THE MOBILE MARKETING BRIEF ... time, and now that we're also seeing conversions follow, it's time for marketers to pay .
S E P T E M B E R 2016 The Mobile Brief
THE MOBILE MARKETING BRIEF
OP TIM ISI NG MO BIL E MO ME NTS : AN END -TO -EN D FOC US
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Paid Search
I’ve been working in paid search for six years now, and the start of each year has been marked by Google announcing that it’ll be ‘the year of mobile’. In the early years this was hard to believe as traffic was lower and conversions were non-existent. But 2013 marked a transition period as searches started shifting from desktop to mobile by at least 30%. A new era began in 2015 when mobile searches outgrew desktop searches for the first time, and now that we’re also seeing conversions follow, it’s time for marketers to pay serious attention to mobile as a channel. Don’t believe it? Here’s some food for thought1 The average user checks their phone 200 times per day
to be present during the research phase. The risk is that if they’re not, potential customers won’t be there for them in the decision phase.
The average user switches between devices 28 times per day 54% of decisions start on mobile and finish elsewhere
THE MOBILE BASICS WE SHOULD ALL BE GETTING RIGHT
Aggregating the traffic of our client base, this year
Google has broadly defined micro-moments as ‘I want to’
we’ve seen the following traffic all come from mobile:
moments, e.g. ‘I want to go’, ‘I want to know’, ‘I want to do’
42% of our brand traffic, 64% of generic traffic and a
and ‘I want to buy’ searches2.
whopping 67% of shopping traffic
Micro-moments epitomise to what degree advertisers
What’s clear from this is that the traffic volume is on
must meet needs at the right moment in time – be it
mobile, particularly during the research phase of the
by providing a location extension in search to finding a
customer journey. We live on our mobile devices these
store front, or through a how-to video for an appliance.
days, and alongside checking our social media accounts
In a nutshell, advertisers need to be visible, offer useful
or streaming TV shows and videos, we’re researching our
information and offer it quickly. Today’s users have lost
next holiday, investigating credit cards, or trying to find
their patience and aren’t willing to wait for pages to load or
exactly the right outfit for that wedding. All on the go, all
images to render, so speed is an essential area to get right.
on our mobiles. This highlights the importance for brands
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Paid Search
Further to that, measurement is an essential part of capturing the information you need to optimise your strategy, allowing you to attribute actions to the right trigger. While mobile doesn’t perform in exactly the same way as desktop, it’s still a very important channel that adds plenty of value to the user journey. That being said, we need to measure where the decision started as well as how it started. A more holistic approach should be taken to traditional methods of attribution. I recall a client that was running a lot of Twitter activity. We found that sales correlated with retweets, a valuable learning that helped inform our strategy on social. A specific example this may be, but the ability to track what was seemingly a ‘meaningless’ engagement metric and how it impacted on revenue was a huge step. This is exactly why mobile engagement needs to be measured, its path tracked effectively and the value of the sale attributed throughout the journey. We also need to think about things from a cross-channel perspective, given that users tend to research on mobile and convert through another channel. When tracking through Google Analytics, there are three fairly simple reports you can look at to identify a trend (note that these aren’t definitive measures in isolation, but combining the three reports helps identify trends). 1.
Compare year-on-year traffic levels and split of desktop vs mobile – typically there should be an increase for mobile.
2.
Look at year-on-year pages per session and time on site and compare mobile to desktop – are mobile
3.
visitors viewing more content and researching more?
Mobile is not a fad that will
Look at the year-on-year desktop conversions in
go away – the trends may well
one visit– are more desktop users coming ready to convert? You can also look at cross-device sales in Adwords, third party tracking systems such as DoubleClick for Search, or invest in tracking beacons to monitor online to offline activity, enabling you to measure the value of mobile for your brand.
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change, but the basic desire to use mobile to research, buy and make decisions online won’t change.
