Month: July 2016

Micro-moments mould modern marketing

Have you ever picked up your smartphone while you’re in a queue, shopping, commuting or watching TV to check a fact, buy something or find a fix on the fly? These micro-moments offer a new opportunity to engage and an important step towards longer term goals such as recruitment.

In the early part of 2015 Google identified a new consumer behaviour type, called micro-moments. These micro-moments predominantly take place on smartphones and more than likely will involve watching a video.  And it’s not just Google who believe this is happening; Jeffrey Hammond from Forrester says “consumer engagement is shifting toward micro- moments”, whilst digital analyst and futurist Brian Solis of Altimeter Group has written that CMOs need to invest in micro-moments.

Consumers expect brands to address their needs with real-time relevance. People don’t rely on long sit-down sessions at keyboards to make purchases anymore. We reach for our devices to make informed decisions faster then ever before. Although mobile is the catalyst for this change, this phenomenon has implications far beyond mobile; it affects the entire journey across screens, devices and channels.

People making career changes or seeking jobs are no different, with 90% of smartphone users having used their phone to make progress towards a long-term goal or a multi-step process while out and about.

Google has defined micro-moments as instants of high intent and engagement, many of which happen in spare moments, such as waiting in a queue, commuting, preoccupied with something else, with the journey later continuing on either on a mobile, PC or tablet. These are not just distractions but real opportunities to engage.

Google have effectively broken it down into four key areas:

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For 2016, employer brands that recognise and fully utilise the opportunity micro-moments present will get ahead of their competition in the war for talent.

Mobile is killing the desktop star
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Since the first iPhone was released in 2007, the advent of the age of mobile has been proclaimed. But 2016 is the year that finally holds true: for the first time more searches have been carried out on a mobile device than desktop. Why is this year’s declaration any different from any other year in the last decade? It’s down to Google.

 

Google has recently held its conference (a bit like Penna’s but no camping and not in Warwickshire) and mobile was at the centre of all of the announcements. The company effectively wants to change the Internet so it is more mobile-centric, and this means a lot of change.

You might have noticed it yourselves for example AMPs (Accelerated Mobile Pages) which are only available on your mobile:

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One massive development is that Google searches now trawl apps too; this means apps can be seen via Google search engine without having the app on your phone. All SEO professionals worth their salt should now be looking at a mobile-first approach for discovery as Google is now prioritising mobile-friendly sites and apps.  Not only this but push messages are available from browsers now not just on Androids but IOS as well on the Mac, with iPhones to follow soon.  Over 10 billion push notifications are sent every day in Chrome and it’s growing quickly; 38% of these were opened too!

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Other changes will be coming over the next few months, the most noticeable will be with Google Adwords advertising.

Despite now officially having entered the mobile era, we are still rather worryingly refusing to buy stuff on it; just 7% of purchases of online purchases were made from mobiles in the UK.  The fact of the matter is businesses are lazily stumbling into mobile despite the fact that the appetite to buy things via our mobiles is high. Whether it is a car or a holiday, whatever the value, if we can have good and reliable experience online we will buy it.  So the proverbial ball is in the court of the supplier.

In the context of an employer, mobile is important for potential applicants to consider working for them and for carrying out research. Once a candidate has made the decision to apply they will apply via desktop, mobile or tablet.  However, we don’t really need to make applying for jobs as easy as buying a £5 product on your mobile; the best candidates will spend time on their application and this will usually mean using a laptop or a PC at home.

Career research is about those mobile micro-moments, like commuting to work on a train (if you are lucky enough to get a signal). If it is a job you really want, would you apply for it on a bus on your way into work, or would you want to spend time on your application and tailor it accordingly for the job in question? And more importantly as an employer do we really want to be inundated with hundreds of applications that have just been banged out on a train without much thought?

In the war for talent getting one up on the competition is massively important, but just because candidates can’t apply for a job on a mobile does not automatically mean you are missing a trick.  If that’s the silver lining, the cloud is that if potential candidates can’t access information quickly via their phones you may lose their interest.

Similarly, when targeting students for courses, the majority of course applications are still made on desktops, but mobile is the key device used for researching what course or university to choose. Effectively desktops are used far less in the decision process but come into their own for a better user experience when applying through UCAS.

The importance of mobile is undeniable, but you need to invest time and money to understand where and when your target audience uses it and what for.

Jim Bloor

Google Adwords Reimagined For “The Mobile First World”

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Google is rebuilding Adwords from the ground upwards for what it calls the “mobile first world”.

The company is also looking at making it easier for marketers to bridge the digital and physical worlds. With location-related searches growing 50% faster then any other mobile searches, it’s clear that consumers are moving between online and offline experiences seamlessly.

Earlier this year Google Adwords removed right-hand side adverts on desktops to improve the search experience and make it consistent across all devices. This has led to their recent announcement to their biggest change to text adverts in 15 years.

Optimised for screen sizes of the most popular smartphones, new expanded text ads in AdWords provide more ad space so you can showcase more information about your business before the click. Here are the key changes:

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These upgrades help your ads work harder across screens, especially for the on-the-go mobile consumer that wants to know exactly what you offer before tapping into your website.

Based on early testing, some advertisers have reported increases in click-through rates of up to 20% compared to current text ads.

Display Adverts on GDN

Responsive ads for display adapt to the diverse content across the more than two million publisher sites and apps on the Google Display Network (GDN). They also unlock new native inventory so you can engage consumers with ads that match the look and feel of the content they’re browsing. Simply provide headlines, a description, an image and a URL, and Google will automatically design beautiful responsive ads.

Google is also extending the reach of GDN remarketing campaigns by giving you access to cross-exchange inventory, which includes more websites and apps around the world.

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Device bidding

Google Adwords will offer much more control on device-specific bidding. This lets you anchor your base keyword bid to the device most valuable to your business and then set bid adjustments for each of the other devices. You will also have a wider range to adjust bids, up to +900%.

Nearly one third of all mobile searches are related to location; people’s online and offline worlds are colliding. To help advertisers reach consumers searching for physical business locations, new local search ads across Google.com and Google Maps are being introduced. Advertisers using location extensions will be able to prominently showcase their business locations when consumers search for things like “universities” or “university open days.”

They’re also investing in more branded, customised experiences for businesses on Google Maps, geared towards helping you increase store visits. They are currently developing and experimenting with a variety of ad formats on Maps that make it easier for users to find businesses as they navigate the world around them. For example, Maps users may start to see promoted pins for nearby universities, employers or lunch spots along their driving route. Local business pages are also getting a brand new look.

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Attribution Modelling in Adwords

In May Google launched an update to AdWords which gives you the ability to update your attribution model. It’s an update that can help you go beyond last-click measurement – the default in AdWords – and understand your customer’s journey on a much deeper level. As of the beginning of June 2016, this change was rolled out to all AdWords accounts.

By going beyond last-click attribution for your Search ads in AdWords, you can understand your customer journey and make changes to improve your campaigns. Users take a while to make decisions; by changing your approach to attribution you can identify how your advertising affects people across all of their crucial, decision-making moments.

Jim Bloor

Source: This article is based on Inside Google Adwords