Search
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 |
Mobile Search increases
Using a search engine on a mobile phone is on the rise, up eight points to 78% among recent survey respondents compared to 70% in the previous survey. Not all mobile searches, of course, have a commercial intent. Some are looking up facts, or seeking news sources. But others are intent on fi nding a product, a service, or a nearby location where a purchase is likely to happen within a relatively short amount of time.
Source: ABI Research: SU-MOCO-102; 12/08 / SU-MMS-101; 2/10
Amazon’s approach to mobile
Amazon is now offering its one-click shopping technology to other retailers, and why not: it has a database of an estimated 94 million names, many of whom will overlap with other retailers’ customers.
Search. Take a look at any Amazon destination across mobile, be it the mobile site for BlackBerry, iPhone or Android devices or the iPhone or iPad applications or even its own proprietary Kindle devices – the search field is prominent on every page.
Here’s what retailers should know: browsing has become synonymous with searching. A site or application without a decent search engine is toast. Amazon gets this pattern of behavior, as does Google.
Amazon understands that mobile shoppers do not have the time nor the energy to thumb through tens of pages on mobile sites or applications. Shoppers on mobile visit their retail destination with some determination of what they want. Alternatively, the mobile-shopping mood is “Surprise me – but don’t make it a slog.”
It’s often been remarked that Amazon is a technology company, and not a retailer. And the search engine is proof of that. It is designed to be as intuitive as can get and mobile is a beneficiary of that investment over 15 years.
A cursory look at the top searches on Amazon’s mobile applications and sites show a preference for HDMI cables, xBox 360, Kindle DX, headphones, PS3 and Starcraft 2 games, iPod Nano, authors Nora Roberts and Charlaine Harris, and, yes – the girl with the dragon tattoo.
It won’t be a stretch to imagine that these are some of the same items being searched on over the flagship Amazon.com site.
Comparison shopping. Now here’s the interesting corollary to that search-engine investment: mobile shoppers are visiting Amazon’s sites and applications to research prices of products – while in other retailers’ stores.
In effect, Amazon is on its way to becoming the best mobile comparison shopping engine. And what are people comparing? Prices and availability.
Hence another unusual shopping pattern is developing: mobile shoppers are placing orders on Amazon at all hours of the day, and not just in the evenings or during lunch or over weekends.
Imagine how vulnerable most retailers are if this pattern becomes entrenched behavior. It threatens not just mobile retailers, but all those bricks-and-mortar chains that compete in Amazon’s retail categories.
Mobile database. By sheer dint of investing millions of dollars in mobile technology, Amazon has ensured that it grows its database of shoppers to include a new category: mobile.
Of course, as is the case with most retailers, it is hard to quantify mobile or online orders as incremental to the overall revenue picture. But even if it’s a channel shift, better to cannibalize your own self than have a rival retailer take the mobile order.
As more consumers shop and buy on Amazon’s mobile sites or applications or via Kindle, it is recording patterns of shopping behavior for remarketing purposes. Expect soon offers on mobile that are tied to past purchases with the same accuracy as it has done online.
Another major advantage of encouraging more mobile shopping and buying will manifest itself over the upcoming holidays. Holiday shopping is all about gifts, and that process is incomplete without the recipient’s address.
So, with more mobile purchases for self and others, Amazon shoppers are already making life easier for themselves and the retailers by having the gift recipients’ addresses stored for future sales via mobile devices.
Indeed, this is something most retailers forget: it is not easy to shop for others with a credit card in one hand, phone in the other and the gift recipient’s address missing or on another piece of paper.
Backend integration. While most retailers fuss over the front end of their digital operations, Amazon’s growing mobile commerce sales has given it much practice in integrating the mobile order-taking process with online.
To gain billion-dollar status in mobile commerce must mean that Amazon has efficiently tied its order management, warehouses, and fulfillment and shipping systems into one seamless operation. The returns process is also seamless since it follows the same protocol as an online order – email confirmation of order and address labels in package.
