As advertising transitions to the mobile market, will small businesses be able to contend with large-scale competitors for the attention of consumers? Advertising on the mobile web and in apps are still relatively new forms of reaching consumers, and in some cases, it is still unclear which mobile marketing methods will be the most successful with the smartphone audience.

Apple recently announced a new platform called iAd, which will accompany their release of the upcoming iPhone. This platform will create ad spaces within apps that can be purchased by third parties to promote brands or services—but it will cost a pretty penny for those interested; Apple is charging businesses over $1 million to host their ads. That figure is staggering in comparison with the average cost of ads for the mobile web, which range from about $100,000-$200,000.

Which raises the question—with such exorbitant rates, will small businesses be able to compete in the mobile market? There is still a lot of uncertainty about this matter, but models like Twitter’s new “Promoted Tweets” may provide some location-based relief for the little fish out there. With this new system, tweets will be featured in the search results generated by engines such as Google and Yahoo, so that businesses can “push” their products and services to the right market. A company’s tweets will rank higher or lower on the results list, based on whether or not users are interacting and engaging with their tweets. Also, the goal of “Promoted Tweets” is to eventually sort results by geographic location, so a user would see only results from businesses in their vicinity. And, the cost of “promoting” a tweet will be much more affordable than buying ad space through iAd.

Ultimately, advertising through social networks like “Promoted Tweets,” may help smaller businesses utilize the mobile and social markets without breaking the bank. Still, advertising on mobile devices has a long way to come before it is affordable for every business.