Mobile Doesn't Mean High-Tech...Necessarily

The data says it all: “Mobile marketing and location-based marketing are two of the fastest growing sectors of the technology industry. Worldwide mobile advertising spending is expected to grow from $1.7 billion in 2007 to $12.8 billion in 2011” (Wright, 2010). The fact that this industry continues to expand financially means the attention and focus on the quality of the traffic deriving from it will continue to be scrutinized in increasing fashion. Perhaps as more of these devices saturate the marketplace the push for understanding what happens on them will become more profound, but for now, mobile analytics remains the red-headed step child to traditional web browsing. 

               
While we all might have seen the button that allows us to look at what mobile traffic is arriving and even what is converting, have you ever considered what each metric means in relation to a mobile device? In a recent article by Macala Wright, the author offers the following example: When a marketer is analyzing web site engagement, if the mobile to web interaction is 1.9 page views via a mobile device versus 1.0 pages on the web, that’s a key indicator for potential of mobile growth” (Wright, 2010). Exactly. Wait, what?  So why would a page be more likely to be read on a mobile device than on a big pretty monitor? Maybe it looks better, maybe the mobile version is optimized to reduce other distractions. Maybe the consumer funnel is much clearer and defined on mobile. Whatever the reason, the data might (and probably will) be different for web versus mobile traffic and as marketers we have to be aware of that. 

                One final thought on the mobile traffic is that if you are possibly reading this on a mobile device—congratulations—you probably have a nice income. If you are using a smartphone to access this data odds are you pay for unlimited data and you are able to browse the net openly. The reality is millions of Americans don’t use smartphones (gasp!) and might not be able to see every page you’ve designed for a mobile-friendly device. Some consumers are still using old devices and one’s not optimized for heavy web browsing usage. The reason this is important is that many industries might be geared towards the lower-income population and therefore the mobile presentation should too!

References

Wright, M. (2010, July 10). Understanding Mobile Analytics. Fashionably Marketing. Retrieved from http://fashionablymarketing.me/2010/07/mobile-marketing-app-analytics/