Mobile Traffic Reaches 50%. Does it Matter?

“The very best marketing comes from observing consumer behavior and inserting your message into their behavior.”

Recently I reviewed the Google analytics for 22 YMCA web sites to identify consumer traffic trends for 2014.  Research from eMarketer indicates that consumers continue to move their web access device of choice to mobile (smartphones and tablets).  “Combining online and mobile devices, however, eMarketer expects US adults to spend 5 hours 46 minutes with digital media daily this year, increasing digital’s lead over television to well over 1 hour per day.  That increase is almost exclusively attributable to mobile.”

I wanted to see the impact, if any, on the traffic to YMCA websites. Many businesses are now reporting that more than 50% of their site traffic is coming from mobile devices.  It makes sense, smartphones have outsold computers since the 4th quarter of 2011.  

These analytics covered 2.1 million web sessions from January 1st to November 23rd, 2014.  

We Are Going Mobile

• During the first six months of 2014, mobile traffic represented 46.2% of all traffic to these YMCA websites.
• From July 1st to November 23rd, mobile traffic represented 49.4% of all traffic, an increase of 7%.  Clearly consumers are increasing their use of mobile devices to access YMCA websites.
• Seven of the 22 web sites already generate more than 50% of their traffic from mobile devices.
• Based on current trends, it appears that mobile traffic will account for more than 50% of all YMCA traffic by the end of the first quarter of 2015.

Does It Matter?

What does this change in traffic mean to the “average” YMCA, if anything? This analysis includes a cross section of YMCA sites: 14 traditional web sites and 8 responsive design (mobile friendly) websites.

Mobile traffic for responsive design websites increasingly represents a larger portion of total site traffic.  Mobile traffic in responsive design sites is 46.7% of all traffic versus 45.8% of non-responsive sites. When consumers have a more engaging experience, they will visit more often and stay longer.

This may be a small difference, but the real difference comes from looking at the variances in bounce rates.

	Bounce Rates
January - June	Traditional	Responsive	Variance
Smartphones	53.40%	46.70%	14%
Tablets	44.70%	37.90%	18%
July - November 23rd	Traditional	Responsive
Smartphones	54.40%	47.68%	14%
Tablets	44.44%	39.57%	12%

Clearly the bounce rates are lower for responsive design sites. Responsive (mobile friendly) design leads visitors more easily to the content they are seeking.  

Your website is your digital storefront and for many member prospects it is their first impression of your organization.  Upgrading your website to responsive design (or at least offering a mobile site) is no longer an option. Consumer behavior now dictates it.

Turning Mirrors Into Windows

comScore reported in June that 60 percent of all online traffic now comes from mobile devices.

That is a 50 percent increase from the previous year.

Over the previous four weeks I have reviewed approximately 60 web sites for clients and prospective clients and none (zero) have a mobile friendly web site.  So I asked them what their plans were to make their websites mobile friendly for their clients and their sales prospects.  Here is a fairly typical response...

"Thanks so much for getting in touch.  We did redesign our website a few years back and are currently happy with it.  There are areas for improvement, but it isn't our priority this year or next year."

Ian Hartten is found of reminding me that we have "elected to join the fastest changing industry in history".  At times I admit that it is difficult to keep pace with all the changes.  But as digital marketers, it is our burden to keep pace.  And "the very best marketing comes from observing consumer behavior and inserting your message into their behavior".

Everyone I spoke to believed people were using mobile devices to access the web, but all were shocked at the accelerated pace at which this phenomenon had occurred.  Their decision to not have a mobile friendly website was not a conscious decision. It was a "sin of omission".  They simply did not realize how fast this change in consumer behavior had come about.

Mobile web traffic was measured at 20 minutes per day in 2010. By 2013 it rivals the amount of traffic generated by desktop devices, almost a full two hours per day more than in 2010.

This represents the fastest adoption of a media device in history. 

They didn't know because we hadn't told them.  A large part of working in the "fastest changing industry in history" is sharing knowledge.  Education.  Its all part of the job.

Be sure and share what you learn with others.  

"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."  Sydney J. Harris

Facebook And The Malling of America

With the ongoing changes to Facebook, (Facebook Throttles Back Organic Reach...) I had a flashback to "The Malling of America".  In 1985 Charles Kuralt was quoted as saying "Twenty-five years ago, they weren’t here. Today they’re everywhere. What used to be farms or woods or country crossroads have become malls."

I had a front row seat to the "malling of America".  At the time I was working for Hickory Farms. Malls were falling over themselves to get Hickory Farms to open a retail store in their mall.  At the apex, we had 600 full time stores.  But as the developers filled their shopping centers, the power shifted. They still wanted national retail chains, only now they wanted them on their terms.  Rents escalated. Store design criteria changed - "We think your store should look like..." "Perhaps we can find room for you on the other side of the mall.  In the corridor leading to the petting zoo..."

