videos a day. Additionally, 37 percent used a smartphone and 19 percent used a tablet device while watching television.

?Marketers need to begin thinking of mobile as a primary vehicle for advertising, instead of as a secondary channel to online display,? Mr. Kaur said.

?Currently multi-screen campaigns are beginning to harness cross-platform campaigns, but they are not thinking about mobile as its own platform to optimize advertising content,? he said. ?This is where the focus must shift for mobile advertising to take hold in the industry.

?Also, with mobile comes the need to change the way we measure effectiveness. Click-through rate is no longer the primary way to gauge mobile campaign success, it is about how mobile can drive conversions and engagement as its own medium.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York