High 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.