And they could get away with it because they owned the real estate.  We were merely renters.

It occurred to me recently that this is the same struggle we have today with Facebook. "Come build you business with us! Everyone is welcome" said Facebook. 

But over the last 12 months, Facebook has changed its strategy.  In an effort to boost revenue, they started throttling back the number of followers who could see your postings. It used to be that your posts were shown to everyone who choose to follow you. Now if you post a message, only about 16% of your followers have a chance to see it.  Your options are to post the same message later and hope different viewers see it or you can boost your post by paying for additional feeds to your followers.

Now they are saying that News Feeds can longer look like or contain any elements of an advertisement.  "This is why we offer paid ads."

So we are back in the mall. Anytime you don't own the real estate, you are at the mercy of the landlord.  

While Facebook can still be a part of your marketing strategy (and there are a myriad of reasons to include it - reach, relatively low CPC and CPM, incredible targeting) I caution against allowing it to become your sole marketing program.

I still meet with business owners who are investing heavily in their Facebook presence while ignoring their own web site.  

Buyer (or lessee) beware.  

Interesting story came out after I posted this...

Forrester is advising marketers not to use Facebook if they want to build social relationships with their customers. 

"The internet is about to do to TV what it has already done to newspapers and radio."

According to an article in the Business Insider, "The death knell for the primacy of TV advertising has been ringing for some time, but we now know when to arrange the funeral: 2016."

Even though I am a diehard digital marketer, TV will not die in 2016.  The prediction says that marketers will spend more money on digital than TV starting in 2016, but much like the calls for the "death of radio" when TV came along, I think that TV will continue to be a very effective medium for reaching and influencing a large segment of the population long after this revenue transformation occurs.

Consumers switched their dominant media preference from TV to digital in the fourth quarter of 2013.  Now the evidence indicates that advertisers will follow suit.  Agreed.

But TV isn't going anywhere (unless the broadcast industry kills it).  According to the article - It's worth pointing out that this evidence doesn't point toward the death of TV networks and broadcasters (they sell a lot of digital ads too), but that marketers are increasingly pivoting their spend to focus far less around the 30-second digital spot. So it's the end of TV's dominance, rather than the end of TV.

In a lot of ways digital spending will follow the same path as TV.  For years one of the problems with TV marketing has been the decline in ratings among the broadcasters. Viewers simply have more choices (channels) to watch than they did 20 years ago.  The ratings decline did not happen over night.  There was no new "channel" that interrupted consumer's behavior.  It was the death by a thousand paper cuts.  Here is a chart showing the ratings of the highest rated show each season for the previous 50 years.  Do you see the trend?

Ironically, digital marketers are experiencing a similar problem. The proliferation of the shear number web sites and social media sites makes the "ratings" or audience penetration of a single site smaller every year.  Where do we put this new found money in a rapidly expanding universe and still see a return on investment for our clients?  This helps explain the rapidly rising interest in programmatic buying.  Chase the audience, not the web site.  But click fraud will help quell this trend until we find a way to deal with it.

I'll stop here and address this issue later.  For now, TV is still going to work with for a lot of advertisers.  Not as well as it may have 20 years ago, but what does?

US Hispanic Mobile Buyers More Inclined to Buy, Research on Device

eMarketer reports "US Hispanic mobile buyers also are more inclined to use their devices to research products with online product reviews as their most valued resource. While 53% of Hispanic mobile buyers looked for online product reviews on their smartphones and tablets, just 44% of non-Hispanics did the same." 

For the savvy marketer, this simply reminds us that the "very best marketing comes from observing consumer behavior and inserting your message into their behavior".

Digital marketing has evolved to the point that we are hunting consumers, rather than simply waiting for them to find us. Everyday, it becomes more difficult to simply launch a web site and employ SEO tactics and see site traffic and sales rise.  Part of your marketing plan has to include digital hunting.  

One of the reasons programmatic buying is so scary for publishers is that it undermines the value buyers see in their web site.  For years we have sold our web sites as an "audience of 'fill in the blank' and the best way to reach this audience is to buy our web site.

Programmatic buying starts with the buyer "observing consumer behavior" determining the audience they want to "insert their message into their behavior".  They are buying specific consumer behaviors, not web sites.  If your web site contains these consumers, great.  If not, we are chasing behavior not web sites.  Pass.  

And in today's market, programmatic buying yields a lower CPM to the average publisher than selling the web site brand.

We have to change with the times and the technology.  As Will Rogers reminds us, “Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.”   

Merry Christmas

Below is a link to one of my all time favorite advertisers and the history of their Christmas ads.  Storytelling at its finest.

Enjoy.

John Lewis' Christmas ads 2007 to 2013: from humble roots to national event