Improve Mobile Search Performance

When it comes to improving general search performance for your website it’s important to optimize your strategy and remain competitive. We spoke with a columnist named John Cosley who currently works with Bing interpreting Microsoft data every day. Combined with his notes and several research studies we will break down some of the top ways that you can improve your mobile search advertising performance.

Most people think about ads as a way of converting viewers but not about the way that adds change our decision-making process. Consumers are generally open to possibility before they are attracted to an advertisement and the advertisement creates a decision to buy a product or to look more into a particular product.

When we examine data across 120,000 users looking for product terms on PC and mobile devices over a 30-day period, we find that many mobile devices lead to conversion rates on advertising because people are searching for items to purchase while they are on the go. Mobile conversion and proper ad design is important to influencing the path of purchasing. Users conduct search queries faster on mobile ads today and tend to reduce the time between discovery and product purchase. Many mobile ad strategy users are finding that this purchase funnel is making a big impact, especially when consumers are presented with cross-device searches. Seeing advertising on multiple devices influences purchase power and improves search performance.

Targeting ads to location can provide a huge return on investment. In a digital consumer report from 2014, 76% of mobile users are using some type of store locator to help them find addresses for stores or local stores that carry the items they are looking for. Targeting advertisements in your local area can lead to a huge return on investment.

The conversion of an advertisement usually happens within five hours of a mobile search or advertising target. 25% of tablet users actually see an advertisement and then make a purchase within an hour, 30% of smartphone users according to Nielsen telemetrics conversion cycle studies will make a purchase within an hour.

Overall 70% of ad conversions lead to a short term sale within five hours of the initial mobile search.

Targeting your ads at the right time of day and preparing for an influx of sales after releasing ads or experiencing a high search volume is important.

Whether your target for conversion on mobile advertising is to make sales or it is to make contacts, the sales funnel for mobile search ads can be profitable no matter your goal. In a recent study conducted by Ipsos, 61% suggest that after seeing an advertisement they are likely to call into a company to inquire about the product.

More than half of all searches occur on mobile device.

Consumers are using their smart phones to do their product research, including in-stock verification, before making in-store visits. Without these elements added to your marketing strategy you could be missing out on a large portion of your market potential.

Want More 411 on Search?

Want a deeper dive into how  search works?  We break it down for you here – What is SEO?

The position of advertising for conversions can make a big impact and while most mobile screens can only display two ads in a single view, it pays big to have the top ad position.

Top advertisements enjoy a conversion rate of 58 to 70%.

Capture the top spot by:

• improving keyword relevance
• testing your ad performance
• increasing your advertising budget to capture top spots

According to a study conducted by Bing ads, even search queries conducted by individuals 55+ are predominately conducted on mobile devices. Making sure that a campaign or an advertisement is mobile friendly is crucial to capturing this market.

In a 2014 digital consumer report it was suggested that many mobile users were searching for local results only.

Most mobile users expect results to be found within 5 miles of their location when searching for advertisements, products or stock on a mobile device. These are users that are motivated to purchase, call or visit a location. Unfortunately, mobile advertising campaigns rarely target users in a specific area or local five-mile radius. Trying an offer like free shipping or next-day shipping can help to improve results but using geo-targeted campaigns for mobile is usually the best course of action.

According to Microsoft data, mobile search conversions may differ among industries. Technology and Telecom industries reported that only 9% of their conversions were from mobile and 28% of those conversions were started from a PC.   Research verifies that these two verticals, as well as Travel, Financial Services, Entertainment and B2B services, rely more heavily on desktop searchers.

According to Bing statistics properly optimized mobile ads can receive a click through rate 97% higher than ads that aren’t optimized for mobile. Only 11% of the ad campaigns across Bing currently are optimized for mobile viewing. If you are able to optimize your advertising properly you could potentially outperform 89% of your competition.

The latest data makes it clear that a little mobile optimization goes a long way.

Want to see if it’s possible to improve your search performance?

Contact us. We’re happy to provide you with a complimentary analysis.

We’ll provide a complimentary SEO analysis for you so you can see for yourself how you are doing in the search engines, what gaps you should consider closing and what opportunities are awaiting you.

We are business and online experts and strategists with a wicked knack for results.

We have the talent and the bench strength required to catalyze your online success.

If we can’t make a measurable, quantifiable difference, we won’t ask for your business.

Contact us. You have nothing to lose.

317-847-4600