• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 30, 2015

Alice zipped down the rabbit hole to Wonderland, emerging on the other side with a new perspective. Consumer behavior and the micro moments remind me of the classic tale. But these days, changes in consumer behavior are anything but magical. We can clearly see that the moments making up an individual's day continue to change the rules in search engine marketing and advertising. Follow Alice down the rabbit hole.

Similar to Alice in her new environment searching for answers, during these moments consumer expectations rise.
The successful brands of tomorrow will be the ones that can meet these demands -- not just precise ad targeting, but serving content and information to an individual at the exact moment they search. Brand marketers, and the advertising industry, can now define behavioral targeting as meeting the needs of individuals by serving them content and advertisements based on micro moments.

As this occurs, automation -- known as programmatic -- will continue to break down data silos and tie together the different types of media across the Web to serve content and advertisements to those during the micro moments. Google agrees, and you can see it in the mobile algorithm changes made in April. And it's a topic we will discuss at the June MediaPost Search Insider Summit at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina.

A recently published white paper from Google analyzes micro moments in consumer behavior -- not just any micro moment like spontaneous purchases at the end of a retail store checkout line, or the moment just before you hit the purchase button during an online purchase, which now account for 27% of all online transactions. These are need-to-know moments -- the moments requiring an individual to pick up their mobile device and search for answers as a reflex. Google calls these moments "game changers."

Indeed, rather than just the need to buy something at the last minute in a retail store checkout line, the act of searching for information at any micro moment has become a reflex. I do it, and you probably do too. In fact, among smartphone users, 91% look up information on their smartphone while in the middle of a task, according to Google research. Among leisure travelers using smartphones, 69% search for travel ideas during spare moments, such as when they stand in line. Nearly half of those travelers go on to book their choices through an entirely separate channel such as in a physical store.