2017 Mobile Marketing Statistics, Trends, & Strategy

2017
MOBILE MARKETING STATISTICS
Trends, Predictions, & Stats for a Killer Mobile Marketing Strategy

MOBILE SEO & SEARCH (AND
GENERAL GOOGLE STATS)
Mobile and Search Engine Optimization are so intertwined now,
the term “Mobile SEO” has become somewhat redundant.

Let’s take a quick look at Google’s algorithm updates for mobile
search:
April, 2015: Google unleashed “Mobilegeddon”, an update to their search algorithm to rank
mobile-friendly websites higher.
May, 2016: A 2nd iteration of Google’s first mobile-friendly update, in an effort to continue
improving the mobile user-experience.
January, 2017: Google Intrusive Interstitials Mobile Penalty (Pop-up ads)
?, 2017: Google’s Mobile First Index. Google announced late 2016 their plans to index and
rank pages based on the mobile version of a web page, as opposed to the desktop version.
When is Mobile First Index launching?
Who knows… in March, 2017 Google’s Gary Illyes said “The team behind the mobile-first
index wants it to launch this year”.

Ranking #1 in Google has a 23.5% mobile
clickthrough rate, down from 28.6% in 2015 –
Advanced Web Ranking (2017)
It seems as though Google’s introduction of 4 ads in search results has impacted mobile quite a
bit. More so than desktop, by a lot.
Mobile CTR for the #1 Position on desktop in 2017 is 29.2%. #1 Position in 2015 was 27.0%. So,
a substantial drop in 2 years time, but not nearly as big as mobile dropping from 28.6% to a
23.5% click through rate.
Learn more about click through rates and how to improve them here.

48% start mobile research from search
engines – Smart Insights (2017)
What’s interesting is the fact that
so many mobile users DON’T start
their research using search
engines. 33% go directly to the
site they want, while 26% being in
an app.
……says the search engine
marketer.

Google drives 94% of mobile search traffic, followed
by Yahoo at 4% and Bing at 1% –NetMarketShare
(2016)
Google dominates when it comes to mobile search. And obviously, they’re the
top dog when it comes to desktop search as well. But only with a mere 81%
search engine market share.

Google holds a 95% share in mobile paid
search ad clicks – Merkle (2016)
Merkle’s Digital Marketing Report from 2016 highlights just how much Google
has been pushing for revenue growth in the mobile sector.
According to the report, “This influx of mobile ad volume is driving average
cost per click (CPC) lower and cannibalizing organic search visits, but it is
ultimately propelling Google search spending to a six-quarter high.”.

MOBILE SEARCH: LOCAL &
LOCATION-TARGETED ADS
Mobile searches with local intent are on the rise, and advertisers
are putting more money into things like location-targeted ads to
capitalize on the trend.

Local searches are growing 50% faster than mobile
searches overall – Search Engine Land (2016)
According to Google, a third of mobile searches are local. And that local
searches on mobile devices are growing 50% faster than mobile searches
as a whole.
This is likely true. And likely the reason Google has begun putting more
emphasis on local map ads in search, especially important for local search
advertisers.

Location-targeted mobile ad spend will grow from
$12.4 billion in 2016 to $32.4 billion in 2021 –
BIA/Kelsey (2017)
Location-based ads include those targeting
users in a given location, and/or targeting
users searching with local intent (i.e.
“plumber dallas tx“).
It’s difficult to see search engine results by
location since Google removed this feature.
But there are still multiple solutions out there
to view SERPs by geo-target location.
Mobile is one of the fastest growing areas for
geo-targeted media. Advertisers are seeing
great return with location-targeted ads on
mobile devices. In the years to come, half of
all ads may well be location-targeted.

MOBILE PAGE LOAD SPEED,
AMPS, & AFFECT ON TRAFFIC
Page Load Speed is essentially the amount of time it takes for a web page to fully
load. And in mobile, pages will typically take even longer to load.
I actually just found this nifty little tool, while writing this. I don’t know where else
to put it, so I’m sticking it ry-chee-ruh! Assuming you trust Google’s statistics,
check out the effect mobile speed can have on your ad revenue.

Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) make
up 7% of traffic to US publishers – Adobe Analytics
(2017)
Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (or AMPs), introduced in October 2015, are meant to deliver
lightning-fast web browsing. By serving pages through their own servers, Google is able to load
content from search results with amazing speed.
For those not familiar, AMP pages are something you have to create yourself. Basically, an alternate
version of your web pages that conform to the AMP Project specifications.
What’s the return?
Well, for the most part AMPs have shown promise – the amount of AMPs on the web have
grown 405%, and the Washington Post seems to have increased return visitors by 23% thanks to
AMPs.
BUT, there’s always another side to the story. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Multiple publishers
said an AMP pageview currently generates around half as much revenue as a pageview on their full
mobile websites.”
So who knows. The Amp Project is still in its infancy, so only time will tell.

Avg. pageload speed on mobile sites is 22
seconds – Think With Google (2017)
According to Google, the average time it takes to fully load a landing page
on mobile is 22 seconds. Yikes! I’m actually happy to see Google was
using Webpagetest.org for their research. This is our go-to for site speed
analysis! I highly recommend.
It was years ago that Google told us page load speed was a search
ranking factor. And, more recently, Google confirmed that mobile page
load speed will be a mobile search ranking factor.
But regardless, don’t you want to show consumers what it is you’re
offering? Why, with the needless friction? Fix it!

53% of mobile pages are abandoned if longer
than 3 seconds to load – DoubleClick (2016)
I will admit to doing this. If I’m on my phone, and click on something in the search
results that I think is exactly what I’m looking for……. and there’s like, any
noticeable delay at all…. I immediately hit the back button and say “Nope.
Sorry”. I promise, I actually say that, out loud.

A 10s page load time has a 123% higher bounce
rate than a 1s page load time – Think With
Google (2017)
Bounce rate is the rate at which a
user first lands on a website and
leaves without visiting another
page. So if a user clicks on a web
page from the search results,
they’re far more likely to bounce,
if the page is taking far too long
to load.

MOBILE-FRIENDLY DESIGN
STATS
The mobile trend is no longer a trend, but rather a movement.
Whether your company is service-based, e-commerce, B2B, it
doesn’t matter. It’s imperative that your website is completely mobile-
friendly.
Don’t believe me? Just check the stats below.

Users are 5x more likely to leave a site that is not
mobile friendly – Google Small Business (2016)
And when I say “mobile-friendly”, I’m talking about a completely functional
responsive site design. Responsive, as opposed to a mobile version of a site that
delivers different URLs on mobile (i.e. m.flickr.com).
Mobile versions tend to have a far worse user experience than if the site were
responsive or if the site is designed solely for desktop.
You can get a good idea of how mobile-friendly your site is with Google’s tool here.
If you want to go one step beyond, then I suggest heading on over to Screenfly to
check your pages responsiveness on all devices and screen resolutions.

62% of B2B marketers & 51% of B2C marketers
have optimized their blogs for mobile in order to
improve SEO – Social Media Examiner (2016)
A completely responsive web design will allow the content on your blog, and the
rest of your site to adapt to all devices and screen resolutions (sizes). Responsive is
meant to improve functionality and readability of content on mobile, tablet, or
desktop.
And guess what? Mobile-friendly is an SEO ranking factor, which Google
first announced back in 2015.
In Social Media Examiner’s 2016 survey, 54% of marketers say their blog is
optimized for mobile. This is up from 50% in 2015, and 43% in 2014.

MOBILE USAGE, INTERNET, &
WEB TRAFFIC STATISTICS
At a global scale, smartphone usage is exploding. And not just in the
U.S. and North America. The massive shift to smartphones is
occurring in most markets worldwide.
What’s the Global Device of Choice?
Those running on the Android operating system. 86% of
smartphones sold worldwide are powered by Android,
vs 13% running on Apple’s iOS.

