Mobile search

Mobile search – Promising results

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Mobile SEO search

Following up on my previous post on Google’s ‘Mobile Playbook‘, I’d like to share some interesting mobile search stats regarding mobile-search behavior taken from an xAd report. The Q4 ’11 report showcases mobile-local usage trends and consumer behavior between locally targeted search and display across their network. Besides reporting a 60% increase in mobile-local search traffic alone (not counting display traffic) between Q3 to Q4 ’11– much of which can be attributed to the shopping season – some other standout highlights were:

Driving call to action: 1.3 million calls were placed to local businesses and 73000 drives or walk-ins to local storefronts in Q4 (*Drives and walk-ins are a measurement of the number of times users accessed maps and driving directions as part of their ad interaction)

High CTR and secondary actions rate: Click-through rate (CTR) for targeted local search is a staggering 7% as against only 0.6 % for targeted mobile display with a “secondary action” rate of 37% and 5% respectively. Secondary actions are additional post-click activities (click-to-call, search on a map, show prices, driving directions, etc) and this is your conversion pipe which makes mobile website optimization all the more critical since we know that Google is indexing local mobile sites differently.

Click-to-call v/s finding directions: Following the initial click, 52% of search-ad users make calls to local businesses as compared to 30% for display. The leading secondary action for display is accessing maps and/or directions which stood at 50%, versus 42% for search ads. A key observation as revealed by the data is that search-ad users aren’t really seeking info /reviews (< 5% secondary action) as compared to 20% for display-ad users. This reinforces the fact the search-ad users are seeking specificity. Another key factor in mobile search is the reduced time gap between intent to action as queries have a high degree of localization as compared to desktop searches

Time of Day: Locally targeted display steadily ascends through the day and peaks after work hours at 6:00 pm until after 10:00 pm with the most activity on Thursdays. Local mobile search tends to taper off after lunch; peaks on Fridays and tapers off by Sunday.

 Access platforms: While mobile browser access is still primary and larger than in-app searches, iOS and Android users prefer in-app access and as conversions from feature phones to smart devices continue to happen so could this trend.

The above suggests that when optimizing for mobile, a cross-platform approach as well as leveraging usage spikes through the day ensures that all audiences are reached and increases the opportunity for ads to be seen and acted upon. Besides, best practices in mobile SEO strategies when optimizing for platform and device should be given attention; after all mobile search volumes and CTR’s growing and there is an advantage in being early to the party.

The Mobile Playbook

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Mobile marketing manual

Just 4 days ago Google released a guide titled ‘The Mobile Playbook’ to arm businesses and marketers with answers on how to build and invest in the mobile platform to interact with the growing army of smartphone and tablet users.

Reading through it (which shouldn’t take no more than 30-40 minutes) would give all of us a sense of déjà vu. Its release couldn’t be more timely since it covers discussions that we blog and talk about in-depth week after week. Building the case from an infrastructure, organizational and media perspective it covers topics related to the mobile business value proposition, destination optimization, the local nature of mobile, consumer experience, marketing integration and peppered with examples from companies like Chase, Walgreens, Hotels.com, Starbucks, Priceline, Zipcar, 1-800-Flowers.com, Coke, Domino’s and many more.

Even though the examples cited are of multimillion-dollar companies, I would believe that the Playbook is intended to help medium and small enterprises make headway with mobile, and more so with the local and immediate nature of mobile, these businesses stand to benefit. If 97% of mobile searches belong to Google their intent to monetize it further is clear. Their latest quarter earnings (($10.75 bn- Q1 ’12) reported a 12 % drop in CPC (cost per click) over the first quarter of last year though clicks were up by 39%. Confirming that the business has a healthy revenue trend, Nikesh Arora – Google SVP and Chief Business Officer also acknowledged that complex factors which include the growth of mobile and tablets – because mobile doesn’t monetize as well as desktop – in addition, other factors like developing market growth, exchange rate effects and ad network dynamics are responsible for the decline in CPC. While there was no mention of mobile revenue earned this quarter, at the last quarter earnings call of 2011 CEO Larry Page had casually remarked that mobile had grown 2.5 times to over $ 2.5 bn.

Google also acknowledged surprise and success with its Click-to-call mobile search offering last year. I think they realize it’s obviously is not enough and will pull out all stops to ensure a fertile ecosystem that can drive revenue in areas beyond mobile search to include a piece of the pie from the mobile and social shopping impending boom. If more local businesses build a mobile presence the more they could stand to gain as smartphones and tablets continue growing as handy shopping companions that will drive local search traffic.