Mobile Search Spend Share to Reach 83% by 2018.

Just before Christmas, research from eMarketer predicted that by 2018, mobile will account for 76.7 percent of search spend. But the market research firm has since come up with an even more staggering number for mobile's share by 2018: 83 percent.

The December prediction was lower than one from June, as a result of major companies having unpredictably high ad revenues. Not even Facebook saw its great end to 2014 coming, which resulted in other marketers moving their advertising dollars from paid search to mobile display ads for that quarter. So eMarketer's most recent predicted figure jumping back up so much in just two months fits in with the industry's overall rapid shift toward mobile.

Back in 2012, desktop accounted for 87 percent of marketers' search budgets, while only $2.24 billion (12.9 percent) went toward mobile. These figures include contextual text links, paid inclusion, paid listings, and SEO, while mobile accounts for advertising on search engines, search applications, and carrier portals for both smartphones and tablets.

Mobile's spend share has since increased at a steady rate, climbing 12 percent in 2013 and 15 percent in 2014. This year, another expected 13 percent increase will bring the total amount marketers will spend on mobile search up to $12.97 billion.

As mobile has grown, desktop search spend has decreased just as quickly. In two short years, desktop spend has dropped $1.5 billion, losing 27 percent of the spend share. For 2015, eMarketer predicted desktop search will be $12.3 billion. With 47.4 percent of the share, desktop will be less than mobile for the first time.

 

"It's not surprising. I also don't think the trend is surprising to big players like Google, either," says Cathy Boyle, a senior mobile analyst at eMarketer. "The writing's been on the wall for a while now as consumers are getting more and more comfortable doing everything with their mobile devices."

Boyle sees mobile continuing to grow beyond that, but is unable to venture a guess as to how much.

"There's still a lot of desktop use in office spaces so it's hard to predict where the ceiling is," she says.

Also back in June, eMarketer looked at the mobile search ad revenues for different companies. The research firm found that while Google will still have the overwhelming majority of the search share, the search giant's growth is tapering. In December, the research firm revisited these numbers and while it still expects that Google's share will be just more than 61 percent by 2016, Yelp and YP will have slightly bigger pieces of the pie than previously reported.

 

What's mostly responsible for Google's decline is the "other" category. Other's share declined 5 percentage points from June to December, though that's because Yahoo is no longer lumped in that category.

The main threat to Google seems to be apps. Boyle explains that's because people tend to search in verticals - looking at both Kayak and TripAdvisor for travel deals, say - on desktop, whereas on mobile devices, those searches typically happen in-app.

"[Search is] just a lot more niche within an app, which has very specific targeted searching," she says. "It's a parallel behavior, just executed in a different way."

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5 Steps to Driving More Calls From Mobile Search

According to research from Cisco, the number of mobile-connected devices exceeded the world’s population in 2014. Last year was also the first year that mobile app traffic outpaced PC Internet usage. People around the world are becoming increasingly reliant on their smartphones for information, and as a result, mobile has become an extremely important topic for digital media.

It’s no surprise that marketers are adding click-to-call functionality to their mobile campaigns. Analysis from Convince and Convert and iAcquire points out that mobile conversion rates, at 70 percent, are three times higher than they are on desktops and laptops. The trend makes sense — mobile users are often looking for something "in the moment" with a very specific search intent.

What’s even more powerful about this trend is what this data isn’t telling you — the fact that mobile audiences are doing more than just requesting additional information or filling out forms online. They’re actually dialing directly to learn more about and transact with the businesses they’re researching. In late 2013, Google reported that 70 percent of mobile searchers have used click-to-call directly from search results.

It goes without saying that click-to-call is critical to the growing mobile marketing ecosystem. Here are five ways to make the most out of the opportunity and forge stronger customer connections.

1. Identify Your Highest Converting Keywords and Conversions

When people learn about your brand through a mobile search ad, they are likely looking to address a very specific need. For that reason, some keywords, ad groups, or campaigns may drive higher conversions than others.

