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Discover What Mobile Users Really Want From A Mobile Website

October 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Mobile Websites: Give The Mobile User What They Want And Not What You Think They Want

In the following piece (original post), we are told exactly what mobile users want by Masha Fisch, from Google’s Mobile Ads Marketing department.

Earlier this week we shared how today’s consumers expect more — much more — from mobile sites. They told us so in our recent research survey, What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today.

Today we’ll share more results, with some great examples of businesses giving mobile users what they want. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or the pizza shop down on the corner, creating a mobile-friendly site is a critical step: 67% of mobile users say that they’re more likely to buy a product or service from a mobile-friendly site, and 74% say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future.

How are smart companies making mobile sites work for them?

Less is more: ProFlowers 
For their new mobile site, the flower retailer ProFlowers simplified things by highlighting the most popular bouquets to reduce scrolling, by trimming text, and by cutting checkout steps. How well has it worked? “Since becoming mobile-friendly, we’ve seen our mobile conversion rate jump by 20–30%,” says Leif Heikkila, the company’s senior director of online marketing. Download the case study.

Bigger is better: FragranceNet.com
FragranceNet sells perfumes and colognes, yes, but also face creams, shampoos, eyeliner and more. For Michael Nadboy, the company’s VP of online marketing and strategic development, the trick to mobile success was to show bigger product images and buttons, larger font sizes, and fewer images overall. Mobile users loved it: FragranceNet boosted mobile sales by 48% in just four months. Download the case study.

Speed sells: TicketNetwork
Rock concerts, Broadway shows, NASCAR races: TicketNetwork’s mobile site helps on-the-go fans find tickets for them all. The company redesigned its mobile site with speed in mind, stripping away all non-essential content and graphics. They also trimmed steps from the checkout process to help mobile users buy fast. Four months after introducing the new mobile site, web traffic from mobile devices was up 120% and overall sales from mobile had grown by 184%. Download the case study.

You can see the keys to mobile site success: big buttons and text, less content, fewer steps to checkout, and a focus on speed.

What kind of mobile content is most important? The users we surveyed listed “Get directions”, “Find operating hours” and “Click to call the business” as some of their most-wanted mobile tasks. They also showed clear differences in mobile usage by business category. For instance:

Mobile Banking and Finance customers are most interested in checking account balances, transferring money and paying bills.

Mobile Travel customers are most interested in checking flight status and confirming reservations.

Mobile Retail customers like to contact a store and find product information.

Mobile Automotive customers are most interested in contacting the dealership and making service appointments.

The bottom line: mobile users are ready to make choices on the go. Help them get there fast and you’ll help your business grow.

We reviewed these findings yesterday during our webinar: Mobilize your Site and Maximize your Advertising. If you missed it, please keep an eye out for the recorded webinar, which we’ll post soon.

In the meantime, check out howtogomo.com for more tips on how to build a mobile-friendly website.

Posted by: Masha Fisch, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Google Retail Blog

Filed Under: Mobile Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile And Video Are Helping People Shop

October 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Is Your Business Mobile Ready And Using Video?

The below article by Todd Pollak, Industry Director, Retail, Google, shows how much people are now using their mobile phones for more than speaking with people and texting. Not only are more people using their mobile phones to search the internet, but by 2013, mobile phone usage is set to grow and outsell PC’s and laptops. For more information on this, click here.

Today, shopping is no longer limited to the mall – it happens at home, waiting in line, or at the doctor’s office. If you’re armed with a smartphone, every moment is now a shopping opportunity. As retailers gear up for Christmas, we took to the digital Main Street to find out how consumer shopping patterns have changed. Focusing on apparel shopping, we analyzed consumer shopping behavior from the point of sale backward, and surveyed apparel shoppers to understand shopping trends.

