The Importance of a Mobile Search Strategy

Increasingly, mobile’s importance in our lives is becoming more evident. Our mobile phones can essentially be considered a permanent fixture of our daily routines. Can you leave home without it?

In conjunction with Nielsen, Google’s new report, “Mobile Search Moments: Understanding How Mobile Drives Conversions”, attempts to decipher what triggers people to do mobile searches and when, what actions follow as a result and how marketers can utilize this intelligence. This report explains the measurable connections between mobile searches and their correlated online and offline conversions.

What are the main drivers for mobile searches? Speed and convenience, with 77% of mobile searches performed in a location (work or home) likely to have a PC available to them.

Here are a few additional highlights from the report:

• 45% of all mobile searches are goal-oriented and conducted to help make a decision

• 81% of conversions (store visit, call or purchase) triggered by mobile search occur within 5 hours

• 55% of conversions from mobile searches happen within one hour

As a key factor in the decision-making process, a mobile search strategy is an essential piece of your overall marketing strategy.

What mobile search opportunities do you see for your business? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image credit: Johan Larsson

7 Noteworthy Mobile Ads Insights & Stats

Recently, Mashable released an article of insights into the world of mobile based on a couple of valuable studies. Encapsulating statistics from an annual presentation on Internet trends by Venture Capitalist Mary Meeker and a study by leading mobile ad platform Opera, some statistics have been unveiled that require your attention.

Here are 7 insights & statistics I extracted from these sources:

1. The effective cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for desktop web ads is about $3.50, while the CPM for mobile ads is just $0.75; (Mary Meeker)
2. At $2.85, the iPhone has the highest average CPM for mobile ads of any smartphone, but still falls short of the CPM ($3.50) for web ads on a desktop. (Opera)
3. In comparison, print ads can command rates of as much as $100 CPM. (Opera)
4. iPads had a CPM of $3.96 (more than a dollar higher than the iPhone) but accounted for less than 7% of mobile traffic in the second quarter of 2012. (Opera)
5. It isn't recommended that advertisers take the same approach of using desktop web ads for mobile - tailor a specific strategy for your mobile campaigns. (Mashable)
6. It is worth the investment to build and test mobile specific landing pages for lead capture. (Mashable)
7. An alternative to using “cookies” for mobile, geofencing technology may be used to target ads based on GPS locations. (Mashable)

As mobile usage and adoption continues to grow, it is inevitable that mobile advertising costs will increase. Remember, the key is testing! Keep an eye on how the market is evolving and evolve with it. How do you plan to test mobile ads for your business?

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

New Strategies for Your Mobile Playbook

As you may have already noticed, I place a lot of importance on having a mobile strategy for your business. Interacting with your customers via mobile in some form or fashion is inevitably going to be a part of your business’s future. Mobile is a critical component to the overall success of your marketing strategy.

Google has released an update to the prior Mobile Playbook that includes new strategies on mobile creativity and ROI. The two main areas of focus expanded upon examples of compelling mobile creative and measuring the real ROI of mobile and its associated impact on a business.

The Playbook also features case studies covering the 5 mobile conversion types. This consists of mobile web, from apps, phone calls, cross-device and in-store. Using the “mobile web” conversion type case study as an example, TicketNetwork’s mobile site was designed with two critical components at the forefront – speed and simplicity. Four months after launch, ticket sales from mobile grew by 184% due to their efforts to build a mobile site that made the purchasing process easy for the consumer.

You can find the updated Mobile Playbook here. What mobile conversion type have you experienced the most success with?

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image credit: mroach