• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, September 18, 2014

The Tel Aviv-based mobile ad network Todacell released research Wednesday that suggests matching the color in a mobile advertisement with a country's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita can improve click-through rates and return on investments. In tests by the company, CTRs rose up to 150% and ROI improved by up to 50% for ads running on its mobile ad serving platform.

It turns out culture plays an important role in the colors used in mobile ads based on a hunch from Amir Goldstein, Todacell CEO. Findings show matching color with a country's GDP can produce mobile ad conversion rates with more than 90% accuracy. "It was a hunch," he said. "I didn't know exactly how to make it work."

It worked after Todacell's scientists got their  hands around Goldstein's theory. It turns out the types of colors more often worn by consumers in a specific country have a greater positive impact on mobile advertising. "Look at the fashion and the way people dress in higher GDP countries," he said. "It's less colorful and more monochromatic. In some countries colors have meaning."

It took about three months to develop the algorithms to test the theory that a country's culture relates to the colors most often worn, and relating the color to the GDP. The research found that mobile ads with muted, minimalist colors perform best in countries with a high GDP per capita like the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Western Europe, Japan, and Korea.

Ads with bright colors perform best in countries with low GDP per capita like Kenya, India, Burma, and Nicaragua. Both types of ads perform equally well with consumers located in countries with average or middle GDP per capita, such as Argentina, Russia, Poland and Brazil.