Ad:tech panelists actively push mobile search
April 17, 2008
Yahoo searches for answers
SAN FRANCISCO – Now’s the time to experiment with mobile and local search, according to ad:tech San Francisco panelists yesterday at the tactical mobile and local search session.
The speakers all agreed that companies should get in before the waterfront is completely crowded and while the cost to running mobile efforts is inexpensive.
“Get out and try mobile and local, but spend in moderation,” said Zach Anderson, vice president of marketing at TicketCity. “Be sure and monitor how both mediums evolve. Find a good partner and take advantage of the free opportunities.”
Local search is pretty much comprised of Internet yellow pages such as yellowpages.com and search companies like Citysearch and Ask.com.
On the mobile side, however, there are a lot more players. Yahoo seems to be doing the most right now in terms of mobile search. It's safe to say that the online giant is trying to position itself as a mobile leader, at least that's the impression given to all.
But mobile search isn’t just opening a search engine and entering a query on the mobile phone anymore.
In fact, mobile search comes in different forms such as WAP search advertising, search engine marketing for informational purposes, mobile local, voice search such as 1-800-FREE-411, coupons and SMS marketing where a user sends a text asking for information back.
“The key is identifying what you are interested in,” Mr. Anderson said.
TicketCity sells tickets for events around the globe. Ticket city uses 1-800-FREE-411 for its advertising.
“We are always open to new avenues,” Mr. Anderson said. “W have a heavy investment in PPC and SEO and we are seeing higher ROI with Superpages than with search.”
With both mobile and local search, most people are past the research stage and are closer to the point of purchase.
Sean Cummings, the director of marketing for Ask.com, expects that as more people get on the mobile search band wagon, the auction model will become more expensive.
"Once you’ve got onto the search engine, your site structure makes a big difference,” Mr. Cummings said. “If you have local-specific content then be sure it is organized in a way that conveys a certain meaning to the search engine.
“Target the various parts of the purchase funnel,” he said. “Consumers search in category and brand terms. Also make sure you are properly listed in maps. Register with [the] Yellow Pages and have very specific and relevant information about yourself in there.”
There are great opportunities in local and mobile search, according to Ian White, CEO of Urban Mapping. He also believes the two go hand-in-hand. In fact, 40 percent of mobile search queries are local and 5 percent include a city and state.
To set up a tactical search campaign, create a WAP site first, said Erika Moersch, manager of paid search at Outrider.
“The experience must be specifically designed for the mobile users, so the site for mobile should have a decreased load time,” Ms. Moersch said. “Save all the large graphics for the Web.”
Ms. Moersch also urged the audience to choose the right keyword, which contrary to common belief, is different from typical search keywords.
She also recommended having the call to action in titles as a best practice.
“Some issues and roadblocks of mobile are that Flash and Java don’t work well on all mobile devices,” Ms. Moersch said. "Also, there is no platform standardization among the carriers and there is no domain and sub-domain standardization.”