Commentary

Local Search Leads To Uptick In Clicks On Phone Numbers In Mobile Ads

SmartPhone-blackberryHigh mobile adoption rates among consumers and advertisers point to an increase in data from in-app call tracking for phone numbers in ads. Insight released Monday by Telmetrics, which provides advertising call measurement tools, suggests that local search trends will continue in 2012.

The findings suggest that consumers will continue to adopt apps and use them as their first resource for planning and purchases -- more than mobile browsers. It's easier to track the impact of in-app activity on call volumes and sales, including social apps like Facebook and Yelp.

Global smartphone shipments exceeded 460 million units in 2011, and will reach 1.3 billion units in 2016, according to Parks Associates. Smartphones are not the only mobile device attracting consumers. Worldwide, 56 million media tablets -- excluding e-book readers -- were sold in 2011, and sales will top 280 million units in 2016, making tablets a major computing and Internet media platform.

In fact, tablets will overtake PCs as the top Internet traffic driver by platform in 2016, when U.S. household penetration will exceed 67%, Parks Associates analysts estimate.

The insights from Telmetrics suggest that the wealth of data will point advertisers and marketers to a mobile first strategy. The combination of low advertising budgets and the tracking capabilities of mobile will mean a market shift of companies implementing a digital strategy that begins with mobile and then extends to other platforms that can supply similar metrics.

Telmetrics President Bill Dinan said search is shifting from PC- to mobile-based computing, partly from results gained in mobile campaigns. Search continues to drive mobile growth because consumers can get quick answers on their portable device. It's all about immediacy through direct connections, he said.

Dinan named a few common mistakes that marketers can make when it comes to mobile search and click-to-call:

Burying the phone number in the ad.  Make sure the phone number for the business is available without a secondary click. If not, consumers will move on to the next ad.

Not having a mobile-optimized Web presence.  Marketers must account for smaller screens, the need for instant gratification, and not having actionable content. They must focus content on clear, actionable data, such as phone number, address, hours of operation and links to directions on map. This facilitates immediacy for consumers and measurability for marketers.

1 comment about "Local Search Leads To Uptick In Clicks On Phone Numbers In Mobile Ads ".
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  1. Greg Palmer from Trilibis Mobile, January 12, 2012 at 12:20 p.m.

    I'm not sure I follow how the findings of this study "suggest that consumers will continue to adopt apps"..."more than mobile web". It seems to me that a growth in mobile search is quite unrelated to a growth in apps, and alternatively would lend itself to more mobile web use. Lastly, the final point in this article appears to contradict the app conclusion as well.

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