Local Search Association VP of Strategy & Insights Greg Sterling's remarks during the Search and Information Industry Association's (SIINDA) "Making Transactions Happen" event in Munich.
2. Who Am I?
• Local Search Association (“Strategy & Insights”)
• Impact of digital media on offline/local
consumer behavior
• Digital advertising and marketing
• Twitter: @gsterling
3. Trends Overview
• Apps dominate: More time being spent “in apps” than PC
• Multi-channel media: Now in a complex, “multi-channel”
environment
• Blurring of online, offline: offline sales dominate but online,
offline blurring
• Mobile payments: Offline transactions increasingly
happening via mobile payments (apps)
• New uses of location and offline data: New data being
unlocked by offline mobile patterns
• Privacy: a challenging issue/concern for all
• Sales, publishers, merchants challenged: marketers, media
companies challenged
4. Mobile Still the Story
MOBILE DEVICE ADOPTION
Smartphones:
• 72% penetration in US
• 55% to 70% in EU5 markets
• 90% penetration by end of 2016 (US)
projected
Source: comScore, Nielsen 2014
(location evolving)
5. Android: Dominant Global OS
• Android on more than 3X devices vs. Microsoft
• Nearly as many Apple devices as Windows machines
Source: Gartner 2014
6. Traffic Comparison (Europe)
70% 21% + 9%
• UK: Mobile is 38% of traffic
• Spain: Mobile is 37% of traffic
Source: StatCounter, September 2014
8. Mobile vs. PC Time (US)
40% 60%*
• *Apps claim majority of digital media time: 52%
• Time with apps growing but not number of apps used
(roughly 27 apps used per month on average – but most
time spend with far fewer)
Source: comScore, Nielsen August 2014
9. Top Apps by Audience Reach (US)
• A few apps dominate usage
• In some developing markets
Facebook (and WhatsApp) “are the
internet”
• Global mobile ad revenues €14.6
Billion ($19.3 billion) in 2013 could
double in 2014
• 8 US companies control 80% of
worldwide mobile ad revenue
Source: comScore, June 2014; IAB, August 2014; eMarketer, July 2014, Xyo.net
10. ‘Unbundling’ (Fragmentation)
• Unbundling of 3,000+ headings (oppty to do it better)
• “Horizontal” usage consolidation among a few top sites/apps
• Lots of specialization and “point solutions” at the bottom
• Partly a competitive response to big players
11. Mobile Ad Revenue
FY 2013 revs:
• Total: $50.5B
• Mobile: $9B
(approx.)
• 18%
1H 2014 ad revs:
• Total: $4.9B
• Mobile: $3.02B
• 61%
1H 2014 ad revs:
• Total: $503M
• Mobile: $405M
• 80.5%
Source: company reports, Greg Sterling estimates
13. Europe’s ‘Mobile Search’ Market
Source: StatCounter, September 2014
Google controls 95% of
browser-based mobile
search in Europe,
slightly less in US
14. From ‘Search’ to ‘Discovery’
Foursquare Google Maps “Explore”
• Web search and search results less relevant to mobile users
• Context, location, time, history, social network data, offline behavior
enable “anticipatory search,” personalized recommendations (e.g.,
Google Now)
15. From ‘Search’ to ‘Assistant’
• From “search engine” to
“personal assistant”
• Driven by device/user
constraints, data available
• Google’s antitrust critics
accuse Google of “diverting”
traffic to Google vertical
results . . . But:
• Google trying to provide
“answers,” more value to
remain relevant in mobile-app
dominated environment
• Also trying to index “deep links” in
apps to encourage usage
16. Cross-Device Movement
Source: Google-IPSOS Q2 2013, n=1,600 US adults
• 90% of multi-device owners
use different screens
sequentially; 98% of activity
happens within a single day
• “Smartphones are the
backbone of daily media use
. . . devices used most
throughout the day ....”
• Makes attribution, reaching
audiences more challenging
17. New Attribution Tactics
• Smartphones are always
somewhere in time and space
• Reveal patterns, preferences
and behaviors of their owners
• Make possible new types of
metrics and online-to-offline
tracking
• All major internet companies
seeking to provide offline/local
conversion data to advertisers
18. Location Is the New Cookie
Segment groups of people based on their real-world
movement and shopping patterns:
“business travelers,” “auto intenders” “sports enthusiasts”
or “people who live in post code XYZ and watch Game of
Thrones”
• Audience identification/targeting
• Retargeting
• Targeting + geofencing (e.g., serving
ad with coupon to QSR regulars within
2 km of a Subway)
20. Blurring the Lines
E-commerce and app-based payments for offline
experiences and services
21. Future Channels, Platforms?
How will these new “channels”
and “platforms” affect digital
and location based marketing?
22. Big Brands Scrambling to React
• Fewer than 10% of
marketers/brands are executing
cross-channel campaigns
• In 2013 80% of Fortune 500 didn’t
have a mobile-optimized site
• As of Q2 2013 Just 6% of top 100
Fortune 500 companies have
sites that comply with Google's
mobile requirements
Source: e-consultancy-Oracle, 2014; iMomentus, 2013; Google 2013
23. Single-coded question
SMBs Uncertain
Do you believe mobile marketing is a ‘must have’ or a ‘nice to have’?