THE POINT OF all this is simple: every day that passes is millions more dollars in Amazon’s mobile pocket. If consumers get used to shopping and buying from Amazon’s mobile properties, that retailer could soon become the dominant standard for mobile shopping.
A major danger for retailers still sitting on the sidelines of mobile commerce is that price often trumps brand loyalty in tough economic conditions. And Amazon is a past master at offering prices that few can match. Top that with enviable customer service and you have the ideal killer app for mobile.
from: Mickey Alam Khan Mobile Marketer, July 26, 2010
Tips for mobile paid search advertising
From: Mona Elesseily
After several years of lying in the weeds, mobile advertising has significantly picked up steam. It finally makes sense to understand how to effectively use and deploy mobile paid search marketing campaigns. In this article, I’ll provide some basic tips related to paid search mobile marketing. In my next article, I’ll suggest several ad copy and landing pages strategies for mobile paid search campaigns.
The reasons to try mobile advertising are fairly obvious. First, the adoption rate of smart phones is increasing. According to Nielsen Wire, massive growth in mobile marketing is being fueled by improvements in device quality, increasing access to fast & affordable data and people increasingly using smart phones in their everyday lives (smart phones no longer considered strictly a business tool). Also, the mobile advertising market is growing. According to eMarketer, worldwide mobile advertising spend will almost double from $1.289 to $2.345 million from 2010 to 2011. Take a look at the information in the graph above.
Tips for mobile paid search advertising
In general, mobile paid search works in a similar way to traditional paid search. Image and text ads are displayed in organic search engine results and in the content of mobile sites. The advertiser pays when an ad is clicked. But, mobile search is different and requires different strategies and tactics than traditional paid search. There are significant differences in areas like user intent, keyword selection, targeting options, etc. and I’ll cover these below.
To start, it makes sense to create separate campaigns for mobile advertising. This allows advertisers to segment mobile devices (as appropriate) as well as tailor messaging and ads to mobile users. Note: Google automatically opts advertisers in for “iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers” so ensure you have correct settings when setting up campaigns.
Mobile user intent
Generally speaking, mobile advertising works best for inexpensive, low-consideration products as people are looking to consume information fairly quickly. Mobile advertising tends to work best for immediate intent actions like downloading music and ring tones, finding places to dine, ordering a quick meal (like a pizza) or for purchasing movie tickets.
Mobile advertising doesn’t tend to convert well for products and/or services that require longer consideration like loans or TV’s. Having said this, there are many examples of companies that sell longer consideration products who use mobile paid search advertising. One example is a brick and mortar retailer (like a sports apparel store) who uses mobile campaigns to provide users with store locations and driving directions.
Note: popular mobile verticals include sports, celebrity news, news, wallpapers and videos.
Targeting options
With mobile campaigns, carrier and device options can be specific. In Google, you can “select all” or drill down and choose specific mobile devices like the Android phone, iPhone/iPod touch and palm webOS or a specific carrier like At&T, Sprint, etc. (various carrier options are available in Canada as well). For example, if you were designing a campaign and you wanted to sell an apple iPhone app download, you’d want to drill down and specifically target mobile users who use iPhones. Above, I’ve dealt with full HTML browsers. It’s worth noting, WAP mobile advertising options are available in Google at the ad group level.
Shorter queries
With mobile devices, searchers will not be typing up a storm. So for your mobile campaigns, target shorter queries that people can easily type on their phones i. An obvious exception to shorter keyword phrases is if people are using voice search on their mobile devices. With wider adoption of such technology, mobile campaigns may eventually convert for longer queries.
Higher positioning
Often, mobile web pages only have room to show one or two ads. This means advertisers must ensure that ads are in top positions to be shown. As expected, mobile ads in the top two positions tend to perform best as they consistently show in mobile search results. There tends to be a massive drop-off in CTR, ROI and obviously ads appearing in search results when ads are in the lower positions.
In my next article, I’ll suggest several ad copy and landing pages strategies for mobile paid search marketing campaigns.
