Report Indicates the Continued Importance of the Mobile Web
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released a report that indicates that mobile apps and the mobile Web actually overlap and share audience more than many in the marketing industry may realize.
Based on a Harris Poll survey of 2,000 U.S. adults, the IAB study found that mobile apps drive a substantial amount of traffic to the mobile Web, although this is not always acknowledged as Web activity. Although comScore estimates that smartphone users spend approximately 88 percent of their time on mobile apps, the IAB report indicates that a substantial amount of this is “mobile Web use in disguise.”
This statement is based on the fact that 52 percent of smartphone users indicated that they click on links within apps that take them to mobile websites, which blurs the line between apps and the mobile Web. Furthermore, only 37 percent of smartphone users said that their usage skews significantly towards mobile apps, while 33 percent said they spend equal amounts of time on mobile apps and the mobile Web, and 30 percent said they favor the mobile Web either somewhat or very much.
Although search isn’t used to the same degree in mobile that it is on desktop, it appears to still be a critical tool for both consumers and marketers.
In fact, in some categories, the mobile Web is much more widely used than apps. According to this study, people are more likely to use mobile browsers for activity relating to career services and development (54 percent), real estate (64 percent) and automotive (91 percent).
When they were asked how they find mobile websites to visit, 54 percent of respondents cited search, 29 percent cited recommendations including email and word-of-mouth, and 26 percent cited links in social media apps.
Additionally, with respect to specific activities, smartphone users often favored the mobile Web over apps. Some examples from the report include the fact that 42 percent of respondents said they prefer the mobile Web for search in comparison to 20 percent for apps, and 28 percent prefer the mobile Web for shopping versus 22 percent for apps. For local directory access, 25 percent of respondents indicated that they prefer the mobile Web in comparison to 21 percent for apps.
One thing that becomes clear from these findings is that marketers and publishers should not neglect the mobile Web, as many smartphone users still consider it to be their primary choice for a wide range of activities.
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Understanding that Geo Target Mobile Display ads work better than Google Adwords is a hidden tactic many dealers are not familiar with. Even though Google offers similar mobile display network advertising other mobile platforms have come in and made head way here because mobile is so strong at offering up display ads and retargeting ads designed for mobile users formats that Google does not control.
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Start by testing your mobile sites response speed with Google Insights for developers at: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
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