Mobile Search Ad Revenue Is Set To Rise To Over $500 Million Worldwide By 2011

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Mobile Search Ad Revenue Is Set To Rise To Over 0 Million Worldwide By 2011

When is the UK going to come out of the Dark Ages and compete for a share? Asks Nick Beck, managing director at Tug.

Mobile has, without doubt, reached maturity as far as becoming a viable marketing channel is concerned. Let’s look at the evidence:

In 2009 more internet enabled phones were sold than laptops,. Smartphone  usage – iphone, blackberry and the host of internet enabled phones – is set to rise to 1.63bn worldwide by 2013 (Morgan Stanley mobile internet report dec 2009). So consumers definitely have the tools.
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So what does that mean for search marketing. What is the lay of the land for mobile PPC and mobile SEO?

Well, it gets better.  eMarketer’s latest report on mobile states that by 2011 the number of mobile searchers are set to rise to 900M worldwide. So consumers are now using their phones in the way they were intended. New technology has speeded things along and searching the web using mobile is now simple, fast, effective and convenient.

As a result, according to eMarketer, by 2011 search ad revenue is set to rise to over 0M worldwide. No small beer by any standards. You’d think therefore that we’re all geared up to grab our share in the UK. In reality it’s far from the case.

Mobile SEO still seems a darker art than ‘traditional’ SEO – which is probably why no one is really doing it. Cast your minds back to the 90s and how the web was operating and you’ll see its happening over again with mobile.  Brands are building mobile sites, which is a great start, but they are not considering how people will find them. The digital industry moves at such a pace that 6 months is a long time in this business. The 90’s, therefore,  seems like the dark ages to most of us.

When creating a mobile site you need to optimise the on page factors just like with a regular website. Good coding and content relevancy is still very important. You need to ensure a link from your main .com site is put in place to pass on some link juice. You’ll then need to set up a traditional link building campaign – but from other mobile sites, mobile directories, social networks etc.

It’s not happening because there is a real lack of tools available in the marketplace to research keywords for popularity. For now the Adwords tool is the best place to find keyword volumes to prepare your mobile SEO programme. Another option is to first set up a mobile PPC campaign, testing for highest click through rates and volumes and use the results to influence your SEO.

Forget the longtail (for now). People use less words when searching on mobiles (with more spelling mistakes). Yes it’s like the 90s – the big keywords are ‘free’ & ‘download’ all over again!

Mobile PPC has some interesting new actions like ‘click to call’. Also ad formats can be different, having less characters in text ads, but like on the traditional Google content network, banner ads can be served on a CPC basis.

You can target specific mobile networks and specific devices with your ad formats and messages. In the US you can download an app with one click.

Again the longtail isn’t as pertinent in PPC – bidding on broad terms with a robust negative list is the best approach. Interestingly mobile web activity increases as people leave the office and at night, over PC based activity – when running a PPC campaign across both channels make sure you up your mobile spend after 8pm.

There are ways to approach mobile search and implement a successful campaign and there are huge opportunities here. 1 in 3 organisations globally are currently incorporating mobile into their ad strategies (Morgan Stanley). It’s time we realized how big this is. Without doubt it’s going to get a lot bigger. Visibility across mobile is crucial to success. Businesses are ready to spend their hard earned marketing budgets on mobile search but the lack of tools and apparent expertise in the marketplace is making it hard to justify. Quite simply we must do better, and fast!

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