Mobile platforms have very clearly taken over as the prominent way for people to surf the web. As anyone can see, many advertisers and marketing firms are taking quick advantage of this rather young form of advertising. Some businesses are reluctant, however, for they are worried about how much they spend on PC advertisements already. Until recently, not much of a difference could be seen between the cost to drive conversions in PC platforms and the cost to drive conversions on mobile platforms.
For those who aren’t familiar, a conversion refers to each time a consumer converts a simple, casual visit to a website into the desired action of the advertiser. For example, when a consumer visits the website of a hotel, if they book a room then their visit has been converted to desired action. Now, what has been discovered through marketing research is that mobile optimization will bring in conversions at lower costs than the PC platforms can. Apparently, the conversion rates on the iPad have doubled the rates on desktop computers. In Affiliate Window’s M-Commerce White Paper from last year, it shows that the conversion rate for the iPad in May was at about 3.5%, while in the same month, desktop computers were at 1.4%. The iPad was even beating out other mobile devices significantly, with the Blackberry, Android and iPhone all around 2.0 – 2.1% in May, last year. Regardless of what platform, the mobile traffic rate shot up in the late months of 2011 from 2.4% to 3.5%.
A case study explains this new cost-effective way to get a higher amount of conversions. Greg Sterling, a writer at MarketingLand.com, writes of a case study that shows that there are certain optimization steps that need to be taken in order to achieve this cost effectiveness. Greg explains in an example about Fidelity Investments that the advertising agency cannot always be at fault, “but also blame to company for not paying attention and demanding a better campaign.” Their mobile advertising campaign consisted simply of a display banner on the bottom of a news stream that lead to the desktop version of their website. This lack of well planned mobile optimization will not lead to the desired conversion rates.
However, in another example that is given in the case study, Starwood Hotels does things correctly and efficiently. Using Google’s click-to-call, their advertisement on Google can either lead customers to their mobile optimized site or with a simple touch, smart phone users can call their call centers. Optimizing a website for mobile is quite cost-effective, and can bring in a much higher conversion rate.
Mobile marketing is the new way, with the sudden explosion of mobile devices. If you aren’t advertising on mobile platforms, then conversion rates will continue to decrease. People need it to be easier for them to view the important things that advertisers want them to see. Without mobile optimization, people will get lost, and your company will lose conversions and possibly even customers.
