Commentary
Would You Believe 67% Of Marketers Can't Measure Mobile ROI?
- by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, November 30, 2016
Need more data to demonstrate the power of mobile?
Well, 69% percent of U.S. online adults now use mobile in-store -- mainly to look up prices, product information, promotions, or customer reviews -- according to fresh Forrester findings.
People also frequently use mobile devices when they are on the go, with 68% of U.S. online adults using them in their cars (big no-no!), and 69% when outdoors.
Even if only 29% of U.S. online adults purchase via mobile, mobile has become an essential touchpoint on the path to purchase, with 47% researching products via mobile.
Meanwhile, 32% percent of online adults admit to multitasking regularly on multiple devices, making mobile phones central in second-screen experiences when people are watching TV ads.
Yet, despite its obvious might, many marketers continue to treat mobile like a second-class channel.
“While consumers use mobile as a sixth sense to digitize the offline world, marketers still think of mobile as a subdigital channel,” Thomas Husson, a principal analyst at Forrester, notes in a new blog post.
Among other reasons, that may be because only 27% of marketers surveyed told Forrester the ROI of their mobile marketing campaigns was profitable.
Yet, the research points to its finding that 67% of marketers says they simply can’t measure mobile ROI!
Gavin O'Malley edits MediaPost's Mobile Marketing Daily and MoBlog column. Follow him: @mp_gavin. You can reach Gavin at gavin@mediapost.com.
Hi Gavin,
Great article. I'd love to add a personal perspective if you're interested.
David
Not surprising at all. No matter what they say to research pollsters, most branding advertisers can't even define what constitutes a "return" on invesrment, let alone can they isolate the impact, if any, of their ads on a platform by platform basis. There are too many interacting variables and, let's face it, much too little relevant data. So most media mix decisions---like whether to use mobile--- are still made the old fashioned and usually, arbitrary, way. As for direct response and retail store campaigns, one would hope that these advertisers have a better fix on sales results attained by media platform, however the finding that two-thirds of the respondents can't define their mobile ROI, if true, shows that we still have a long way to go before advertising decisions are made more "scientifically".