According to research from Gartner, digital marketing has gone mainstream with over 98% of marketers in the 2015-2016 CMO spend survey stating that digital marketing is merging into larger marketing operations.[1] Online marketing has become the necessity and not the option. Furthermore, the barometers of success have extended beyond the page view, like, or share to true performance-led measures of success related to engagement, conversion, and revenue that align with the customer journey.
With over 73% of CMOs now accountable for profit and loss, it is imperative that CMOs stay up to date with online macro trends and movements – in the case of this article, the huge shift to mobile - while understanding the nuances of reaching prospects and engaging customers in their micro-moments.
The Mobile Macro Movement
Mobile ad spending is set to top $100 billion in 2016, accounting for more than 50 percent of all digital ads for the first time. Furthermore, according to Pew research an estimated one in five people in the United States state that their mobile phones are already their primary means of accessing the internet. Consumers are now using their mobile devices to make more and more purchases online. According to Google, thirty-four percent of online retail purchases now happen on mobile devices.
Mobile has significantly changed the way the consumers behave online. Customers are using their devices to address their needs whenever and wherever they might be, as the once linear customer journey is now a scattered plot of hundreds of new moments and touch-points. Mobile strategies that once focused on device now have to take into account the fact that mobile has become a lifestyle.
Mobile commerce is increasing 300 times faster than ecommerce and is expected to grow by 42 percent by the end of 2016. This creates a huge opportunity for marketers as not all those moments and touch-points are created equal. Some are more valuable than others, and those, when consumers are receptive, are the ones for brands to win.
An Interview with Google: Mobile Marketing Micro-Moments
Last week I talked with Matt Lawson, Director of Performance Ads Marketing at Google for an exclusive interview for the Huffington Post on how best to tailor online marketing strategies to make the most of mobile.
Below are some extracts from our conversation:
Mobile Opportunity - Growth
How do you see the smartest marketers making good on the mobile marketing opportunity and using mobile to drive growth for their business?
Matt Lawson: There are a multitude of new opportunities for brands created by mobile. However, we see the leaders recognizing that some of these moments matter more than others. As many of us do when we want to know something or go somewhere, we turn to our mobile device, and those moments, rich with intent and when consumers are receptive to brands, are the real battleground for marketers. At Google, we call these micro-moments, the moments when consumers turn to their mobile with the need to know, go, do or buy something. And, marketers identifying which micro-moments are the most important for their brands and building strategies to win them, are the ones leading and driving new growth.
Mobile Challenge - Measurement
Mobile presents new opportunities for brands to deliver value for customers, but there are also probably many challenges as well. Can you share what some the biggest challenges you see and how the leaders are overcoming them?
Matt Lawson: One of the biggest challenges brought on by mobile is measurement. Mobile broke traditional measurement, and the legacy models and processes that we’re all hanging onto are definitely holding us back. The shift from desktop to mobile means that marketers need to redefine what metrics measure success. This is a shift in mindset, and it starts at the very beginning by prioritizing KPIs that measure business goals, rather than media goals, and that reflect today’s consumer behavior.
We know consumers are multi-device, multi-channel, and that they engage with mobile at all points in their journey, not just at the moment of purchase. That scenario is harder to measure than the more linear journey from a desktop-first era. So, ultimately, there’s a need to evolve our metrics and to get comfortable with new tools and estimates that can help us measure the true impact of mobile.
The Mobile Customer Journey - Fragmentation
You mentioned the new consumer journey which is often multi-device and multi-channel, and this obviously challenges most measurement systems & frameworks. How do you advise marketers act on those gaps?
Matt Lawson: Yes, today’s consumer journey is constantly evolving, and that means that there are going to be some gaps in measurement — which is okay! Gaps don’t prohibit us from getting a holistic picture of our customer or our marketing. And, we see this as leaders are taking action to address those gaps, using new technology and new estimates to make better decisions every day. We actually just learned in a research study that this is one of the key attributes of elite marketers — Of brands that exceeded business goals in 2015, they were 71% more likely to use estimates in their measurement strategies. That’s a huge difference in mindset and action from the mainstream.
We’ve seen this play out for many of our customers, as well. Take Nissan UK as an example. Nissan saw that the journey for their auto shoppers was changing. Last year they learned that 90% of new car buyers conduct research online before visiting their local dealership. This shift in behavior revealed a gap not only in their measurement, but also a gap in insight about what their customers researched before their visit. To bridge this gap, they started using AdWords Store Visits to tie search to dealer visits and sales. Yes, this data helped them recognize a better ROI on mobile, but more importantly they were able to use that data to create a better experience online and in the dealerships to meet their shoppers’ needs.
You can read more about Nissan and how they utilized Google Adwords to drive store visits in the video here.
Maximizing Mobile Marketing ROI - Removing Legacy Metrics and Models
What final advice do you have for marketers who want to maximize their value from mobile and position them for greater growth in the future?
Matt Lawson: As an industry, we all have the opportunity to ask and act on the bigger, macro questions that mobile presents to our brands. By answering these bigger questions through experimentation, we can identify pockets of new growth and better understand how to engage with our customers in more meaningful ways. There are tons of new opportunities for marketers to deliver value in the moments that matter, and we’ve just started to scratch the surface on what’s possible. All marketers have questions like — How much can mobile impact my business? How else can we drive value for our customers in this moment?, and so on. And organizations that invest in creating the entrepreneurial space to experiment and answer these questions are leading.
Going back to the beginning, I’d challenge all marketers to find that starting place to evolve on this measurement journey. For many, it begins with a rebalancing of business goals and KPIs. The great thing is though, when we see customers start on this journey, there’s typically a domino effect of new opportunities and greater insights that appear.
About Matt Lawson:
Matt Lawson is the Global Director of Ads Marketing at Google, where he is responsible for thought leadership, revenue acceleration, and product marketing for a broad portfolio of media and technology solutions. His teams help to drive awareness and adoption of mission-critical products for Google, including AdWords, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics. Prior to Google, Mr. Lawson was the Vice-President of Marketing at Marin Software, a leading digital marketing platform provider, and held a variety of executive positions at Coremetrics, one of the early innovators in web analytics. Mr. Lawson is a regular speaker at industry events such as ANA and Ad:Week, and regular contributor on Search Engine Land and ThinkwithGoogle.com.