Over 50% of people in the United States own a smartphone, and they are using mobile search throughout the day to find info, shop, and stay connected to friends and family. As a result, businesses are starting to make mobile a part of their business and marketing strategies – from building mobile optimized websites to creating mobile specific ads.
Google recently released the results of a study conducted in 2011 – the “Search Ads Pause Studies” – which suggested that an average of 89% of clicks on search ads are incremental. This means that desktop “traffic is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused, and therefore is missed.”
In 2013, they released a follow-up study on mobile search which showed that 88% of website visitors from mobile search ads “would not otherwise click on the business’s organic listing when ads are paused.” The test was conducted over a year, covering over 300 accounts from 12 key verticals. Research was focused on terms / phrases that had first page organic listings and adjusted for factors like seasonality.
Results from key verticals were consistent for incremental mobile ad clicks:
- 97% for local and classifieds
- 86% for retail
- 90% for technology
- 85% for travel
- 86% for media and entertainment
- 83% for healthcare
- 87% for finance
- 94% for education and government
- 86% for consumer packaged goods (CPG)
- 94% for business and industrial
- 86% for automotive
Below is an infographic from Google with more information from the study.