21%
57%
77% doubtful re value
of mobile marketing
22%
Must have A nice to have Don’t know
Base: SMB survey by Greg Sterling/Opus Research (2013), n=1,255 small business owners/decision makers
24. Not All SMBs Want to Grow
Single-coded question
Which of the following statements best describes your company’s appetite to
grow the business over the next few years?
8%
19%
38%
34%
1%
We are not looking to grow,
we're having trouble keeping
up with the demand as it is
We are content with our
current size
We would like to grow the
business a little
We would like to grow the
business significantly
Other
Base: SMB survey by Greg Sterling/Opus Research (2013), n=1,255 small business owners/decision makers
25. Growth vs. Status Quo SMBs
Please select which statement most closely matches your ‘state of mind’ when it
comes to marketing your business?
13%
I value the benefits that marketing can bring
and believe its an important investment to
make
The majority of my cusomer base is via word
of mouth so I cant see how marketing will
support me further
Base: Firms with an appetite to grow (732), Firms with no appetite to grow (278)
33%
12%
21%
15%
37%
When done correctly, marketing can bring a
lot of success to my business - but it's hard for
me to always "get it right"
Appetite to
grow
No appeite
to grow
26. SMB Budgets Under $5K (3,8K EUR)
Single-coded question
28%
9%
7%
3% 3% 4%
46%
$1 to $1,000
$1001 to $2,500
$2,501 to $5,000
$5,001 to $10,000
$10,001 to $20,000
Base: SMB survey by Greg Sterling/Opus Research (2013), n=1,255 small business owners/decision makers
27. Marketing Challenges: Not Enough…
Source: Thrive Analytics-LSA, 2014
1. Time
2. Budget
3. Expertise
4. Internal
resources/personnel
28. Multi-coded question
What are some of the common frustrations you experience with marketing your business?
6%
5%
18%
18%
28%
26%
38%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Its expensive for what you get
I don’t have a clear measure of what return on investment
I get from marketing
Because its not my expertise, its hard to judge what's good
quality marketing
There are too many choices of marketing channels
None of these
I have to work with too many vendors for different
marketing services
Other
Others include: lack
of time and lack of
money
Marketing Frustrations
Base: SMB survey by Greg Sterling/Opus Research (2013), n=1,255 small business owners/decision makers
29. ROI Understanding a Problem
Multi-coded question
Which of the following do you use to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing?
4%
4%
10%
25%
21%
21%
18%
23%
35%
39%
46%
50%
Repeat business
Sales
Ask our customers how they found us
Number of incoming customer calls
Likes on Facebook/Twitter followers
Foot traffic to your store
Average size of sales
Number of clicks through to your website from interney…
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Number of qualified sales leads
Data from analytics dashboard
PR/Newspaper coverage
Number of mobile application downloads
Base: SMB survey by Greg Sterling/Opus Research (2013), n=1,255 small business owners/decision makers
30. Single-coded question
Better Websites + Help
If you had a significant increase in budget tomorrow, what ONE activity would you choose to
spend that money on?
20%
11%
8%
7%
7%
2% 2%
6%
3%
5%
4%
4%
5%
4%
3%
3%
3%
2% Company webiste
Full time marketing resource
Direct marketing
Paid search advertising
TV advertising
Social Media
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Online display advertising
Print Newspapers
Leaflets/Flyers
Coupons/promotional
Mobile site or app
Yellow Pages
Outdoor/Billboards
Radio
Blogs
Magazines
Online reviews
Base: SMB survey by Greg Sterling/Opus Research (2013), n=1,255 small business owners/decision makers
31. Single-coded question What Do They (Really) Want?
Thinking about the number of marketing vendors that you prefer to work with, please select
from the list below which statement best describes your preference.
• Would prefer to do all
marketing in house
• Would prefer to work
with single
source/vendor
• Use multiple, specialist
vendors
40%
48%
6%
Base: SMB survey by Greg Sterling/Opus Research (2013), n=1,255 small business owners/decision makers
32. What the SMB Needs
• A trusted advisor who can build an
affordable, customized customer
acquisition/retention program that
delivers results
• Problem: publisher/channel wants to
deliver templated, scalable solution;
may be biased toward favored
products and not be good at
fulfillment
• One model is financial services: SMB
hands over budget, “sales advisor”
distributes that budget across various
channels and delivers periodic reports
33. Same Pitch, Same Products
Up to five calls per week
Many similar claims and pitches
creates skepticism/confusion:
• “Your one-stop shop”
• “Your digital agency”
• Lengthy menu of “products”
• Some: unethical or false claims
No transparency; digital churn
still very high
35. Going Vertical One Response
• Educate sales to “speak the
language of the customer”
• Enables specialized services,
more efficiency
• Development of targeted
consumer products and
“marketplaces”
• “Templated,” perfunctory
approaches won’t work
36. Operational Services+
• Deliver key services: payments, order processing, CRM, scheduling,
invoicing, field services management
• Combine services and marketing for more (obvious) ROI/value,
diversified revenue and better retention
• Examples: Square, Swipely, HomeAdvisor, DemandForce, Groupon,
OpenTable, others
• Square: started as a simple way to accept credit cards. Now offers:
- Card processing
- E-commerce marketplace
- Complete POS system
- Analytics
- Loans
- Scheduling
- Invoicing
- Customer feedback mechanisms
37. It’s All about Execution
Discussion is
easy.
Execution is
an uphill
battle.