Over 8 in 10 internet users will use a smartphone
to access the web regularly in 2017 – eMarketer
(2017)
The amount of U.S. desktop/laptop only
internet users is dwindling — down from 25
million in 2015, to 18 million people in 2017.
And expected to be down to 11
million desktop-only users by 2021.
Meanwhile, Mobile-only internet users have
grown 28% in the last two years alone, at 41
million U.S. in 2017.

77% of Americans own a smart phone, up from
35% in 2011 – Pew Research (2017)
This is a cool statistic. But honestly,
I’m surprised smart phones haven’t
eclipsed 90% in America yet.
Even hobos have smartphones.
This baby has a smart phone! And
you know what? He’s about to
close a huge deal!

More than half of all web traffic comes from
mobile or tablet – Stat Counter (2016)
In October, 2016, global internet usage finally
became mobile, with mobile/tablet eclipsing
desktop 51.3% to 48.7%.
This is why one of the first things we look at with new
clients is how mobile-friendly the site truly is.
Make sure at the very least you’ve checked the
following:
 Mobile pageload speed
 Googlebot rendering
 User-Experience (UX) metrics in Google Analytics
 Clear calls to action on mobile
 Functionality on mobile
 Element sizing for different resolutions
 Content overlap

68% check their phone within 15 minutes of waking
up – Google Micro-Moments (2015)
That’s two-thirds of smartphone users — checking facebook news feeds,
seeing how many likes their Instagram photo got, scanning email, and
tweeting how their day is going — within 15 minutes of getting out of
bed.
30% even admit getting “anxious” when they don’t have their phone with
them.

US consumers spend 5 hrs a day on mobile
devices – Flurry Mobile (2016)
5 hours a day on mobile devices
— this is up 20% from 2015.
And most of this time is spent in
apps, as opposed to web
browsers.
Facebook and Facebook-owned
Instagram and WhatsApp
dominate the highest share
with 19% of those 5 hours

MOBILE SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE
(SOCIAL APP STATISTICS)
Millennials are goin nuts y’all!
Right?
Easy there. My fellow Millennials and I do indeed spend our fair share
of time Facebooking and Instagramming on our smartphones. BUT,
would you believe that Generation X is more addicted to social media
than us Millennials? Eat that Obama!
At any rate, it’s clear that social media and social networking usage
on mobile is big. And it’s still on the rise.

80% of social media time is spent on a mobile
device – comScore (2016)
Mobile dominates when it comes to
social media. And Facebook
dominates when it comes to social
media on mobile.
Top 10 Social Media Apps (March,
2017): From the data at SimilarWeb, I
took the top Google Play Apps based
on SimilarWeb’s Usage Ranking.

1.15 billion of Facebooks 1.23 billion daily active
users are mobile – Facebook (2017)
By tapping into this massive audience, marketers can
improve brand awareness, generate targeted leads, promote
a new product, and the list goes on.
The main advantage of Facebook advertising (aside from its
reach) is segmentation. You can segment your ad reach to
hit the perfect target audience.

82% of Twitter
users are accessing
from their mobile
device – Venture
Beat (2016)
And just for fun, here are
the Top 3 most popular
tweets of 2016!

M-COMMERCE (MOBILE
SHOPPING STATS)
If you sell stuff online, mobile e-commerce is important to you. I
don’t like the term “m-commerce“… no reason, I just think it
sounds dumb. Anyway, here are some mobile shopping statistics.
Enjoy!
And check out our guide on Ecommerce (and m-commerce) SEO
to learn more about increasing traffic and conversions to product
pages.

78% of consumers made a
purchase on their mobile
device in 2016 –The
Financial Brand (2017)
It’s taken a few years, but we’re now at the
point where most people are comfortable
buying online. And now that more
websites are mobile-friendly, and with app
development and usage on the rise, users
have decided they’re more than
comfortable shopping on their
smartphone.
36% purchased a physical product.
And 33% made a payment using a mobile
app, up from 16% from 2 years prior
(2014).