We found that not only is online research playing an integral role than in both online and in-store purchases, consumers are increasingly shopping on their mobile devices and using online video to inform purchase decisions. In fact, 4 in 10 shoppers visited a store online or in-person as a direct result of watching a video online. Here are a few highlights from the report:

Mobile devices bring the mall to you
Mobile shopping is not a sporadic activity limited to weekend trips to the mall. It’s constant and pervasive. More than 1 in 5 apparel consumers are using their tablets or mobile devices on a daily basis for shopping. People are shopping on their mobile devices throughout all parts of the day – and not just while on-the-go. More than 69% of consumers shopped on their phone or tablet while at home, 31% while in a store, 28% while waiting in line, and 27% while at work.

People are using their mobile devices as shopping assistants by informing purchase decisions and helping them locate the best deal. Of people that shop on their mobile device, 56% compare prices and look for promotions, 42% read reviews, 38% search inventory, 16% scan bar code while in store, and 13% contact the retailer.

Video is the virtual fitting room
Aspects such as fit and quality – easily apparent in person – become harder to grasp when shopping online. Video has now filled the role as the virtual fitting room, enabling shoppers to hear personal opinions and reviews, and see the product in motion. In fact, video has become so influential that 4 in 10 shoppers visited a store online or in-person as a direct result of watching a video. Today, nearly 1 in 3 shoppers use YouTube to shop for apparel.So it’s no surprise that video ads top traditional media in encouraging purchases. Thirty-four percent of apparel shoppers are more likely to purchase after viewing an online video ad, versus 16% after watching an ad on TV.

Millennials (aged 18-34) are twice as likely than other age groups to rely on a video to decide which company to purchase from, and are regularly turning to YouTube for shopping advice. YouTube vloggers posting their latest shopping finds aren’t just sharing their recommendations with close friends, they’re sharing with an audience of thousands of subscribers and millions of views – MacBarbie07, a popular YouTube partner, has more than 100M views of her styling tips. And this fall we’re seeing even more shopping reviews on YouTube – there are nearly 600,000 shopping “haul” videos on YouTube, more than 35,000 of which were uploaded within the last month alone.

Digital shoppers are valuable customers
People who shop on their mobile devices and research with video tend to not only spend more on average purchases, but do so more frequently. We found that 1 in 4 mobile researchers purchased apparel more than 6 times in the past 6 months (versus 16% of non-mobile researchers). And 28% of video researchers spent more than $ 500 on apparel in the past 6 months, while only 2% of non-video researchers did.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. In the next 5 years we’ll see a bigger change to shopping than we’ve seen in the past 50.Download the full report for more insight into this year’s shopping trends. Visit Think with Google to learn how you can leverage these digital trends for your marketing strategy this year.

Posted by Todd Pollak, Industry Director, Retail, Google

Google Mobile Ads Blog

Filed Under: Mobile Tagged With: , , ,

Part 4 – Mobile Website Optimisation: 10 Tips to Make Mobile Conversions Easier

July 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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This is the last part (1 of 4) of the Mobile Website Optimisation series by Shane Cassells, from Google’s Conversion Team.

The previous three posts covered are:

Part 1: Mobile Website Optimisation : Content Consideration

Part 2: Mobile Website Optimisation : White Space

Part 3: Mobile Website Optimisation : Designing Buttons

<h3>Mobile Website Optimisation : Increase Conversion Rate</h3>

In Summary: Making it easy to convert on a mobile device is key to maximising conversion rate. Mobile conversions must play to the strengths of mobile devices and simply replicating the desktop experience is often not enough.

As in previous posts in this series, I invite readers to think about the way the mobile user experience is different from desktop. On desktop, many conversion funnels require visitors to jump through a series of hoops (often forms) before the visitor can become a customer. While this is often an unsatisfactory experience for a person with a mouse and a keyboard, mobile visitors are even less likely to put up with this in order to convert.

Mobile devices are increasingly touchscreen and the majority of smartphones have only a virtual keyboard. Mobile users also don’t have the speed of multi-finger typing and many will enter data solely with relatively large unwieldy thumbs. While there are vehicles for data-entry specific to mobile which can really help, like voice entry and text completion, these methods are rarely useful when a visitor is using uncommon language such as when they are entering a postal address or email address.