These conversion events are measurable through call tracking and conversation analytics. Call tracking enables marketers to see the online and mobile interactions that are prompting people to pick up the phone, while call intelligence technologies can tell marketers exactly what's happening on the phone — for instance, marketers can track key phrases like "let’s get started," "credit card number," or "order confirmation number."

2. Target Ad Messaging to Very Specific Stages of the Conversion Funnel

Audiences who are looking to learn more about a product or service may not respond well to aggressive messaging to "buy now." For that reason, they may be hesitant to tap the click-to-call button — for fear that they’ll face an aggressive sales pitch.

For early-funnel keywords, incorporate messaging that the "call" button is an opportunity to ask questions and learn more. For late-funnel keywords, encourage audiences to call in and transact.

3. Experiment With Bid Modifiers

You can modify your search campaigns around time of day, location, and device to target audiences who are most likely to call. You can start by looking at Google AdWords call analytics and your company’s call tracking software to identify correlations between time of day and conversion events. Then, adjust your campaign settings to optimize campaigns to drive calls during these times.

Most importantly, make sure that you only allow calls during your business hours. Don’t waste your valuable advertising dollars by optimizing calls for times that you’re not open.

4. Create Screeners to Qualify Calls

More calls aren’t always better. With increased call volume comes quality challenges, so you’ll need to do more than put a phone number on your mobile landing page and in your ads — you may need to filter your calls before they reach a sales rep.

Marketers should identify parameters that indicate quality calls and use call tracking technologies to put those parameters in place. Examples include customer location, income, or age for B2C brands as well as company size and type for B2B brands. You can even set filters to sort new and repeat calls so that you don’t waste your sales agent’s time on customer service questions. Put filtering options in place to make sure that you’re working with top-notch leads.

5. A/B Test Your Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

To drive conversions, your marketing messages need to reach the right audiences at the right times in their buying journeys. For that reason, it is important to test layout and messaging options for your mobile CTAs, including your click-to-call buttons. This experimentation process will be as important to your mobile landing strategy as it is to your desktop campaigns. Here are some example A/B tests worth trying:

• Try including a phone icon on the bottom of your page
• Experiment messaging around your click-to-call button such as "call to speak to a live agent" vs. "call to get a free quote."
• Test putting your call center or business hours next to the phone number

There are a few important ways that you can test click-to-call features on campaigns. Google AdWords, through call extensions on ads, provides a number of features to connect online audiences with information faster — directly from the search results page. Call buttons on landing pages are another channel that can help mobile audiences reach you after clicking on an ad and arriving on your site.

The more you learn about your customers’ needs and Web traffic patterns, the better positioned you’ll be to improve calls and conversions. Focus on questions that your audience is likely to ask "in the moment." This perspective will help you connect them to the information that they need, faster.

Final Thoughts

The best way to drive more calls is to develop a thorough understanding of your company’s unique conversion funnel. Pay attention to the paths that audiences are taking to become buyers — respond to their exact in-the-moment needs to learn more or to make a direct purchase. This direct alignment will be your ultimate conversion driver.

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Mobile Trends and Search Optimization: Why Aren’t We Catching Up?

As mobile search continues to grow at a rapid pace, we cannot miss the opportunity to become better mobile search practitioners.

When I think of the current state of mobile search practices, my mind flashes to dog racing. I'm not particularly a fan, but the image of those dogs chasing a mechanical rabbit reminds me of the current state of mobile search. Right now, the mobile consumer is the rabbit and marketers and technologists are the dogs - everyone's moving quickly and trying to keep up the pace.

Mobile purchases are expected to outpace desktop purchases in the near future. Juniper Research estimated that annual retail payments on mobile handsets and tablets should reach $707 billion by 2018. Yet, according to Uberflip, only 25 percent of brands have a mobile strategy. If mobile marketing is the coming supernova it's expected to be, why aren't more enterprises first-movers in the mobile space?

Mobile Consumer Behavior

Fifty-five percent of all time spent with online retail in June 2013 occurred on a mobile device. Add to that comScore's assertion that just more than 50 percent of time spent engaging with websites is being done on a mobile device, and you can see that paid, organic, and site optimization for mobile are paramount to global search success.

