With marketers increasingly concerned about how ? not if ? they should invest in mobile, Google has released the Mobile Playbook to address some of the most frequent questions marketers have about mobile.

The interactive guide focuses on the significant shift brought on by mobile in how users engage with both the physical and digital worlds and includes many examples of how mobile pioneers are addressing this. The site for the interactive guide, www.themobileplaybook.com, was designed with a tablet-first strategy using HTML5 technology.

?The Mobile Playbook is designed to spur more businesses to think ?mobile-first? and know how to strategically invest in mobile,? said Johanna Werther, mobile ads marketing at Google, Mountain View, CA.

?Clients we talk to are no longer asking us why they should care about mobile,? she said. ?They've seen compelling data proving their customers are spending increasing amounts of time in mobile and therefore they know that they need to start investing in mobile.

?But many are stuck on the ?how.? We wanted to put together an interactive, quick yet comprehensive resource that could serve as a roadmap to how to engage with the mobile consumer.?

The mobile experience
Marketers need to be thinking deeply about what consumers want from mobile and what a specific brand can do to bring value to that experience, according to Google. The playbook points to examples of how brands are bringing value to the mobile experience, including Chase's banking app that lets customers deposit checks via snapshot and Walgreens, which completes 25 percent of all prescription refills via mobile.

Data showing the growing role that local mobile customers play for businesses is highlighted, such as that 95 percent of smartphone users having searched for local information, 61 percent having called a business after searching, 59 percent having visited a business in person and 90 percent having acted within 24 hours of the search.

One of the brands Google says are doing a good job embracing mobile for local purposes is Priceline Negotiator, with 58 percent of its app users having booked their room with 20 miles and 35 percent within one mile.

The report also delves into how merchants can address pricing checking apps by improving the in-store experience.

For marketers that do not have a mobile optimized Web site, this should be their top priority, according to Google. The reason why brands should focus their efforts here include that 57 percent of users says they will not recommend a business with a poorly-designed mobile site and 40 percent have turned to a competitor's site after a bad mobile experience.

For those who have a mobile site, it is important to continue to optimize the site based on what is learned from user interactions.

Assigning responsibility
Increasingly, brands are designing their digital strategies with a mobile-first approach. ESPN, Kayak.com are two examples of brands that have taken this approach.

Mobile applications should also be an important part of a brand's mobile strategy.

One of the brands that is doing apps right, according to Google, is Walmart, which has an app that enables users to add shopping list items by speaking, typing or bar code scanning.

Additionally, Domino's mobile app lets customers order more than 1.8 billion pizza combinations from anywhere and follow their order's progress.

One of the challenges brands find in mobile is determining who owns responsibility for mobile. Google encourages companies to appoint a mobile champion who can put together a cross-functional m0bile task force.

Brands also need to think about how their marketing can adapt to mobile.

For example, mobile search queries have grown five times in the past two year and companies often find mobile searches are incremental to their desktop search volume, pointing to the need for a separate mobile search strategy.

Effective mobile search campaigns include Hair Club for Men, which reports a 12 percent conversion rate from mobile ads compared with 9 percent for desktop

Tablets strategy
The guide also addresses tablets and the significant opportunities here because of the way consumers are embracing these devices for shopping.

Google recommends marketers understand how tablet users are engaging with their Web site before designing sites specifically for tablets. Some brands have already done this, such as Kraft, whose Fork & Spoon iPad app is designed for both moms and kids to use during meal preparations, features recipes and videos, as well as more in-depth content and games.

?The type of content in The Mobile Playbook lends itself very well to the ?lean back? content consumption mode people are in when using tablets: you can swipe through the content and interact by playing videos and expanding image galleries that illustrate our points,? Ms. Werther said. ?Also, it's consistent with our message in The Mobile Playbook for us to walk the talk and optimize our content across platforms and devices.?