So, how do we help mobile users complete a conversion or even partially complete? By partially completing a conversion I mean allowing them to perform an action that they can complete conveniently through another medium. Here are some ways that can help make mobile conversions easier:

Have a Single Customer Experience Across all Platforms

The means by which visitors can interact with your site are varied. Mobile users will be using small screens and their thumbs; tablet users will be using medium size screens and their fingers; and desktop users will be using medium to large screens and a mouse and keyboard. However, it should be possible for a visitor to begin the conversion process on one platform and complete it on any of the others. This is what we mean by a single customer experience. For example, with amazon.co.uk a visitor can login to their account on a desktop and start adding things to their shopping cart. If they need to leave their desktop, they can simply login to their account on their mobile device and complete the transactions while they’re on the move. And this functionality is not limited to ecommerce websites. On autotrader.co.uk a visitor can add a car they are interest in to their garage on their desktop and then open their garage on mobile or tablet and find the same car there as they travel to see it.

On Amazon.co.uk, it is possible to begin a conversion on one device and complete it on another

Allow Visitors to Save Searches

The ability to save searches can be particularly useful for travel or local website owners but really it is suited to any website where a user is likely to search for the same things repeatedly. In the case of travel, it is not unusual for visitors to have favourite destinations or even for them to re-visit a site multiple times before completing a purchase. Or a take-away restaurant is likely visited time and again by users who have a favourite meal. Allowing visitors to save their searches makes the journey to their regular purchases that little bit easier. If the visitor doesn’t have an account, make it easy for them to save searches by just adding an email address or use cookies to remember the last search they completed.

Have Clear Calls To Action

This one stands to reason everywhere but it is still a barrier to conversion on many sites. Often the website owner has provided too many conversion options or not clearly enough labeled to the visitor where they are expected to go next. Avoid using multiple conversion options and use button colour and size to clearly indicate to a visitor what you want them to do next.

On Mothercare.com, the call-to-action is clear and easy to find

Allow Visitors to Save Baskets

For website owners with a basket for their visitors to fill prior to checking-out, it is a good idea if those visitors can save their baskets for their return or even for them to access the basket again from another platform. This will also encourage cross-platform purchases. Easy account login is imperative for this to work. Have an account login button on every page and keep login simple. If a visitor doesn’t have an account and is not making an immediate purchase, entering their name and email address should be sufficient for them to save their basket and access it again elsewehere.

Keep Forms Short

The best way to ensure that conversions are easy is to make sure that all forms are only as long as absolutely necessary. Get your conversions in before asking irrelevant marketing or cross-sales questions. By keeping forms short you can make conversion on a mobile device much easier indeed.

Use Top-Aligned Labels

When a mobile phone user taps on a form field, very often the browser zooms in to that field. Mobile devices are also long but narrow when vertically orientated. Thus, having form field labels to the left as is common on desktop is less feasible. By implementing field descriptions above the field it is easier for a visitor to see where they are and it allows more space for form fields.

Booking.com uses top-aligned labels in their checkout

Use HTML5 for Form Fields

By using HTML5 in form fields, it is possible to help users to complete those fields more efficiently. For example, a field for telephone number will be filled using the number keypad. Find a simple introduction to HTML5 in plain English here.

Use Check Boxes, Lists & Scroll Menus

Data entry needs to be kept to a minimum when a user has only their finger or thumb and a virtual keyboard to help them. By using check boxes, lists and scroll menus to make data entry easier, you will be helping the visitor to proceed through the conversion process. However, it is important not to give a visitor too many options in these lists or they may be less decisive.

Implement Click-to-Call

Mobile users are much more likely to make a phone call than a desktop user. If your business converts over a telephone line, make sure that all references to phone numbers on your website are tagged for click-to-call and where possible make those links into buttons.

RAC.co.uk have implemented click-to-call buttons for their breakdown service

Use Geo-Technology for Offline Conversions

A key difference between mobile and desktop users is that mobile users are using a device with location based technology. Where a conversion can take place offline, it is advisable to use this technology to help a visitor find their way to your store. In such cases it can be useful for there to be a stock checking functionality on the page and a button which will link to directions, preferably with a map, to the nearest store with the product(s) in stock. If you wish to track purchases which began on a phone, consider allowing visitors to reserve products in advance and attributing a unique tracking code to each reservation. Or to encourage quick offline sales, you might also consider having a discount code for mobile shoppers who come to the shop and convert quickly.