With thanks to mobiThinking.com, here are some additional data points regarding mobile behavior, specifically mobile search behavior:

• 25 percent of overall search queries are now on mobile devices. - BIA/Kelsey (April 2014).
• In the U.S., mobile accounted for 34.2 percent of all paid search clicks in December 2013. It is expected to be 42 percent by December 2014 and 50 percent by December 2015. - Marin Software (March 2014)
• 58.7 percent of smartphone users access search; 73.9 percent of tablet users access search. -ComScore Mobile Future in Focus (March 2013).
• During the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, 60 to 65 percent of Olympics-related searches were performed on a smartphone or tablet. - Google (April 2014).
• The number of calls to businesses driven by mobile search is growing at 42 percent per annum and is predicted to fuel a staggering 65 billion calls in 2016. - BIA/Kelsey (April 2014).

To further push the notion that mobile search needs our full attention, Yahoo and Kenshoo partnered to survey 350 global marketers about their mobile marketing practices earlier this year. They revealed a stark reminder that multiscreen behavior is being driven by a negative impression of the mobile experience.

This is the first reason there aren't more first-movers. Marketers have been lagging when it comes to taking ownership over their mobile presence. As the BIA/Kelsey report showed, more than half of all mobile shoppers are low-funnel, high-intent buyers while searching. But if they arrive on a search result, landing page, or site not optimized for mobile use - click, they're gone. Solutions such as responsive Web design should make it easy to deploy mobile. So, where are we failing our mobile search audience? Part of the disconnect lies with search optimization practices.

Mobile Optimization: Thoughts to Consider

While many brands recognize the need for mobile optimization, adoption drop-off remains high because of a lack of cohesive, device-driven, activity-based strategies. Here are some of the more prominent issues facing mobile optimization neophytes.

1. Consumers still buy locally. U.S. e-commerce still represents less than 10 percent of all retail spending, with the balance usually completed within 10 to 15 miles from home. What's changed is that mobile and Web searches are being used to find brick-and-mortar goods and services that will be purchased in-store. So, while online conversions are great, the reality is that we must optimize for offline conversions as much if not more heavily right now. How do we generate a call to the store? Can we drive a visit through our mobile presence? Effective optimization recognizes the pathways that connect search behavior to in-store activity. 
2. Paid campaigns and site optimization deserve focus. Organic listings are being pushed further down the screen, below the fold, and Google has indicated that click-through rate (CTR) drops substantially after position four. While organic optimization is still relevant, a focus on paid campaigns and site structure is probably going to result in better return on investment (ROI).
3. Authoring boosts results. Structured authoring for mobile, as it is for desktop applications, enables quick viewing and rapid response. What is the task at hand, what is the concept being delivered, what is the reference? The general objectives remain the same for both formats. However, the intent of the mobile user is very different from the "lean back" desktop user. Therefore, search optimization is dependent on authoring that renders a result that encompasses low-funnel criteria mobile users invoke such as price, dimensions, inventory, etc. 
4. Tagging for mobile activities. Tags targeting the nature of high-intent consumers will be more effective in mobile than for desktop. What do they want while searching for solutions? Quick, hard facts that can lead to a purchase or further activity within 60 minutes. Local calls-to-action, though a seemingly obvious tactic, aren't being considered when marketers create mobile campaigns. There still remains a lot of desktop mentality during migration to mobile search marketing when it comes to tagging landing and site pages. 
5. Click- to- call features for all mobile sites. The rise of click-to-call appeal to mobile consumers has been met with a stunning lack of deployment by many brands. Search is inexorably linked with inbound calls on a local level. For many services (IT, financial services, home improvement, especially) and complex goods verticals, qualifying calls to local merchants are required to make a sale. Therefore, it makes sense to leverage mobile search (site, paid and organic) with click-to-call functionality.

The second reason there aren't more first-movers into the mobile marketing space is the Hummingbird-spawned move to semantic search.