Mobile makes up 21% of online spending –
comScore (2017)
Data outlined in comScore’s M-Commerce
Report is from Q4, 2016, so super recent. And
from a marketing perspective, the data is even
more relevant, as this includes holiday
purchasing.
Of the $109.3 billion spent online in
Q4, $22.7 billion (21%) was on mobile. This is up
from a mere 4% in 2010. So going from that to
now 21%, it’s safe to say that at some point in
the near future, mobile will surpass desktop in
e-commerce purchases.

Shopping cart abandonment rate is 78% on
mobile (vs 63% on desktop) – Barilliance (2016)
While spending on mobile is increasing, shopping cart
abandonment is a great concern for mobile marketers.
That said, here’s a positive takeaway for mobile marketing.
According to the Barilliance report, “Retailers who retargeted
users who abandoned their cart with shopping cart
abandonment email saw conversions of 17.6% from these
emails”.
According to ventureburn.com, some of the friction points
causing mobile cart abandonment include the following:
 A long checkout process
 Poor mobile design
 Pageload speed
 Registration forms

MOBILE ADVERTISING (OVERALL
SPEND, FORECAST PROJECTIONS, &
AFFECT ON CONSUMERS)
This section includes more general stats about mobile advertising,
and numbers on mobile ad spend as a whole. You’ll find more
specific mobile ad stats sprinkled throughout this article – like stats
on Video ad spend, Native (In-App) ad spend, etc.

Worldwide, $143 billion will be spent on mobile ads in
2017 (twice that of 2015’s $71 billion) –Moinstall (2017)
A definite positive for mobile
advertisers, especially those who’ve
already been honing their mobile ad
targeting skills.
However, I still feel as though mobile
advertisers are behind this trend a bit.
For example, oftentimes in our paid
search for clients, we take over an
existing ad campaign account. And it
still boggles my mind that many don’t
even have bid adjustments set up,
mobile vs desktop.

U.S. mobile ad spend will grow from $33 billion in
2016 to $72 billion by 2021 – BIA/Kelsea (2017)
No doubt, the sheer volume of U.S. smartphone usage is
driving the increased spend in mobile. And smart digital
marketers are seeing great return by focusing more of their
efforts on mobile advertising.

$0.55 of every $1 spent on mobile
advertising is wasted – Forrester (2016)
Forrester’s study found that only 27% mobile ads resulted in a
positive response, and estimates that 55% of mobile ad spend is
wasted.
Uh oh…

70% of people dislike mobile ads – HubSpot
(2016)
The thing is, if a large percentage of your
target audience dislike your ads, you’re
doing it wrong. You’re throwing away
money, and you’re pissing people off,
likely hurting your brand, and you
probably don’t even realize it.
I stumbled across a great article by Vieo
Design, which details why people hate
ads. Highly recommend! Emily Winsauer
sums it up well with “People feel
overwhelmed, interrupted, and stalked by
bad digital ads, but they don’t really mind
the good ones.”

Mobile ad blocking has increased 90% year-
over-year – PageFair (2016)
Adblocking has gone mobile. And to great scale. According to PageFair’s
report, 2015 showed a 90% increase (YoY) in mobile ad blocking for web and
in-app advertisements.
Globally, 419 million smartphone users utilize ad blocking tools,
comprising 21% of the 1.9 billion smartphone users overall.

MOBILE VIDEO MARKETING &
VIDEO CONSUMPTION
Video advertising is all the rage. And video traffic on mobile
specifically, is projected to grow 50% every year through 2022. So
expect to hear more about mobile video marketing in the months
and years to come.

Video ad spend will see double-digit growth
every year through 2020 – eMarketer (2016)
Technically, this statistic isn’t
specific to mobile. But since
video is on the rise with
mobile, it’s more than
relevant.

And, according to Ericsson’s
Q3 2016 Mobility Report,
mobile video traffic will
see 50% growth every year
through 2022.