So, in summary, 10 ways to make conversion completions easy from a mobile device include:

  • Have a Single Customer Experience across Channels
  • Allow Saved Searches
  • Have Clear Calls to Action
  • Allow Saved Baskets
  • Keep Forms Short
  • Use Top Aligned Labels
  • Use HTML5 in Form Fields
  • Use Check Boxes, Lists & Scroll Menus
  • Implement Click-To-Call
  • Use Geo-Technology for Offline Conversions

Mobile Website Testing Tip:

When you are building your mobile site, test it on different devices to make sure it looks well on different sized screens. Check out this tool to replicate phones from different operating systems on your desktop.

In my next post, I will be looking at best practices for Search & Refinement on mobile websites. If you have a comment, please post it.

Posted by Shane Cassells, Google Conversion Team

Conversion Room

Filed Under: Mobile Website Optimisation Tagged With: , , , ,

Part 3: Mobile Website Optimisation – 7 Considerations When Designing Buttons on Mobile Websites

July 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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This is the third article in the series by Shane Cassells, Google Conversion Team, on Mobile Website Optimisation. In this post, Shane discusses the considerations that need to be taken when designing buttons for mobile websites.

In short, he concludes that buttons on mobile sites should be:

  • Big
  • Isolated
  • Reachable
  • Padded
  • Obvious
  • Prioritised
  • Descriptive

This is the third post in a series on optimising mobile websites for conversions. The previous two posts covered Content Prioritisation and White Space

In Summary: Buttons rule on mobile devices. The rule of thumb means that big, well spaced buttons with clear calls to action will likely result in more conversions.

Before looking at how buttons can make the mobile user experience better we must first understand the way mobile users navigate. Think about the way you hold your phone. More often than not it’s in just one hand and because your fingers are gripping the phone from behind, you are left only with your thumb for navigation of the screen. The thumb is far less precise than a mouse pointer.

As you can see from this image, fingers are behind the phone leaving the thumb to do all the work.

The Mobile Rule of Thumb: If it cannot be done with the thumb, it cannot be done.

The hyperlink is a poor user experience on a touchscreen mobile device because it is very hard to use with an imprecise instrument like the human thumb. If that’s not all, mobile devices are often used by people on the move, so hitting a small point on the screen is just getting harder and harder. The best way to alleviate these issues is to build your links into big buttons which allow for greater levels of inaccuracy.

Here are are a few things to consider when building button links:

Buttons Should be Big

In a recent study of iPad users, Jakob Nielsen, the father of human computer interaction studies, recommends that buttons be at least 1cm x 1cm in diameter. That’s 28px assuming the standard web resolution of 72dpi. There’s a lot of debate around this area.

Apple is recommending 44×44 at a minimum for buttons in apps.

A very interesting introduction to designing for different screen sizes on Android can be found here.

This is something you really need to test when building your site. Without a mouse or even a stylus, buttons need to be big. Put simply, you should build buttons for thumbs. And err towards large thumbs. There is also the issue of light. Many mobile screens perform poorly in daylight or bright light environments – big buttons make it easier to perform tasks while visibility is low.

Buttons Should be Isolated

How many times have you tried to click a button on a mobile device only to find that you have inadvertently clicked something else? It can be a really painful experience and is also a sure-fire way of making a user give up in frustration and go somewhere else. One way to avoid accidental clicks is to ensure that buttons have a little space between them. Call-to-action buttons especially should be isolated. Where possible, leave a little white space around buttons.

