Smart people use Smart phones
If you have a smart phone you normally love it. If you don’t you will be broken down into 2 camps; firstly – you are waiting to buy a smart phone or, Secondly – you really can’t see the point as all that you do is phone people with it. OK…fair enough. But did you know that in a recent survey by Google it was established that 93% of smart phone users use their phone within the home and…wait for it…39% claimed to use it in the bathroom (so what’s wrong with a good magazine, I hear you ask). 20% said they would give up cable or satellite TV before their phone. The survey also found that 81 percent of users “browse the internet” and 77 percent of smartphone owners use mobile search. Google said that 72 percent of smartphone owners use their devices “while consuming other media,” a one-third while they’re watching TV.
Google found that there’s heavy smartphone use during the shopping process:
- 79 percent use their smartphones to help with shopping
- 70 percent use their smartphones while in a store
- 74 percent of smartphone shoppers wind up making a purchase
Google found that smartphones impact purchases made through other channels (e.g., online). Among smartphone shoppers, Google said that 76 percent have bought in-store, 59 percent online and 35 on their phones. Of the last group (mobile purchasers) 27 percent of purchases were through mobile websites and 22 percent through apps. Finally Google found that smartphone owners were aware of, engaged with and were responsive to advertising. Just over 70 percent conducted searches on their smartphones after exposure to an ad (traditional, online, mobile). The Google survey also found that 82 percent of users noticed mobile ads. Most impressively Google found that half of those seeing mobile ads took some form of action:
- 42 percent clicked on the ad
- 27 percent contacted the business
- 35 percent went to a related website
- 49 percent made a purchase
Okay – we’ve got it – smart phone users love their phones. However…how does this affect us. Well, it depends who us is but I can tell you that it affects us rather radically. We manage many online shops and pay a fortune in Adwords every day in an effort to attract custom and until I read this survey portable media such as Smart phones etc did not get the attention it deserved, as we didn’t believe that smart phone users would actually buy via an ad seen on their phone…What a blunder – We’ve since rectified the problem but it is still too early to judge it’s effect on sales. Stay tuned.