Category: Mobile

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Mobile Apps More Engaging Than Websites

Earlier today Google has published a post on multi-channel attribution, where among other things they’ve pointed out:

We’re …seeing channels like mobile grow tremendously. For instance, mobile is now 8% of all conversions that we’re seeing in Google Analytics, and mobile conversions have grown by about 180% in just the last year.

Being a fervent believer in the future of mobile commerce, I tweeting the above stats; and received an immediate reply from an old-time affiliate marketing friend, Richard Gaskin of Fourth World Systems. Here’s our mini-coversation:

I agree, it is shocking. However, an even more enlightening fact to me is that, apparently, 81.5% of smartphone users find mobile apps more engaging than websites.

A week ago comScore published the following data:

Top Smartphone Properties by Total Unique Visitors (Mobile Browser and App Audience Combined)
March 2012
Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Age 18+ on iOS, Android and RIM Platforms
Source: comScore Mobile Metrix 2.0
Audience Engagement
Total Unique Visitors (000) % Reach Browser % Share of Total Time Spent App % Share of Total Time Spent
Total Audience (Browsing and Application combined) 97,007 100.0% 18.5% 81.5%
Google Sites 93,954 96.9% 18.9% 81.1%
Facebook 78,002 80.4% 20.0% 80.0%
Yahoo! Sites 66,185 68.2% 25.3% 74.7%
Amazon Sites 44,028 45.4% 14.3% 85.7%
Wikimedia Foundation Sites 39,073 40.3% 99.8% 0.2%
Apple Inc. 38,309 39.5% 0.3% 99.7%
Cooliris, Inc 28,543 29.4% 0.0% 100.0%
AOL, Inc. 28,021 28.9% 47.4% 52.6%
eBay 27,190 28.0% 17.6% 82.4%
Zynga 26,619 27.4% 0.4% 99.6%
Twitter 25,593 26.4% 3.5% 96.5%
Rovio (Angry Birds) 25,057 25.8% 3.7% 96.3%
Weather Channel, The 24,131 24.9% 47.1% 52.9%
Microsoft Sites 23,938 24.7% 82.1% 17.9%
ESPN 23,317 24.0% 56.8% 43.2%

 

However dated, here’s another interesting piece the puzzle: about a year ago Kony Solutions reported that they were “seeing over 30% higher conversion for iPhone native app customers vs. mobile web customers” [source, emphasis mine].

Does your business have a mobile app yet? Or at least a mobile website [some guidelines here]?

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Email and Mobile – Quite Possibly the Ideal Marketing Marriage

Yesterday, Brian Clark (aka Copyblogger) tweeted:

Brian was referring to Jon Thomas‘ post earlier this week where the latter has quoted ExactTarget‘s recent findings from a truly interesting 2012 Channel Preference Survey:

So, 91% check their email daily (and 77% name it as “their preferred channel for permission-based promotional messages”). Additionally, besides what’s also reflected above other studies reveal that between 27% [see here] and 34%  [source] of consumers use their mobile devices to check that email. Combine this with Michael Becker‘s recent statement that by 2015 more people will access the Internet via mobile than wire line broadband [video here], and the latter percentages will most likely only increase with time.

Mobile is an extremely powerful medium. Combined with email it can exemplify a nearly perfect marketing marriage.

Are you keeping the above data in mind? Are your emails optimized to deliver the best experience when viewed on mobile devices? Are the landing pages you’re calling them to visit optimized for mobile?

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iPad Drives 89% of Mobile Shopping Revenue. Time for New Category

When I look at my Google Analytics reports, analyzing specifically the “mobile devices” that my visitors use to access the website I see that iPads top every other device (i) driving more traffic (55.5%) than any other device in the category, (ii) registering more “pages per visit” than any other device, and (iii) keeping people on my website for nearly twice as long as its closest “competitor”:

But is this iPad’s tremendous lead really that surprising? If you’ve ever tried browsing the Web using an iPad — having a chance to compare it to a similar experience on any mobile phone — the answer is obvious: the disparity is just as tremendous.

Earlier today MarketingCharts.com has published some interesting statistics on mobile shopping quoting RichRelevance’s recent study — where the latter have analyzed nearly 4.5 billion shopping sessions that have occurred at US retail websites between April 2011 and March 2012 and arrived at a number of interesting graphs including the below ones:

Again, the numbers in that fourth chart are hardly surprising! Whether this is because iPad users are more affluent than others, or simply because it is considerably more convenient to shop from an iPad than from a mobile phone; but it does seem like it’s high time to finally introduce a third category — one that would combine tablets (such as iPads, Eee Pads, Nooks, Kindles, etc) and netbooks, segregating them from computers (desktop and laptop ones) and definitely from mobile phones.

Happy to hear your thoughts on the subject. That’s what the “Comments” area is for, and should you have anything to add, I’m all ears.