Buttons Should be Reachable

The placement of your buttons is also important. Just as we need to consider big thumbs for button size, we need to think about what is comfortable for thumbs when placing buttons. The standard navigation button is across the whole page on mobile sites so it isn’t really an issue but many mobile sites have call-to-action buttons which are shorter and sit on one side of the screen or the other. If possible, these buttons should be made longer and centred more. Not only does that make them larger but it’s easier for both left and right handed people to reach the buttons with their thumb. If you must choose a side of the screen, contrary to the right side placement often found on desktop, it is actually more comfortable for a right-handed thumb (the majority of users) to click a button on the left side of the screen.

Kiddicare.com found button placement on the left side of the screen was easier for users than the right

Smaller Buttons Should be Padded

Padding refers to making clickable an area larger than the button itself. This can be especially useful for check boxes or buttons that need to be smaller so as not to draw attention away from the main call-to action. The trick is to make the area immediately around the button clickable as well. In the case of check boxes, it is important to leave sufficient space between boxes and then to make the text next to the box clickable too.

Buttons Should Look Like Buttons

This might seem like common sense but it is not unusual to find links on mobile sites which behave like buttons but do not look like them. Whether it is a link that looks the same as the text around it or a button that looks like a heading, the user needs some form of visual cue to help them understand where to click. Make buttons look three dimensional and they are more likely to invite clicks. It is also important that your site clearly indicates to a user which button they have clicked. Some sites do this really well, but others are a little patchy. Touching any part of a button should result in a visual signal for the user.


In the example above, the Filter link behaves like a button but looks like the rest of the text, so some users will miss that.

Buttons Should be Prioritised

In much the same way as we do with desktop sites, buttons on mobile devices need to be prioritised. Visual cues like size and colour will help users to identify where they need to click. If we are making all buttons big to allow for thumbs, then colour becomes even more important. Try to have a different coloured button for the main call to action. Other important links should still be buttons – just not as obvious

Buttons Should Use Descriptive Text

This is not just a convention of mobile but it is still very important. The text we use on buttons will set the expectations of the users clicking on them. It is important that the text be clear and that it conforms to an action the user is taking. Button text should complete the statement “I would like to…” and begin with a verb. It should also consider the point the user is at in their journey through the site. ‘Buy Now’ buttons on the homepage are generally inappropriate. “Shop Now” is often a better call to action so early in the visit. There is never a time when ‘Click Here’ or other such terms are ideal because they set no expectations for the user.

Why use buttons? Imagine the difficulty of picking the right link in the example above.

So does this mean we can never use hyperlinks? Of course you can. But you should use them minimally and don’t put lots of them into the same space. As a rule, try to have no more than one link per band of text. For example, In the point above about making buttons big enough, I have spread the points with links across multiple lines to make it easier for touchscreen users to tap them on the mobile version of this blog.

Of course when it comes to a mobile site which is trying to convert visitors into customers, try not to have much text.

In summary, buttons on mobile sites should be:

  • Big
  • Isolated
  • Reachable
  • Padded
  • Obvious
  • Prioritised
  • Descriptive

Buttons that have been well thought out and follow the guidelines above should help increase conversions on your mobile website.

Mobile Website Testing Tip: When you are building your mobile site, physically test it while you are in motion to best replicate the real-world user experience.

The next post will be looking at how to make conversions easier to complete on a mobile website. If you have feedback, please leave a comment.

Posted by Shane Cassells, Google Conversion Team

Conversion Room

Filed Under: Mobile Website Optimisation Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Google+ Platform Goes Mobile

July 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Google’s Product Manager,  Francis Ma describes that the Google+ platform is being launched on mobile devices.

Since unveiling Google+ to the world a year ago, the number of mobile users on Google+ has grown rapidly. In fact, there are now more people that use Google+ from a mobile device than from a desktop computer. We have always believed in the importance of mobile for our users, and today, we are announcing an offering for mobile developers — the Google+ platform for mobile, in early developer preview.

This platform includes mobile web optimized social plugins and Google+ SDK for iOS and Android (coming soon). With these new SDKs, you can integrate Google+ identity, sharing, and history into your mobile apps to create more engaging social experiences and connect with more users.

Check out the mobile platform documentation to learn more about integrating Google+ into your app!

We are just getting started and would love to hear your ideas and suggestions. Share your thoughts and follow the conversation on Google+.