How Semantic Search Influences Mobile Optimization

The evolution of semantic search poses the same challenges for mobile as it does for desktop. But mobile searchers are typically more oriented to navigational searches than research searches. In other words, they are using search to retrieve actionable information, such as a store location or product price, rather than attempting to explore any resource for information about an unknown. Therefore, the contextual attributes that exist for mobile semantic search are more likely to be structured around factors like geo-location and prior browsing activity.

Readability

Remember, we want to develop content that meets the two readability standards: those of the user and spider. The user is looking for action, while the spider is looking for relevance. Just as with desktop, Hummingbird has moved mobile optimization to a contextual approach. So metadata, page content, site structure, etc. that are built around conversational queries will tend to have better visibility and higher engagement.

For example, site pages filled with action-driving copy like "protect your skin" and "limit sun exposure" on clickable content within a skin care mobile site provides context for search engines and engagement for visitors.

Semantic search will drive localized SERPs. This, in turn, drives the need for sharper location-based optimization, which serves a more personalized experience that meets the local consumer on their terms, using their devices to shop locally.

Page Design Impact

On-page elements enable the user experience. Effective element attribution can lower the historically high abandonment rates by mobile users. Rendering instructions deploy page design elements, such as font size and color, background, white space, and other on-page characteristics. Mobile users seek a formatted page that fully displays on the horizontal axis and has robust functionality. Page rendering should quickly adapt to mobile access. Load speed is incredibly important, so is element positioning. Clean design attributes like simple navigation, concise copy, and lean imagery help drive mobile engagement. "Heavy" content such as video feeds must quickly orient, load, and stream seamlessly.

Mobile searchers look for different content cues on devices. Buttons, sliders, and image links move traffic on a smartphone. (Beware, the same doesn't hold true for feature phones.) HTML5-designed mobile sites rely heavily on CSS3 to deliver unique page views across smartphones, feature phones, tablets, and phablets. But you don't have to be immersed in code to optimize for mobile deployment. Best-in-breed tools like Adobe's Muse CC makes it easy for Web design neophytes to create a mobile site without code.

When it comes to page design, you should consider that searchers may use multiple devices for one purpose. For example, a person searching for a new vehicle on his smartphone during a lunch break may wish to return to a page on the home desktop after work. Chrome's multi-device features make this easy. Responsive design (or dedicated mobile sites) allows you to deliver the appropriate page layout for each device. Optimizing for multi-device search flow enables a better user experience with your brand.

Social

Google has shown us that social activity, while not an official ranking factor yet, is a signal that must be accounted for in the mobile space. Semantic search optimization is important in your social campaigns as well. Social activity that is optimized for mobile viewing gets more engagement, leading to higher visibility through indexing relevancy. (Hint: video, apps, images, and links that connect followers to other mobile-centric content is typically more effective when it comes to mobile ranking.)

Within the desktop environment, search has long been the primary conduit providing a path for our brands to reach consumers. The time where we must put emphasis on our mobile search marketing practices is here. The mobile generation has sprouted quickly and is demanding. We've got to adapt to the change that this movement has thrust upon us.

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SEO & PPC Q1 2014 Trends

It’s that time of year when Q1 “state of” reports are published to demonstrate where 2014 stands today.

On the organic side of things, reports show “(not provided)” keyword data in Google is holding strong at about 85 percent, and has since October 2013, according to RKG’s Digital Marketing 2014 Q1 report.

On the paid side, smartphone cost per click continues to be less overall than tablet and desktop at $0.76 versus $0.93 and $0.94 respectively, according to The Search Agency’s State of Paid Search Q1 2014 report.

Let’s look at some highlights of both those reports. 

Organic Search: What's Trending for Q1?

Yahoo’s move to secure search impacted 1 percent of all site visits, according to data from RKG. 

“Over the first two weeks in January, Yahoo organic’s measurable share of all site visits dropped from 2.5 percent to 1.5 percent. During the first week of February, Yahoo traffic appears to rebound as a result of referrers, now stripped of search queries, being passed again,” RKG stated in its report. 

The iPad and iPhone each drove more organic search visits than all Android devices combined, RKG data showed. iPad users drove 12 percent of all the mobile organic search visits in Q1 (31 percent). iPhone users contributed to 11 percent, while all Android devices combined only accounted for 8 percent.

