Mobile search engine advertising makes the breakthrough
MOBILE STUDY Internet use with mobile devices is increasing rapidly worldwide, as is the importance of smartphone and tablet users as target groups in search engine advertising (SEA). What specific developments are advertisers facing? And are they reacting appropriately and quickly enough?
More and more search queries are being made via mobile devices such as tablets or smartphones.Online marketing management solutions provider Marin Software explored this in its annual "Mobile Search Marketing Worldwide" study, based on an evaluation of search marketing campaigns from some of the largest and most progressive advertisers and agencies in the world.Smartphone and tablet users in focusAccording to the results of the study, 2013 was the year of the breakthrough for mobile search advertising: After years of marketers lagging behind the rapid development, Marin Software could now observe that smartphone and tablet users obviously became the focus of strategists last year.Conversion rates increase significantlyIn 2013, not only did the share of SEA clicks from smartphones or tablets, the share of the budget, and the prices increase, as they have for years. Conversion rates also increased significantly: an indicator that marketers are now increasingly catering to mobile users and optimizing their targeting strategies as well as ads and landing pages accordingly. For example, the average conversion rate from smartphones in the eurozone doubled, from 0.5 % in 2012 to 1.03 % in 2013.Tablets converged at a rate of 1.67 % (2012: 1.5 %). The conversion rate of desktops (PCs and laptops), on the other hand, fell slightly in the euro zone from 1.8 % to 1.76 %.Smartphone clicks become significantly more expensiveHowever, increasing consumer acceptance (rising click shares) and advertising effectiveness (rising conversion rates), as well as the greater weight of mobile search engine ads in budgets, are also reflected in higher prices: smartphone clicks became a whopping 26.3 % more expensive in the euro zone than in the previous year, tablets by 10 %.The costs per click (CPCs) of desktops, on the other hand, fell by 3.2 %. Nevertheless, at an average of €0.24, smartphone clicks were still significantly cheaper than desktop (€0.30) and tablet clicks (€0.33) in the euro zone in 2013.Eurozone catches up significantlyThe Eurozone is still lagging behind the US in many respects when it comes to mobile SEA, but it is catching up significantly.For example, the share of SEA clicks coming from smartphones or tablets in the Eurozone increased from 12.4 % in January 2013 to 20.2 % in December - an impressive growth of 63 %.In the US, by contrast, this share grew by only 45 % - albeit from a higher starting point. Mobile conversion rates, click prices, and SEA budget share also grew more steeply in the Eurozone compared to the more mature U.S. market.Marin Software's whitepaper is available at here.
