Has Mobile Search Finally Arrived? - Great Expectations, Growing Market
(Page 2 of 4 )
If you're searching the Internet from your desktop, you could well be looking for anything, and you're a lot more likely to accept that your search engine of choice will return hundreds of results. But if you've done any searching from a mobile device, you know it's a lot more purpose-driven. You're searching for results that pertain to something you want right now, and you want to see not hundreds of possibilities, but a few highly relevant ones. You might be looking to buy, or you might be looking just for information. Either way, because your need is more immediate, search engines and search advertisers must be that much more on the ball when trying to reach you.
So what are mobile searchers looking for these days? Give it a little thought, and the answers aren't surprising: information about weather and directions, movie times and tickets, restaurants, music downloads, games for mobile devices, and ring tones. In short, it's mostly the kinds of things you'd expect people who are out and about to search for - everything from information that will help them get from point A to point B, to spur of the moment ideas for entertainment. If you advertise a product or service that fits into these categories, mobile search is going to start to matter a lot more for you in the future, if it doesn't already.
Still not convinced? A recent publication from MediaPost talked about the experiences of an unnamed North American carrier with mobile search. All of the numbers cited below were derived four months after the carrier had deployed WAP-based mobile search on its top 20 handsets.
- The carrier was running more than half a million searches per month.
- After moving its search box to its main page, the carrier saw nearly half again as many unique users and nearly doubled its revenue.
- Sixty percent of the search queries were unique, reflecting the so-called "long tail" of search.
- More than 11 percent of these searches have been ending in sales, with an average purchase coming to $2.55 and rising.
- The average monthly increase in revenue, per user, was more than $1.10.
- Users are apparently getting comfortable with the keypad interface; the longest query entered so far came to 45 characters!
So carriers are making money in this market. How can advertisers make money? The key is to keep the needs of this unusual audience in mind when you make your pitch. If you're not convinced that the money you can earn from reaching this consumer segment is worth the trouble, however, keep reading.
Next: Benefits by the Numbers >>
More Website Marketing Articles
More By Terri Wells
/ 3 
