Navigating the world of mobile marketing can be confusing, even for the seasoned marketing pro. With a landscape that changes rapidly, plus cost fluctuations and ever-evolving technology, it can be tough to know which strategies and methods will work.

Smartphone conversion rates are up 64 percent over desktop conversion rates, according to a report from Formstack published by SocPub. It's important to get this segment of your overall marketing strategy correct. While every business' mobile marketing strategy will be different, there are four common pitfalls all professionals should avoid:

Retargeting is a broad marketing term that refers to advertising that targets users who have already interacted with your brand in specifically-defined ways. This includes a visit to your website, browsing social media pages or clicking a product.

Know How It Works

When guests take one of these actions, a cookie is set in their browser and they're served ads based on their previous behavior. For instance, if you own a local coffee shop and a user within a specific ZIP code is browsing your delivery menu, a retargeting strategy could deliver ads to this customer featuring the menu items they were looking at.

The key to any successful marketing strategy is reaching your key audience in the location they frequent most. When it comes to fast food marketing, millennials — a substantial 25 percent of the population — spend more money on dining out than any other age group, according to Restaurant Marketing Labs.

The average millennial shells out $174 per month on restaurant food, compared to non-millennials, who spend $153 per month. The $21 difference could easily translate into two or three more fast-food lunches per month, and a significant bottom-line boost for quick service restaurants (QSRs). How can you take advantage of mobile marketing offerings at your OSR?

Eight months after its first announcement that it would enable cross-device remarketing through the use of signed-in user data, Google added another critical layer of functionality: As of May 15, the data is available to Google Analytics and advertisers creating audience lists.

The announcement was made quietly through the Google Analytics dashboard, but it has important implications for advertisers using Google Analytics — especially those who have been frustrated by some of its limitations. As Marketing Land noted, cross-device retargeting has long been available from other major ad platforms, including Facebook, but Google's retargeting capabilities were much more limited because they haven't allowed tracking via user sign-ins.

Restaurants face the endless challenge of enticing consumers to walk through the front doors. Word-of-mouth carries a lot of clout, and the restaurant industry has been transformed by the heavy influence of online reviews.

But neither of these channels offer any control to the restaurant — that's where target advertising comes into play. By using digital channels to expose your restaurant to nearby consumers looking for a bite to eat, you can control some of your online fate while leveraging influential technology to make a greater impact.

If programmatic advertising trends continue, expect spending on this method to grow by 31 percent in 2017, according to a report from Zenith. This would be faster than social media, which should rise 25 percent, and online video's anticipated growth of 20 percent. Whether you're currently using programmatic's data-driven, automated ad buying technology or just thinking about it, here's what you need to know about its trajectory in 2017.

As streaming video becomes more prevalent in today's world, mobile video ads provide great opportunities in the new year. From new ad formats to a sputtering format, here are three mobile video trends marketers should look for in 2017:

1. The Facebook Renaissance

Though YouTube has been the biggest name in video ads for the past several years, Facebook is making a big play this year to upend this trend. Earlier this year, the social media company tested the placement of 15-second midroll ads into non-live videos. According to eMarketer, videos will only qualify for this new ad program if they run for 90 seconds or longer and are viewed for at least 20 seconds, ensuring viewability metrics remain high. Although we expect a slow roll-out for this program in 2017, Facebook provides a spectacular opportunity if you're looking to stand on the edge of the newest frontier in mobile video ads.

If you've ever moved before, you know how labor intensive it can be. There are moving trucks to reserve or moving companies to hire. You need to cancel utilities at one place, start them at your new home, move out of your current place and possibly sell your home before finding a new place to live.

On top of all this, you must make sure you have a bed to sleep in every night. People have a lot of needs when they're moving, and companies that serve that industry want to be the solution. IP targeting is a digital marketing strategy that has proven especially effective in helping these businesses connect with their consumer base. Digital marketing channels abound, but using IP addresses supports unique strategies for companies that want to reach an audience of movers.

2016 was a crazy year, but as we look to the year ahead, there are some important lessons we can learn from it, especially in regards to the growing importance of mobile devices in the digital landscape, shifting trends in social media and the absolute dominance of streaming video content. Here's everything you need to know as you prepare for marketing in 2017.

Mobile Search: It's Not Just for E-Retailers Anymore

Back in the early 2010s, many viewed mobile devices as the enemy of physical retailers, as the trend of "showrooming" (looking at something in a store and then buying it cheaply online) gained notoriety. However, it increasingly looks like mobile devices are driving more customers to physical retailers, not just to window shop, but to make purchases as well. According to data released by Google back in May, mobile search is driving consumers to stores in physical, trackable ways. Moving into 2017, it has never been more important for marketers to ensure that they are using the power of mobile search advertising to drive consumers to their storefronts. The mobile-first world is definitely here, and using the power of mobile search will give marketers their best shot at reaching consumers who continue to use their smartphones to find the local products and services they are interested in.

The promise offered by programmatic video advertising is finally turning into a promise fulfilled: Among U.S. publishers, programmatic will drive the majority of ad spending in 2016.

According to a new report from eMarketer, 60 percent of all digital video ad spending will come through programmatic. That's a significant increase from 2015, when just 39 percent of video ad spending was run through programmatic solutions.

There are no signs this trend will slow down, either. eMarketer estimates programmatic's share of overall digital video ad spending will increase annually in 2017 and 2018, eclipsing $10 billion in spending by the end of that period. It will also approach an overall market share of close to 75 percent.