Paid Search
GOT IT - BUT HOW DO WE CAPTURE THAT AUDIENCE? First things first, you should make sure that your brand and best performers are in top positions on mobile. Next, be sure to bid for positions based on your key audiences, which can be identified by reviewing your Customer Match or RLSA lists. Whilst this kind of optimisation seems basic, it really does drive cost and performance efficiencies. If you’re a retailer, you should definitely consider Google Shopping – I mean really consider it. But be aware that you need to secure top positions and be appealing in comparison to your competitors, which means:
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Appearing in top positions by increasing your mobile modifiers - and remember that thanks to the latest Google update these now go as high as 900% (or more, should you wish) with the ability to adjust for both tablets and mobiles
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Bidding aggressively against your RLSA and Customer Match lists to secure top spots for core audiences
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Opting into seller ratings for product items to stand out
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Using promotions to increase visibility
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Fully optimising your feed for search
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Making sure your products are correctly and as deeply categorised as possible
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Linking to the correct product page
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Using high quality images in your feed
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Checking your stock levels are accurate
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Paid Search
WHAT KIND OF CREATIVE SHOULD I THINK ABOUT? AD TEXT As we enter a mobile-first world, Google is updating its ad texts to reflect the change, allowing for more prominent headlines and almost 50% more space to sell your brand. This gives us: •
Two 30-character headlines, one 80-character description line and two path fields up to 30 characters long each for automated display URLs
•
Up to 20% uplift in click-through rate (CTR) BEFORE
AFTER
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DESKTOP
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MOBILE
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Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-adwords-expanded-text-ads-test-two-headlines-248135
This is great for advertisers and consumers alike, as we have more space to explain our offering while also allowing the consumer to understand more about the brand before clicking, which should improve both click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates (CVR).
CALL EXTENSIONS If you have a business phone number, it’s worth trying call extensions – or even call-only ads on mobile – to encourage more calls.
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Be visible, offer useful information and offer it quickly.
Paid Search
APP PROMOTION
WHAT ABOUT MY WEBSITE? A question we hear often is, “should I have an app or
If you have an app, it’s worth looking into app promotion on mobile. Universal App
a mobile optimised website?” The answer is to opt for whichever is most useful to your customers.
Campaigns (UAC) automatically take text
Apps are clearly desired by consumers, but they have
and images from the Google Play store, along
to be slick, well designed, and serve a purpose. Once
with optional YouTube videos to automatically
created, they then need to be promoted and maintained
create ads and serve them across Google
on an ongoing basis. Mobile websites are still a key part
Search, Google Search Partners, Google Play,
of mobile advertising, and it’s crucial that you have a site
Google Display Network and YouTube. The
that’s easily read – and easily used – on a mobile.
advertiser then sets a Cost Per Install (CPI) target based on: •
Install volume
•
Post install event volume (e.g. maximising first time users)
•
Driving total conversion value (e.g. increasing eCommerce revenue)
Like it or lump it, mobile is now at the heart of how most of us live our lives, and therefore needs to be at the heart of what we do from a digital marketing perspective as well. This doesn’t just mean bidding more aggressively (although in places that is key), but thinking about your audience targeting – who are you trying to talk to, and what creative will work for them? It’s important that retailers don’t neglect their Shopping campaigns. This means optimising their feed to increase visibility, using seller ratings and promotions to stand
LOCATION EXTENSIONS Think about taking advantage of ‘I want to’ moments by utilising location extensions in search. You can take this one step further by placing ads on Google Search and Google Maps, seamlessly integrating the Maps experience with location search ads. This opens up ads onto Google Maps, allowing you
out from competitors, and being smart with mobile and audience modifiers. Finally, whether you have an app or a website – or both – make sure they’re optimised for mobile, that they load quickly and, perhaps most importantly, are easy to use on a small screen. Successful and savvy advertisers are ensuring that mobile touchpoints for their consumers are best in class, knowing that this will bring revenue further down the line, if not sooner.
to drive increased footfall to your store from both Google Search and Google Maps. We
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recommend doubling up with local inventory ads in Shopping for retailers to show your in-
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http://flurrymobile.tumblr.com/ http://www.smartinsights.com/ https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/collections/micromoments.html
store offering and proximity to users.
ANGELA KNIBB HEAD OF PAID SEARCH
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www.greenlightdigital.com | +44 (0)20 7253 7000
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