92% of consumers share mobile videos with
others – HubSpot (2016)
And if you can get creative, you can generate a huge reach
with your video. Like this clever video ad about mortgage
bailouts, with a lady dancing in the background inside of what
appears to be a static photo. This video ad from Lower My
Bills generated 3.4 million views as of this post.

YouTube videos on mobile have a greater reach than
TV, even during prime-time hours – Think With
Google (2016)
Caveat: The stat goes, “YouTube reaches more 18-49 year
olds during prime time than the top 10 network shows
combined.”
So take with a grain of salt. This statistic comes directly
from Google, and is definitely being used to kick’em while
they’re down — tv that is.
Caveat #2: Stat was introduced during YouTube’s annual
pitch to advertisers, known as Brandcast. Ben Popper of
The Verge writes “Those numbers are a bit vague. We
don’t know exactly how many people are watching, or
whether any individual channel comes close to matching
the reach of network TV programming.”
Regardless, we can all agree, YouTube has a shit-ton of
viewers.

MOBILE EMAIL STATISTICS
Email marketing has come a long way since Hotmail was introduced back in
1996, the first web-based email service. I think I still have a hotmail account
somewhere out there.
Mobile has altered the landscape for email marketing. Users prefer email
with a responsive design. Email is one area in mobile marketing where I’m
seeing a large marketing lag behind consumption growth.

56% of email is opened on mobile – Litmus
(2016)
This was April of 2016, where Litmus reported a record-
breaking 56% of email opened in mobile. This is an 8%
increase in mobile email opens YoY.

Emails with a responsive design get 24% more
clicks on mobile – YesMail (2015)
I was trying not to add a stat from
before 2016, but this is the most recent
data I could find. However, Yesmail’s
email marketing report uses data from
Q4 of 2015, so not terribly distant.
Yesmail’s mobile email report states
that “Brands that have fully embraced
responsive design see 24% more clicks
coming from mobile than those that
have not employed responsive design”.

But only 17% of marketers are using responsive
design in their emails – YesMail (2015)
Sounds to me like a good opportunity for email marketers. For
those interested, here’s an extensive guide on responsive
design for email.

APP USAGE & ADVERTISING, &
NATIVE (IN-APP) ADS
In-app ads are one of the fastest growing forms of mobile
advertising. More brands and agencies are noticing the disparity
between the time people are spending in apps versus the
allocation of ad spend in this medium.

900 billion hours were spent in apps
worldwide in 2016 – App Annie (2017)
This is 150 billion hours more than the previous year. And if
you’re thinking it’s all from gaming apps, think again.
App Annie’s report shows that non-gaming apps (i.e.
banking and shopping apps) contributed more to the
growth than gaming apps did.

86% of smartphone users time is spent in apps
(14% in browser) – eMarketer (2016)
When it comes to the % of
smartphone time spent in
apps, Americans
spend 86% in apps,
and 14% in web browsers.
And here’s a look at the top
5 most used iOS apps,
courtesy of Moment.

5 out of 10 apps are only used 10 times –
Adobe (2016)
And over 20% of the time an app is used only once.
Why?
Because it was “not useful”, as reported by Adobe, for all age groups as the
top reason for deleting an app. Adobe’s report says successful “apps must be
useful, usable, and best-in-class”.

Native (In-App) Ads will make up 63%
of mobile display advertising by 2020 –
IHS (2016)
This would make up $53.4 billion in advertising spend.
Native ads in mobile are like the sponsored ads you see in
your Facebook news feed. The Mobile Marketing
Association defines native ads as “a mobile advertising
method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention
by providing content in the context of the user’s
experience. Native ad formats match both the form and
function of the user experience in which it is placed.”
I’m reminded of this clip from Futurama (watch the 1st
minute of video to see the future of Native Advertising)

2017 Mobile Marketing Statistics, Trends, & Strategy

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2017 Mobile Marketing Statistics, Trends, & Strategy