Case studies where mobile marketing actually worked

North Face video ads

The North Face used its first ever mobile ad campaign to raise brand awareness among males aged 18-34 in Germany and Italy.

Working with Millennial Media it used a full-screen interactive video placed in apps that indexed highly among the target audience. 

The goal of the campaign was to achieve completed views, but users were given the option to skip the video after 7.5 seconds.

On completion of the video, four buttons offered a more comprehensive experience, with the option to click through to local market websites or the global Facebook page. There was also an option to replay the video.

The campaign achieved more than 319,000 completed views in Germany and 114,000 in Italy. This led to engagement rate with local North Face sites of 9.5% in Germany and 8.5% in Italy.

The video itself also proved to be popular, as a third (33%) of German viewers replayed it for a second time, as did 19% of those in Italy. 

Nokia Lumia 1020

To promote the launch of the Windows Phone Nokia Lumia 1020 in Germany, Microsoft created an interactive ad that allowed people to test out the phone’s camera function.

It targeted 18-35 year olds with interests in technology and design by selecting specific publishers across sports, tech, gaming, entertainment, fashion, design, and other creative industries.

The campaign was also targeted at people using competitor devices.

After clicking on the banner ad a photo was displayed on a Nokia Lumia that consumers were able to interact with to experience its high-resolution zoom.

Users could then click through to a mobile optimised landing page and get more information on the product.

The ads achieved an engagement rate of 3.23% and 8.63% of people who engaged with the ad clicked through to the site.

Capital Radio

London’s Capital FM radio station set out to boost downloads of its iPhone app as part of a plan to increase listenership while also helping to better define its cost per customer acquisition.

It used geotargeting to access more than 1m iOS users in the UK on the AdMob ad network.

A secondary goal was to achieve a high ranking in the App Store, so on the final day it massively increased ad spend while also optimising the ad placements using real-time analytics.

As a result of the campaign:

• Capital FM’s app ranking in the UK App Store rose from number 10 to number five in the music category.
• It achieved a CTR of 1.35% on average during the four-week campaign.
• Conversion rates (clicks resulting in app downloads) were 8% on average 
• More than 24,000 users visited Capital’s app download page in the App Store.

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Android Beats iOS in Q1 Mobile Ad Traffic, Still Lags in Monetization

Android took over as the top smart device platform on the Opera Mediaworks platform in Q1, with about 43% of traffic, versus 38% for iOS devices. But, iOS devices continue to generate an outsized share of revenues, at more than 52%. Android’s share of revenues is growing more quickly on a year-over-year basis, though its gains are at the expense of BlackBerry and Symbian rather than Apple. Meanwhile, in Q1, the Social category continued to lead in mobile ad traffic volume, while Arts & Entertainment garnered the most revenue and Business, Finance & Investing the most revenue per impression.

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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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Interactive Wireframing Comes of Age

As you most likely know, wireframes are black-and-white box drawings that describe a screen (be it a web page, a mobile app, or anything else that needs to be laid out and designed). Traditionally, wireframes are created in the design process to show the client the functionality, process flow, and general layout of the application before the designers and developers go to work implementing the idea. Wireframes are great because they are easily changeable and help the client get a "hands-on" feel for what we are building so there will be no surprises once the system is built.

The only real drawback of wireframes is their implicit static quality: they tend to exist on a sheet of paper. In this day and age in which in-page interactivity has become the norm, and when some processes happen over a series of pages/screens, simple wireframes fall short. They traditionally aren't good at letting the user "feel" the application, and only trained eyes are really good at following wireframes across multiple pages to get a feel for where the eye goes as pages refresh during a specific task.

For the last 12 years, my company has used "interactive wireframes" as part of our design process. These have traditionally been simple HTML pages that contain graphic versions of the mockups, and use image-mapped hotspots to let the users click around. Sometimes we'll create full HTML versions instead of use images if the interactivity is easier shown in HTML. While this is a time-consuming task, interactive wireframes give our clients a much better sense of what the finished application, site, or process will feel like.

Recently, an iOS app called POP (short for Prototyping on Paper) was released that is the perfect tool to help us (and you) make this interactive wireframing task that much easier. The tool is simple: snap photos of your wireframes and link them to each other using rectangular hotspots. You can then walk through your prototype and click around as if it were a real application.

