Marketers continue to struggle with measuring the performance of their mobile efforts because of a lack of clear objectives and defined performance indicators, according to a new report from Forrester.

The "Make the Most of Analytics to Meet Your Mobile Objectives" report found that 37 percent of marketers do not have defined mobile objectives. Half of marketers have neither defined key performance indicators nor an implemented mobile analytics solution.

?Marketers have to prioritize and quantify mobile objectives and turn them into specific tasks they want consumers to achieve on mobile,? said Thomas Husson, Paris-based vice president and principal analyst of the marketing and strategy client group at Forrester as well as author of the report.

?Investing in mobile analytics will help them optimize the user-experience and better measure their performance,? he said.

?The most surprising finding was that only 49 percent of marketers we surveyed told us they have implemented a mobile analytics solution.?

Some progress made
Progress has been made in mobile measurement with the recent introduction of new mobile Web and mobile application measurement guidelines from organizations such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Mobile Marketing Association.

However, marketers continue to struggle because the ecosystem is still fragmented and evolving.

Additionally, few marketers are tracking mobile users across multiple platforms, which is key for understanding the mobile customer.

According to Forrester's research, only 18 percent of marketers track mobile users across online and offline channels. An additional 35 percent track mobile users across online channels while 39 percent do not track mobile users across multiple channels.

Customer engagement
Other key findings include that 51 percent of marketers have defined key performance indicators to measure their progress. However, these are not necessarily aligned with their objectives.

Specifically, 55 percent say increasing customer engagement is a top three priority for their mobile consumer strategy, 37 percent say improving customer satisfaction is a top priority, 35 percent to generate direct sales from a phone, 29 percent to appear innovative, 28 percent to acquire new customers, 25 percent to drive traffic and sales from other channels, 24 percent to build loyalty, 24 percent to increase brand awareness, 18 percent to test and learn and 13 percent to reach particular consumer segments.

Only 49 percent have implemented a mobile analytics solution, according to the report.

In terms of the metrics used to measure mobile success, 73 percent use traffic, 50 percent volume of mobile interactions, 46 percent customer satisfaction with mobile services, 42 percent conversion rate, 36 percent revenue transacted via mobile, 33 percent leads generated, 32 percent brand awareness, 23 percent number of opted in customers and 18 percent average order value or transactions.

The most favored analytics solution is a Web analytics app such as Adobe or Webtrends, named by 65 percent of marketers for their mobile site and 38 percent for their mobile app. Next is an analytics module embedded with a development platform, named by 10 percent for a mobile site and 12 percent for a mobile app.

Other tools used include a homegrown analytics app, a BI or data visualization app and a specialty mobile analytics app.

Getting started
For marketers looking to get started in mobile analytics, Forrester recommends they measure existing mobile traffic, report table traffic separately and analyze behaviors for the top five devices, define exactly what they want to do and why and define the precise metrics to track for measuring progress.

Once marketers have mastered these basics, they can focus on customer lifecycle analysis, correlate lifetime value with acquisition costs, create engagement scenarios and address specific segments of customers, make the most of real-time analytics tools and leverage customer experience analytics tools.

?The report suggests marketers focus on customer life cycle analysis and create engagement scenarios and address specific segments of customers,? Mr. Husson said.

?For mobile-savvy marketers, they should also use mobile as a catalyst to start measuring cross-channel attribution,? he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York