The bounce rate for mobile search, however, is 5 percent higher than desktop overall. “The gap between the two device classes has been a persistent one with this quarter’s results mirroring performance from two years earlier,” RKG said in its report.

Social media sites contributed to an average of 1.5 percent of all site visits, RKG reported. Facebook reigned as the dominant referrer of that traffic at 54 percent in Q1, versus other social sites like Pinterest (25 percent), YouTube (3 percent) and more. 

For more trends in digital marketing, including stats on comparison shopping engines, paid search and display and more, you can access the RKG report here.

Paid Search: The Q1 Status

Year-over-year (YoY) spend was up for paid search advertisers in Q1 including all device types, according to The Search Agency. “Much of the YoY growth can also be attributed to Bing, which experienced steady growth in spend over the past five quarters,” the report stated. 

In fact, spend on Bing grew 60 percent YoY, according to The Search Agency’s data. This was more than Google’s 29 percent growth, the report said. 

RKG also found spending on Bing Ads up 17 percent YoY.

“Bing is beginning to represent an increasingly appealing alternative to Google because of its less competitive bidding environment (lower CPCs) and increasingly effective traffic (growing CTR),” The Search Agency reported. “Advertisers may also be drawn to Bing’s more flexible campaign management in the aftermath of Google’s crossover to enhanced campaigns. Advertisers are still adjusting to Google’s bundling of device management, and Bing may represent a more customizable alternative.”

Overall, cost per click was up in Q1 for all search engines from the same time last year at $0.91, but down from the seasonal spikes of Q4 2013, which came in at $1.12 per click on average, according to The Search Agency. 

When it came to which device experienced the most impression growth, it’s no surprise mobile came out on top with a 60 percent change YoY. Tablets grew 42 percent, while desktop grew 9 percemt. 

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Mobile PPC Spend Sees Triple-Digit Growth, Retailer Spend Jumps 18% In Q2

Paid search spend in the US increased 7 percent year-over-year in Q2 2013, according to IgnitionOne’s latest Digital Marketing Report. That’s up from a 2 percent YoY increase seen in Q1, though IgnitionOne found that total search spend fell quarter-over-quarter. Clicks and impressions both rose 5 percent, and CPCs ticked up 2 percent YoY.

The retailer category stood out in terms of growth in Q2, both compared to the previous year and to Q1. Impressions rose 24 percent, and paid search spending jumped 18 percent year-over-year. IgnitionOne says Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) are driving the growth in spend in the retailer vertical.

Not surprisingly, mobile search advertising continues to grow. Spend, clicks and impressions were all up, with smartphone spend up 106% and tablet spend rising 116%. Tablets claimed 59 percent share of mobile search spend in Q2.

Seeing The Impact Of Enhanced Campaigns

While smartphone CPCs fell 13% overall, IgnitionOne says enhanced campaigns are pushing mobile CPCs for position one — the key spot on smartphone results — way up. When asked about this, IgnitionOne President, Roger Barnette, said in a statement, that CPCs are skyrocketing for the top spot of smartphone ads “for the very narrow selection of our marketers who have migrated to Enhanced Campaigns.”

Among the small set of IgnitionOne’s client set that had migrated to enhanced campaigns in Q2, the company did see increases in both cost and CPCs. The company concludes, “Presumably, this is driven by two main factors: an increase in competition in the mobile (smartphone) and tablet space as well as a loss of granular/keyword level control of the mobile and tablet channels. This increase in competition comes from forcing more advertisers into mobile and tablet.”

IgnitionOne is seeing the increased competition forcing advertisers to raise their budgets to maintain their previous levels of traffic share. As many advertisers can’t raise budgets, IgnitionOne says they are seeing “a decline in both clicks and click-through-rate as pre-GEC advertisers are forced to share the traffic with newcomers…. Marketers are paying more for previously cheaper traffic, and therefore can afford less.”

The company anticipates they’ll continue to see these effects through the full migration to enhanced campaigns.

