Measurement/Analytics
A lack of mobile analytics
A lack of analytics, audience size and fragmentation are among the problems still facing mobile marketers despite the growth mobile media consumptions, according to a new report from digital agency 360i. When it comes to research on mobile usage and advertising, for instance, the firm points out that it’s often not as extensive as that covering Web sites and Internet users.
That puts the onus on marketers to focus on gathering data from their own mobile initiatives. Marketers need to analyze how mobile users are accessing their mobile sites and how those behavior patterns match up with what users are doing online,” advises 360i. “This can be even more complicated if there are separate mobile sites and applications.”
The agency also acknowledges that fragmentation among handset types, operating systems is an ongoing hurdle that confronts advertisers in the mobile realm. The fractured landscape makes it tougher to target audiences and develop creative units that work across all devices included in a media plan.
Closely related to the fragmentation problem is that of audience scale in mobile. In the coming years, for instance, mobile search will grow faster than global Web searches, but mobile query volume by 2012 will still only amount to about a quarter of searches on the PC-based Web. That often leaves marketers with a choice of targeting iPhone users or trying to reach a broader audience across different devices and operating systems.
The 360i report also highlights the paradox that advertising costs in mobile tend to be too high or too low. Ad rates tend to be higher than what marketers are used to paying for equivalent inventory online. While the premium can be justified by higher brand impact, it can also make ads harder to sell.
“Alternatively, marketers will often run mobile campaigns with minuscule trial budgets so the impact underwhelms, and there isn’t a chance to optimize the campaign,” according to 360i. Advertisers then end up dismissing the medium as ineffective.
Mobile also simply involves formats and technologies distinct from online advertising from text messaging to check-in deals to mobile barcodes. That means marketers face a big learning curve before exploiting ad and commerce opportunities via mobile.
That all said, the agency encourages marketers to overcome these obstacles because of the growing audience shift from the PC to connected devices. “We’re now at a turning point where mobile usage is prominent enough for it to be a viable marketing channel for any kind of marketer or brand, the report states. “At some point, mobile media usage will likely rival and surpass Internet usage, and this will fundamentally change how marketers find and build relationships with their target audience.”
Gartner predicted earlier this year that mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access devices worldwide by 2013. It estimates the installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped phones will reach 1.82 billion units by 2013, eclipsing the total of 1.78 billion PCs.
| Report: Mobile Marketing Challenges Abound |
| by Mark Walsh, August 18,2010, Online Media Daily |
Top mcommerce trends for 2010 – what’s hot and what’s not
Mobile commerce trend No. 1 – Investment
Mobile commerce trend No. 2 – Mobile couponing
Mobile commerce trend No. 3 – Location
Mobile commerce trend No. 4 – Social
Mobile commerce trend No. 5 – Analytics
5 things a good mobile marketing dashboard should do
- Does the dashboard align marketing objectives to the company’s financial objectives?
- Does the dashboard align mobile with other marketing channels e.g., email, web etc.?
- Does the dashboard establish a direct link between campaign costs and profits?
- Does the dashboard create an organization that makes decisions based on hard facts supplemented by intuition?
- Does the dashboard use easy to understand language, not technical terms?
In Email Integration, Social Media Tops Mobile
Though the adoption of sophisticated mobile devices continues to climb, the integration of mobile marketing into email and online programs is still low: Less than one-third of marketers say mobile-optimized experiences are relevant to their email audiences, but nearly two-thirds say they are integrating social technologies into their email efforts, according to a survey from eROI.
Among marketers now integrating social network links and tools into their email marketing campaigns, Facebook is the most-widely integrated channel (91.0%), followed by Twitter (83.9%), LinkedIn (48.0%), and YouTube (34.1%).
In addition, 59.1% of surveyed marketers say they are integrating “share with your network” links into their email messages.
Among those marketers who don’t integrate social media into their email campaigns, 35.2% cite a lack of resources and 21.4% cite a lack of knowledge.
Below, other findings from The Current State of Social, Mobile, and Email Integration.
Measuring Social Media Success
Overall, 73.7% of marketers say social media is having a positive effect on their marketing efforts.
Asked what metrics they use to measure social media performance, marketers cite the following:
- Levels of friends and followers: 65.5%
- Website traffic driven by social channels: 59.5%
- Mentions: 39.0%
Fewer marketers are tracking bottom-line metrics:
- New leads generated: 35.7%
- Sales: 28.5%
Brand awareness remains a key driver of social media use: 40.6% of marketers say it’s their primary goal for implementing social media marketing this year, whereas 15.0% cite lead generation and 13.3% cite sales.
Integration of Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing lags behind social media in email integration: Just 31.4% of marketers say mobile-optimized experiences matter to their email audiences.
Another 24.5% say they are now testing to determine the importance of mobile marketing for their business, and 14.8% say an optimized mobile experience isn’t relevant to them.
Marketers lack the necessary knowledge to develop mobile programs: 63.0% say they don’t measure the use or prevalence of mobile devices among their email subscribers; another 11.5% say they’re not sure whether they do.
Even fewer marketers (23%) have mobile-optimized websites or landing pages (i.e., mobile compliant sites that work consistently across all mobile operating systems). Among those who do…
- 68.0% provide limited versions of their websites for a mobile audience.
- 32.0% offer their entire site in a mobile-optimized format.
Slightly more marketers (25%) say they are offering mobile-optimized versions of their email marketing messages.
About the data: Findings are from an online survey of more than 500 B2B and B2C marketers in April 2010, conducted by eROI.
How to Measure Engagement on Mobile
Measuring “engagement” on mobile, regardless of type e.g., mobile website, app, etc., comes down to two things; asking questions and collecting metrics. Asking yourself the right questions about what you want to learn about your users beforehand helps you determine which metrics to look at afterward.
The basic questions to ask yourself for user engagement are:
- Which activities and functions do users find most valuable? When deciding, think about how you expect your customers to use your mobile property over time. Reading daily news, finding a restaurant, booking a flight, searching for a doctor, checking a balance, paying a bill, reporting an auto accident—all have different frequencies of use. Note: Since the level of importance varies by customer, a natural second step is to segment user information to understand the different types of personas using your mobile property.
- Are they engaging in high value activities? High value measurement reflects what you want customers to do when using your mobile property. For example, do you want them to purchase a product, view a movie trailer or register for a promotion? Taking measurement to this level of detail is critical to demonstrating business value for any mobile property, whether it is a simple branded mobile site or a full commercial app. Also, it’s important to create a hierarchy of functionality on your mobile property in advance. Note: High value activities should live at the home page level and be the easiest to access.
- Is the type of engagement in line with your company’s overall marketing objectives. For example, if the overall objective is to reduce operational and customer support costs with self-service capabilities, identify all of the ways your mobile property does this. Map your measurement to individual customers who successfully complete those self-service activities, often called “user tasks”.
The basic metrics for user engagement are:
- Frequency of Visit – Number of visits / the number of users over a period of time. This shows how often your mobile property is being used and can be a useful gauge of customer loyalty
- Depth of Visit – Number of screens viewed on average compared to the number of visits. Together with Duration, this metric gives you insight into how engaged your customers are with your app.
- Duration – The average amount of time spent with the mobile property. As with depth of visit, an indicator of how much your property is being used.
- Bounce Rate – Ratio of the number of user visits with a single view event to the total number of visits. This helps you understand how many of your users are just starting up your app or launching your mobile site, then closing it.