Posted by Francis Ma, Product Manager, Google+


Google+ Developers Blog

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New Local Search Ads in Google Maps for Mobile

July 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Google Redesign Their Ad Formats For Google Maps For Mobile

The following post by Jay Akkad, Google Product Manager, Mobile Ads, describes the changes and redesign for Google’s ad formats for Google Maps for mobile.

People use their mobile devices to discover and engage with the world around them. Searching for local information is one of the most common activities on mobile – in the US, said they had done so, and nearly every surveyed country reported numbers over 80%. With Google Maps, they make informed decisions about places to see, shops to visit, meals to eat, and more.

To enable advertisers to better connect with potential customers via mobile search, we have redesigned our local ad formats for Google Maps for Mobile.  These have produced measurable results – in initial tests, these redesigned formats increased click-through-rates by 100%. This visual redesign will be rolling out today to the newer versions of Android phones.  

The updated formats feature several key improvements:

  • Important calls to action like “get directions” and “click to call” are now more prominent in the ad and clickable in more places.
  • A new hyperlocal marker shows the user how close they are to an advertiser’s business location
  • Clicking on the ad now takes the user to an advertiser’s website from within the app, making it simple to browse the site without losing context or access to maps app navigation.

 


 


Above: Current view of local ads in Google Maps for Mobile


Below:  Launching today, new feature improvements in local ads in Google Maps for Mobile

Ads in Google Maps for Mobile are one of many ways advertisers are delivering relevant local answers to people’s questions on mobile.  Likewise, a recent campaign from T-Mobile shows how search ads, combined with location extensions, enabled them to reach users close to their store locations across mobile search and maps.

T-Mobile understood that they needed to adjust their goals and tactics to cater to mobile user behavior.  On the difference in user behavior between desktop and mobile campaigns, Kari Nicholas, Media Director of T-Mobile USA explained, “Consumers searching on mobile devices tend to be further down the purchase funnel and have a more informed opinion about what they want, which presents an opportunity for us to influence their decision regarding where to buy while they’re on the go. That’s why we felt it was essential to provide a way for them to easily find our retail locations.” T-Mobile’s approach of using mobile location extensions drove over 160,000 click-throughs and a click-through-rate of 13%. To read more, download the full case study, here.

T-Mobile’s mobile search ads on Google.com and Google Maps for Mobile contain locally relevant information like a user’s distance from their closest location, and the ability to call and get directions to their closest store.


Mobile technology is enabling people to connect with businesses in new ways via smartphones and tablets. People use search and click to businesses’ websites, but they are also clicking to make phone calls, find directions to walk into local stores, and more. To take advantage of these new local search ads on Google Maps for Mobile, make sure you’ve done the following:

  • Target the relevant campaigns to mobile devices
  • Enable ads to show to search partners
  • Finally, havelocation extensions enabled within AdWords to take advantage of all these new features – so be sure to enable them if you haven’t already!


We’re looking forward to further understanding mobile usage trends and helping businesses better connect with their customers on the go.

Posted by Jay Akkad, Product Manager, Mobile Ads


Google Mobile Ads Blog

Filed Under: Google Tagged With: , , , , ,

Mobile Mondays: Going Mobile – Why FindTheBest went mobile

April 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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For our second post in the Mobile Mondays series, we’ve invited Grace Nasri of FindtheBest to share her company’s experience in going mobile.  Read last week’s post to learn about setting mobile goals.

Mobile is rising at a rate much faster than any other technology to date. Last year at Google’s Think Mobile Event, Kleiner Perkins’ Mary Meeker said the pace and force of mobile growth was unlike anything seen previously and Google’s Dennis Woodside predicted, “mobile will create the largest technology market ever. This market will dwarf the PC and all the PC industry has done.”

Seeing this global trend toward mobile, realizing that large segments of potential consumers only have access to mobile devices, and knowing that about 60% of time spent on smartphones is spent engaging in new activities—meaning potentially new customers— we at FindTheBest decided to launch a mobile-optimized version of our site.

