Tailoring mobile ad strategies to mirror each diverse mobile user population is becoming more important than ever. This includes considering changing search patterns, timing, and device usage. Mobile marketers targeting audiences need to assess and tailor their mobile ad program to reflect the needs and lifestyles of the mobile users.
Retailers are increasingly aware of how quickly the mobile market is growing. So, is it worth it to target these customers? And how do you build a stronger online presence?
Here is a snapshot of the mobile market:
- 48% of mobile users begin mobile shopping-related exploration on a search engines, not on branded apps or websites.
- Shoppers spend up to 5+ hours each week researching on mobile sites and apps.
- Shoppers visit websites an average of 6 times before actually making a purchase.
- 69% of customers look for a company within 5 miles of where they’re located.
- 55% of customers would like to buy in an hour, 83% in a day.
- With smartphone usage in the US nearly doubling each year, it’s obvious that the mobile shopper is here to stay.
- Out of all individuals who completed an acquisition after getting to know a product or service on a mobile device, 82% buy in-store, 45% purchase online (desktop/tablet), and 17% bought on mobile.
This data is extremely relevant to all businesses. Just think about the fact that users visit a website 6 times before purchasing. This stresses the extreme importance of a remarketing campaign! Another relevant insight is out of every 100 buyers, 82 of them bought in store. This means that mobile ads have the power to generate huge walk in traffic. Do not underestimate the power of mobile devices and create strategies to up sell walk in traffic and maximize your ROI on the cost per conversion.
Here are 6 tips that could help you improve your mobile presence online:
1) Style your search ads for the mobile bargain hunter
Let mobile users know that your website is customized for their needs! You can do this by creating a custom call to action in the description line and creating mobile preferred ads on the backend (you can do it while creating an advertising message on Google Adwords). This is definitively going to increase the CTR on your mobile campaign!
Combining the creation of mobile ad with a custom data analysis such as the research patterns and purchase timing by user category, companies will be better prepared to optimize their mobile ad programs for greater toehold and ROI across the globe.
2) Have a mobile website that works on ALL smartphones
There is nothing worse than a website that does not display correctly on mobile devices. People do not like to zoom and scroll to read a sentence. Creating a great customer experience is key. Approach you mobile site with the same drive you had while creating the desktop version of your website.
Make sure to constantly test your mobile website on different devices (Android, IOS, etc..) and to ensure it works correctly.
3) Track results and customer behaviors
You need to know your customer and their behavior on your website. Google gives you a great set of free tools to help you.
First of all, make sure to have installed Google analytics and analyze bounce rate, average time on site, goal conversion rates, and any other data relevant for your business differentiating mobile results from desktop ones. Take a look at your mobile data and find out what pages are turning off your customers and which one are performing well.
Another important data to look at is about AdWords. What are the keywords with the highest bounce rate on mobile devices? What are the keywords converting the most? How is mobile doing compared to desktop? Find out all of that and track as much data as possible to constantly improve your mobile website.
4) Create a mobile specific sales funnel
Mobile users prefer to have immediate call to actions because navigating via a mobile device is not as easy as it is on a desktop. Make sure to have click to call actions in place and to set up simple check out process for purchases. The sales funnel should also load quickly in order to allow the immediacy that mobile users love.
We can say that a mobile specific sales funnel should have 3 pillars: Easy, fast, and to the point!
5) Use all extensions that might attract customers
We just read how users focus on businesses close to them and therefore it is very important to communicate this information early on the conversion funnel. Even better, we can communicate this information together with our advertising message thanks to the location extension that you can set up at the campaign level on AdWords.
Another important extension you should be using is the call extensions. It allows searchers to perform a call straight forward from the advertising messages. This is a very good option for local businesses.
You can also use site links to send people to the landing page that best fits their needs. Site link extensions can be seen as extra strings of texts to better communicate what a business does or simply to provide more insights about a company.
6) Use shorter keywords & direct ads
Mobile users are likely to type shorter search queries and therefore it is best practice to adapt your advertising strategy to their search behaviors. It is very important to deliver your message right away and provide a clear call to action. People need to know what they are supposed to do on your website right away!
In Conclusion
Mobile devices are growing in number on a daily basis and they represent a huge opportunity for businesses to acquire new customers both online and in store. Mobile users have completely different behaviors than desktop users and your marketing should reflect that. A great way to stay on top of your game is to look at what your stronger competitors are doing and test their practices in your mobile ad campaign.
*Source: http://adwords.blogspot.de/2013/11/the-increasing-importance-of-mobile.html, http://adwords.blogspot.it/2013/11/consumers-mobile-path-to-purchase-5-key.html