Of all the rapid prototyping tools we've tried, POP is certainly the easiest. But it's not without some major drawbacks. At the moment it is really geared toward app development, and when you share the prototypes, the screen shape/size reflects that of an iOS device. The system shows prototypes via any web browser, but puts an iPhone frame around the prototype. This makes the app unrealistic to use for any professional purpose beyond iOS prototyping.

It is my hope that the makers of this app will realize that its potential uses go far beyond mobile apps and they expand this to allow for full-page prototypes for regular websites.

Until then, we'll continue making our interactive wireframes by hand. If you are still making plain old static wireframes, it's time to start adding life to them. The ROI is simple: a clearer understanding of your project's flow will save you time and money later, as there will be no surprises in the development phase. Plus, clients like to interact with the work, and letting them do this in the wireframe stage adds to your wow factor, and gives them something more tangible to understand.

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Google Puts Local Ads on the Maps App

Google has introduced a new way for local businesses to advertise on the Google Maps app for iPhone and Android.

"Relevant ads", as Google described them, will appear to users after they perform a Maps search. The ads will be located at the bottom of the screen and include the title, ad text, and a link to get directions to the business.

These new ads have a different way of computing how the advertiser gets charged for the clicks. When a user views the ad, there are several ways they can interact with the ad, some which result in the standard CPC charges to the advertiser, and others that are free clicks that the advertiser won't pay for.

When the user clicks on an ad, they will see standard business information, such as the address, phone number, photos, reviews, and more. If a user saves the business information for later, shares the business with a friend, or starts navigation, these are all considered free clicks the advertiser won't be charged for.

For interactions that advertisers are charged standard CPC charges, includes the initial "get location details" click the user makes, directions, click to call, and clicks to the ad headline.

Because technically a user could click on several different paid parts of an ad, which could result in multiple CPC charges depending on how the user interacts with the ad, advertisers will only be charged for maximum of two paid clicks per ad impression.

One unique aspect about this is that Google is actually giving advertisers analytical data on free clicks as well as the paid clicks. So if you would like to know how many people are interacting with your ads that do not result in a charge to you, you can find it in a new reporting area. There is of course all the analytical data for paid clicks as well.

For advertisers wanting to advertise the Google Maps app, you need to add location extensions to your search campaigns, where created an ad for it with AdWords Express. You also need to ensure that your campaign is permitted to be shown on mobile devices and on Google search partners. 

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Well-Timed Link Building: How to Capitalize on Popular Topics

In SEO, timing is of the essence. Timing is very important for regular topics with a predictable life cycle. Your link building efforts will be much more effective when you understand the separate phases.

Is There a Predictable Life Cycle for Your Keywords?

Your industry probably has keyword trends that clearly show a life cycle (mainly product names). Google Trends offers some insight into keyword trending when your keyword stays above a minimum threshold.

Social media monitoring tools often provide even better insights into popular topics and the keyword combinations in which they are addressed.

Using Radian6 I discovered that there are four or five main phases in the life cycle of a mobile phone. In such phases people discuss distinctly different topics in combination with phone names. You should attract links in all these phases, but that requires a different type of message in each phase.

1. The Rumor Phase

In this phase people use words like "leaked", "first", and they guess potential names for the new Android or iPhone.

Link building: Find sites that rank in this phase by already Googling for keyword combinations like "iphone 5s" or "iphone 6" (potential names for future phones). Focus on attracting links from them by feeding their rumor. Provide the first photos or potential sketches. Speculate about its name, release date and specifications and do so for all important phones in this phase of their life cycle.

2. The Introduction Phase

Once a new phone is officially announced, sample phones are distributed to the media and the first reviews are written. Words like "introduction", "review", "release date" and "new features" become more important in this phase.

Link building: Partnering with review sites is the most important link building activity for this phase. Comparing and rating their reviews might work, paying them to mention your site or providing your own sample phones for review are all possible link acquisition strategies.

3. The Pre-Sale Phase

In this phase people start selecting the provider or shop for their new mobile phone. Words like "compare", "features" and "support" (app compatibility) are often mentioned and searched in this phase.

Link building: Offering early bird specials or special package deals/editions for people that pre-register proved very successful. Providing comparison charts and selection wizards also makes your site more linkable. Gossip about scarceness or insufficient stock with certain providers has also worked wonders in the past.

4. The For Sale Phase

Once a phone is really for sale you should already be ranking because of all that effort in earlier stages of the mobile phone life cycle. In this phase keywords like "deals", "price", "prepaid" and "verizon" rise to the top of search volume and social mentions.

