4 Things to Know About Mobile Search Marketing

According to Google, 71% of smartphone users search because of an ad they’ve seen online or offline; 82% of smartphone users notice mobile ads, 74% of smartphone shoppers make a purchase as a result of using their smartphones to help with shopping, and 88% of those who look for local information on their smartphones take action within a day. With the increasing adoption of Mobile Search, there are a few important things to keep in mind.

1. Develop a mobile strategy
As with any marketing campaign or initiative, start with the business goal and let that drive the strategy. It’s possible and even probable that the business objective with mobile is different than the website marketing or traditional marketing. Examples of Mobile Marketing goals include: drive inbound phone calls (click-to-call), increase location visits (driving directions), drive text message conversions or view videos.

2. Use Analytics to drive the strategy
Now that Google Analytics has dedicated reporting for mobile, it’s easier than ever to assess the current landscape of your mobile traffic. You can quickly identify which devices and operating systems are accessing your site most frequently and also segment Key Performance Indicators within those reports. Using Analytics will help understand what is currently happening and also allow you to create realistic goals for mobile in the future. This can include creation of new mobile sites, mobile apps, and running mobile marketing campaigns.

3. Make it easier…not harder
Occasionally, as marketers, we have a grand vision for how things “should” be which can slow down what “can” be. With regard to Mobile Marketing, there are a lot of quick and easy ways to optimize the mobile strategy. Tools like AppMakr allow you to quickly and easily create a template mobile app with no coding required. If the strategy does not include the need for heavy customization, this is a smart first step toward a mobile strategy. If the strategy includes a mobile version of your website, there are many tools that make this process easy including Mobify and MobilePress (you may recognize this if you are a fan of WordPress). Also, Google’s AdMob tool helps to monetize mobile apps with ads.

4. Identify available options for Mobile Search and determine what’s right for your business
Targeting and technical capabilities for mobile ads have increased dramatically recently. There is tablet-only targeting, geographic targeting, click-to-call, click-to-map, click-to-download and expandable ads. For more information, check out the Google Mobile PlayBook.