FindTheBest is a data-driven comparison engine, and we launched our
mobile site in January after realizing there was a large segment of
potential customers we weren’t able to effectively reach. Before
launching the mobile site, mobile visitors were 12% more likely to
bounce and viewed 27% less pages than desktop visitors.

FindTheBest has gone mobile, and has been rewarded with a 3.5x increase in mobile revenue.

However, designing a mobile site doesn’t come without challenges and we had to consider three main issues:

  1. While traditional desktops offer a lot of real estate, mobile devices are more limited in terms of space.
  2. Desktops and laptops have faster Internet connections than mobile devices.
  3. Mobile devices are primarily touch-based, which requires an entirely different user interface.
How FindTheBest went mobile

We hired a mobile expert to design our mobile site. Several decisions needed to be factored in to guarantee the best user experience, as users who visit mobile sites that don’t offer a great UX often leave a site and go to a competitor site. Since we offer a diverse amount of information presented in a range of ways on the traditional site, we had to limit what it would include in the mobile version. We took into consideration questions like, “What are the most relevant filters that need to be included?” and narrowed the data fields on each comparison’s search results page to only the top three most important ones. Similarly, we made design considerations to ensure users could access the information they needed within three taps and that the pages loaded quickly over 3G networks.

After developing and designing the mobile site, we were able to take some of our findings and apply it to the main site.

The Results: Increased customers and ad revenue for FindTheBest and its partners

Currently, 25% of our customers are accessing the site through mobile devices. While traffic to FindTheBest is rising by about 15-20% month-over-month, the percentage of mobile users accessing FindTheBest is rising by 25%.

Between January 2011 and January 2012, the total number of visits to FindTheBest has grown by 3X, while the number of visits from mobile alone has grown 7X. The week after launching the mobile version, visits from mobile devices increased 28% (as compared to 19% for non-mobile visits). Our user engagement has also significantly increased as page views per mobile visit increased by more than 15%–which reaffirmed the benefit of optimizing for mobile.

The mobile site has also translated into more ad revenue for us. After launching the mobile site, our ad revenue from mobile devices increased 3.5X. The benefits of having a mobile-optimized site have also carried over to our publisher partners, which currently include TechCrunch, VentureBeat and Android Authority.

What’s Next?

We constantly analyze user behavior and continue to optimize the mobile site accordingly. We’re currently researching ways to include responsive design technologies into the site, so that the mobile and desktop code bases can be merged into one. Maintaining multiple code bases is time consuming, but we believe this is the future and will be worth the investment.

Posted by Grace Nasri, Managing Editor at FindTheBest


Inside AdSense

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The Mobile Playbook: Key takeaways

April 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Yesterday we launched www.themobileplaybook.com, our new resource we hope will help business leaders understand how to strategically approach the mobile space in 2012 and beyond.  

Today we thought we’d cut to the chase and summarize the action items we recommend in hopes this will jumpstart conversations you may be having internally about what to do in the mobile space. While we highly encourage you to pick up your tablet (or smartphone or laptop) and review the The Mobile Playbook in full, we wanted to boil down the content to the following straightforward recommendations:

  1. Define your value proposition by determining what your consumer wants to do with your business in mobile. Benchmark against others in your industry for ideas.
  2. Build a mobile website. Once you have a mobile website, check the stats and optimize based on consumer usage.
  3. Build an app for a subset of your audience after your mobile site strategy is in place. Don’t forget to promote your app.
  4. Assign a Mobile Champion in your company and empower them with a cross-functional task force.
  5. Set up a meeting with your agencies about what’s working and what’s not for your brand on mobile and tablets.
  6. Search for your brand in mobile, as a consumer would. Take 5 minutes and do this today. What’s working?  What’s not?
  7. Separate mobile-specific search campaigns from desktop search campaigns so you can test, measure and develop messaging specific for mobile.
  8. Run rich media HTML5 ads to extend your branding message to reach the mobile audience.
  9. Assign everyone in your marketing org the action item of reviewing their programs through a mobile lens.
  10. Check out your tablet consumer’s experience with your brand. Take 5 minutes today and search for your brand on a tablet as a consumer would. What’s working? What’s not?  Maximize the tablet environment with rich media creative.