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AdWords Ad Group Mobile Bid Adjustments Are Here

Google AdWords announced that they have begun the rollout of their new ad group level mobile adjustments for AdWords accounts.

Only a limited number of accounts went active immediately, but like their rolling releases, if you don’t see it now, keep checking back daily to see if your account has been activated.

If you have account rep, you can also contact your rep to see if you can get an earlier activation in your account, particularly if you have a lot of mobile targeted campaigns.

Because mobile searchers have different intents than desktop computer searchers, this will enable you to use the same campaigns but value their CPC differently based on your own conversion tracking.

The other change is that you can now set bulk bid adjustments for locations, dayparts and devices, a definite improvement of the old style of having to update each location individually. This should also users much more flexibility in being able to quickly change and test these metrics across campaigns without having to spend a huge amount of time changing then changing back.

These new changes are also active through AdWords Editor, for those AdWords customers using the editor to create, edit and manage their AdWords ads.

These changes are being made in hopes that greater flexibility will increase CPC values when AdWords customers can easily increase bids on segments that are performing well for them. That said, be sure you are aware of your conversion data before jumping in and making a mass amount of changes when enhanced campaigns migrate to your account.

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How Google Now Will Impact SEO & What You Can Do to Get a Head Start

Google has released many products and services over the last few years to improve the way people search and find information. In their line up of latest releases, we've seen Google+, Google+ Local and now, well… Google Now.

The release of Google Now nearly a year ago didn't make waves, as it was only available on Android devices running Jelly Bean (and up). But that's no longer the case as it's now free to download on the App store for iPhones and iPads.

It isn't the search giant's first foray into mobile search however; it marks a significant turning point. Google can now predict what you need when you need it without a search prompt.

Google Now displays information "cards" such as today's weather, traffic to work, your flight time and much more. It intuitively learns from your search pattern history and provides, unprompted, the right information exactly when you need it.

Search Ad Revenues Hit Record $16.9 Billion in 2012 [Report]

Search ad revenues once again broke records in 2012. Search remained the revenue leader at $16.9 billion, accounting for 46 percent of all Internet advertising revenue, although this figure doesn't even include mobile search ads in the Internet Advertising Bureau's 2012 report.

In 2011, search advertising accounted for $14.8 billion (46.3 percent of all digital advertising).

The IAB noted this year's 14.5 percent increase in revenue was "slightly below the overall industry growth of 15.2%, likely due to a shift to Mobile Search, now captured in the Mobile format."

The new Mobile advertising format ($3.4 billion, 9 percent of revenues) basically lumps together any ads that appear on mobile devices (smartphones, feature phones, and tablets), including display, text messaging, search, and audio/video ads. So while "search" was "slightly below" industry growth, it's likely due to the IAB's own format change.

Overall, the IAB reported total U.S. advertising profits of $36.6 billion for 2012 – up from $31.7 billion in 2011. Also noteworthy: Q4 2012 revenues surpassed $10 billion for the first time.

Elsewhere, display advertising revenues accounted for $12 billion (33 percent) of revenues in 2012, up from $11.1 billion (dropping from 34.8 percent overall) in 2011.

The IAB's numbers come from its twice annual Internet Advertising Revenue Report. IAB officials sponsor the study, which is performed independently by the new media group PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

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Justifying Smartphone PPC Spend as Tablet Results Soar

There's no doubt that tablet ownership is growing month-on-month in the U.S., UK and other markets, with a predictable surge having taken place this Christmas.

The range of desirable tablets at varying price points has grown – the iPad doesn't stand alone as the only attractive option. Traffic figures back up this growth – and crucially for marketers, conversion rates do, too. Tablets accounted for 18.02 percent of UK PPC clicks and 18.31 percent of conversions, according to data released by Kenshoo.

Mobile, by comparison, accounted for 13 percent of the searches but only 3.62 percent of the conversions – and that variance is the challenge some marketers are having to deal with.

While tablet budgets increase, there is a growing trend of marketers being challenged internally by colleagues to justify mobile spend given the (comparative) low ROI it can bring. Should mobile be sidelined, the argument goes, and funds pumped into tablet and "normal" search?