Link building: Combine your sales effort with link building, but try not to break Google guidelines for paid links. When you aid sites showing your advertisements with quality images and unique content, normal links can also be included. If you have access to sales numbers, share sales comparison charts for several phones. Even a widget, wizard, or other promotional tool can aid both sales and link building.

5. The Support Phase

Later in the sales phase accessories like cases are mentioned and searched for more often. Keyword combinations with "unlock" and "jailbreak" show that the phone has become an established name. Once second-hand or refurbished phones are sold on eBay, the most important phase of your mobile phone life cycle has probably ended. The search volume can however still be interesting for an upsell to the phone's successor.

Link building: I seldom do link building in this latest phase of the phone life cycle. It is often much more interesting to re-use the acquired link value for the current top phone. Redirecting the old phone URL to the new model makes this possible. The old phone should however still have a dedicated page somewhere on your website.

Working in Phases

Whatever product you're working on, phases from introduction to discontinuation are very common. Discover the life cycle of your products and tune your link building to the best link partners for each phase.

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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.

How to Create a Mobile Content Strategy

Content strategy is all about matching visitor intent with the right message to meet user needs and business goals simultaneously. Finding the right match is already complicated, and adding in the source device sheds some light on visitors and traffic patterns.

Recent information from the Financial Times and The Guardian showing how users access these sites and sheds some insight onto user behavior. Both papers see evening and weekend spikes in mobile use in addition to weekday desktop usage.

The Guardian shares more data on their reader, and it's especially interesting to see that tablet users tend to use the desktop site more than either the mobile site or the tablet apps available.

Additionally, those tablet users fill in gaps left by other browsers. The white line in the slide below is tablet use on the Guardian's main site as opposed to their paid app. It shows a spike in evening use, right between prime time and bedtime. This all supports the tablet as a second screen tool and addition to the desktop.

Both FT and The Guardian saw more interest in arts and entertainment stories on tablets during the weekend, leading to a conclusion that devices don't cannibalize each other, but that users prefer to access content as comfortably as possible. It isn't comfortable to access arts and entertainment information at work with co-workers or a boss nearby, but it is very comfortable to do so at home, possibly as a second screen to a feature film. The tablet has the power to resolve those questions of what movies that actor has previously been in without leaving the comfort of the couch.

Sites can use this insight to adjust their editorial calendar and provide content that matches reader interest by time of day, day of the week and device. Similar to detailed PPC campaigns, SEO campaigns can get granular information to influence what content is produced when as well as how it is displayed. Depending on audience size and behavior, it might make sense to create mobile-specific content, as the Guardian has done with their app.

This threaded model helps plan if you need device-specific content, and which devices get that content:

High access by a certain type of device, or high conversions from a specific device, would justify content specifically for that device. The Guardian delivers specialized content to their mobile site, but that content is the same for tablet and smartphone users. But it actually follows a triple-thread approach in its app strategies. The apps are the third thread of content written specifically for iPad or iPhones. What Content For Which Device?

You probably see users looking at certain content on different devices already. In that case, follow your customers' lead. If you don't have enough data to base your strategy off current customer behavior, recent studies give general guidelines on customer needs and behavior, allowing you to forecast what content will make users happy.

In general, smartphone users look for local information while they're on the go. In survey after survey, smartphone users want to know if a close physical location is open. One recent study showed that 92 percent of smartphone users searched for a restaurant. Content for these types of searches should include basic contact information – address, phone number and operating hours – as well as a short description of the location highlighting why a visitor should choose that location.

Other firms have taken a sectionalized approach to content. Full content is written with a desktop in mind, and just certain sections of that content are shown for mobile devices. This approach is excellent for small businesses who need the essence of their homepage text to appear on their mobile site. Why keep it short? Smartphone users, generally, want to fulfill an immediate need.

Tablets, however, are used in a very different way. A Pew Internet study found that less than 30 percent of users read long-form content on a smartphone whereas 80 percent of tablet users do.

The same study showed that 43 percent of Americans have read long-form content on the web. So long-form certainly has its place, and that place is the tablet. Tablet landing pages should offer links to ebooks, white papers and other long-form content to maximize this channel's strengths.

Just as mobile optimization covers how content is displayed, mobile content strategy ensures that the right content is shown within that optimized interface. While general trends prepare companies for what's on the horizon, mobile content strategy should be based off of current user patterns.

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