Report Shows Mobile Search Queries Account For 29 Percent Of Total

The latest “Digital Future in Focus” report has been released by comScore, which provides key statistics for the U.S. market. The report is available to the public as a free download and offers a year in review of the shifts that occurred in digital consumer behavior across mobile, social media, video, advertising, search and e-commerce.

Although a large amount of the material in the report has already been exposed in one form or another, this is the first time that comScore has released search volumes for mobile. Considering the growing focus on mobile for digital marketers, this data is very interesting to note.

The following chart compares search queries on desktop, smartphones and tablets in Q4 2013 and Q4 2014. The data shows that overall search volume grew during this period, while desktop query volumes decreased slightly.

According to the report, mobile search queries, meaning the combined total of smartphones and tablets, accounted for approximately 29 percent of total search volume. Smartphone search volumes were just over two times that of tablet volumes, which is likely due at least in part to the fact that there are many more smartphones in the market than tablets.

An interesting finding in the report is that tablet search is growing faster than smartphone search. This could potentially be due to the fact that larger tablets are closer to desktop computers than smartphones are, although another reason could be that growth is likely to be larger from the smaller user base of tablet users in comparison to the larger number of smartphone users.

The comparatively small year-over-year growth of smartphone search could be seen as a concern for Google, although, in contrast to comScore’s data, Google has stated its expectation that overall search queries on mobile devices will exceed desktop search volumes this year. One possible reason for this discrepancy may be that non-U.S. data could be very different from U.S. data in regard to these relative volumes. The comScore report is only for U.S. data.

The report shows that mobile devices, and smartphones in particular, dominate digital media time, at 60 percent versus 40 percent for desktop. Although ad revenues do not correspond in proportion with that usage discrepancy, some forecasts anticipate that the gap will close quickly in the coming period. Additionally, a large amount of mobile monetization is expected to come outside of search, such as from apps.

Assuming that this data is accurate, it appears that Google search revenues may have peaked on desktop. Therefore, Google must either boost its mobile search revenues or take share from rivals on the desktop to maintain growth. The company could also grow its video and display advertising, although there is much more competition from other players in those categories.

For an overall view of the past year, comScore provided the following list of what it calls “some of the digital milestones of 2014”:

• Mobile app usage exploded on its way to becoming the majority of all digital media activity.
• Leading publishers saw mobile revenues surpass desktop revenues, signaling a shift toward mobile as the primary digital media platform.
• Traditional TV ratings saw pronounced declines as Americans’ viewing habits time-shifted and moved to emerging platforms.
• Digital advertising went through a challenging but important transition to transacting on impressions that are actually seen by people.

Certainly, the digital landscape has evolved greatly over the past year, and there’s no question that the coming year will continue to bring exciting new changes for digital marketers to consider and employ in their approach.