• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, May 1, 2014

Consumer needs outpace the app and service requirements now available for mobile computing. So it's not surprising that a joint study between Kenshoo and Yahoo reveals that 19% of marketers believe their organizations are far behind consumer trends, and only 16.5% feel they are well ahead of consumer trends.

Although paid search can benefit from a dedicated approach to mobile, only 7% of marketers take a very different approach to developing keyword lists by device, 15% take a very different approach to writing ad copy by device, and 35% take a very different approach to bid strategies by device

The joint research paper is titled "The Mobile Opportunity Gap: An Analysis of Consumer Shopping Behavior and Multi-Device Advertiser Strategy." It highlights findings from a survey of 359 global search marketing professionals from both in-house marketing teams and agencies, and provides insight into the gaps between consumers' multi-screen shopping behaviors and mobile adoption in retail.

Nearly all paid-search marketers surveyed agreed that search ads make an impact, with a presence across devices. About 53% said there is some influence, and 46% agreed there is a strong correlation. Only 1% thought each device worked on its own without cross-device influence.

Still, 88% of smartphone users and 82% of tablet users admit to going back to their PC to continue the shopping process.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer continues to make good on her promise to improve the mobile focus for services from the Sunnyvale, Calif., company. At the Search Insider Summit this week, Leo Polanowski, VP of client services, told Summit attendees that although 94% of advertisers acknowledge the importance of mobile, only 4% take action. He views search as the first and most intuitive native experience. It's one screen among many that consumers now use to shop online.

At the Summit, we also heard Target SGM David Peterson tell attendees: "We see mobile as the future of retail." Google also provided 25 tips for improving mobile Web sites.

Consumers are still not comfortable making purchases on their phone. Although retailers allocated 34% of their paid-search dollars to mobile devices during the 2013 holiday shopping season, just 4% of revenue was attributed back to smartphones.

Interestingly, when marketers participating in the study were asked whether their respective companies plan to or already support the consumer mobile shopping expectations, some 37% said they plan to provide a more seamless experience with coupon redemption. Rounding out the top four responses were: provide exclusive offers or content to mobile visitors, 29%; increase privacy precautions to allow consumers to feel more secure, 28%; and offer a mobile application for smartphones and/or tablets, 24%.