Mobile Search finally hits the tipping point.

July 29, 2010
by Richard Gregory

After running some sizeable WAP and SMS campaigns with the like of MTV and Channel 4 10 years ago in a previous life, I became quite cynical about the mobile marketing space. Yet, every year we have heard [mostly the same people] proclaiming that “this year will be the year of mobile!”

Even Martin Sorrell of WPP is quoted as saying “Mobile is the most over-hyped medium in the short term and the most under-hyped medium in the long term”

Thing is, we’ve been crunching some number on mobile search…and it looks like it finally came true. What’s more, searches and spend on Google Adwords for Mobile look likely to overtake Microsoft Adcenter as soon as Q3. Now that starts to put things into perspective.

Today we’re launching the first of our quarterly reports on mobile search advertising, with some of the key highlights including:

· 33% growth in mobile search spend from Q1 to Q2 ‘10

· CPCs typically lower on mobile search vs. desktop search. Although this is not true of all sectors.

· CTRs typically higher on mobile search since paid search ads occupy a larger proportion of the mobile real-estate

For me, this data acts as a real catalyst to re-ignite mobile strategies that have previously been put on hold. With a significant proportion of mobile search traffic, growing at an impressive rate, it’s time to finalise those mobile sites and optimise your mobile search ads for the right user experience.

A quick look at mobile search results highlights lots of room for improvement, with a number of heavily commercial search terms show few ads on Google Mobile.

You can download a full copy of our report here: Q2 Mobile Search Report PDF

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