Consumers have already embraced mobile but many brands are still playing catch-up.  We encourage businesses to have a conversation internally about the current status of each of these items and create an action plan.  Start by asking the the 5 key questions posed in The Mobile Playbook at www.themobileplaybook.com.  We hope you’ll visit it from your tablet today.

Posted by: Johanna Werther, Sr. PMM Mobile Ads


Google Mobile Ads Blog

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Announcing The Mobile Playbook

April 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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(cross-posted on the Google Mobile Ads Blog)

We’ve had conversations with hundreds of business leaders about mobile over the past year and two clear themes emerged from these discussions. Today, companies understand that they need to invest in mobile to engage with their customers on this platform. The problem is, most don’t know where to start. To help address this issue, we launched a new resource: The Mobile Playbook. In this interactive guide, we pose 5 crucial questions all executives should be asking to win with mobile:

  • How does mobile change our value proposition?
  • How does mobile impact our digital destinations?
  • Is our organization adapting to mobile?
  • How should our marketing adapt to mobile?
  • How can we connect with our tablet audience?

Visit www.themobileplaybook.com from your tablet, PC or smartphone today. If you can, visit it from your tablet. Because The Mobile Playbook site is built with HTML5, we had the flexibility to customize the experience for different types of screens. We designed it for tablets first, then scaled the content up for the PC and streamlined it for smartphones. This way, we were able to ensure that readers will have an enjoyable browsing experience, no matter what context they’re in. We hope this resource will help you have productive conversations with your teams and agencies and ultimately help you adapt to the mobile consumer who is waiting to engage with you.

Visit www.themobileplaybook.com from your tablet today.

Mobile represents a sociological shift with how users relate with both the digital and physical world. The companies that understand that all businesses are becoming mobile businesses will be primed to succeed today and in the years to come.

Posted by: Jason Spero, Head of Global Mobile Sales and Strategy


Google Retail Blog

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Mark your calendar for a Hangout On Air with mobile thought leaders introducing The Mobile Playbook on April 25th 3pm EDT

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Over the past year we’ve talked to hundreds of CMOs, agency executives and other marketing decision makers about mobile and we’ve seen a shift in the conversation: businesses and agencies are no longer asking “Why mobile?” With half of all Americans now owning a smartphone, the necessity for brands to be involved in the mobile space is clear. Today, we are increasingly hearing questions from executives related to the “How?” of investing in mobile. That’s why we are launching a new resource designed to offer our perspective on how to strategically approach mobile called “The Mobile Playbook”. On April 25th we will be hosting a live streamed discussion with an incredible panel of mobile thought leaders talking about how to strategically approach mobile including:

  • Joao Machado – Director of Mobile, OMD
  • Michelle Ogle – Digital Marketing and Affiliate Strategy Manager, Starwood Hotels and Resorts
  • Joshua Palau – VP of Digital Sales and Marketing, Comcast
  • Amit Shah – Director of Online, Mobile and Social Media, 1-800Flowers.com

Tune in to the Think with Google
Google+ page on Wednesday April 25th at 3pm EDT/ 12pm PDT to learn how
mobile can help businesses and agencies win the moments that matter,
make better decisions, and go bigger, faster. These panelists have all
been early movers in the mobile space and we’ll be discussing their
perspective on the 5 key questions we feature in The Mobile Playbook
that every business executive should be asking today in order to win
with mobile. We hope you’ll be there. If you have a question for the
panel, leave your questions with #playbookpanel as a comment on our
hangout announcement post the Think with Google Google+ page.

To view the Hangout on Air, visit the Think with Google
Google+ page at 3pm EDT on April 25th, look for the “Hangout on Air”
post within the stream, and click “Play” to tune in. Don’t forget to be
signed into Google+!


 
On April 25, look for the Hangout on Air post like the image above on the Think with Google +page and click to tune-in!

Posted by: Jason Spero, Head of Global Mobile Sales and Strategy


AdWords Agency Blog

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