Mobile Analytics
One of the interesting sessions that I was able to attend was on Mobile strategy. I had the opportunity to chat with the folks from Semaphonic, Zaaz and Polar mobile. Some of the key stats that I heard in multiple sessions about mobile were:
1. 50% of US residents will have mobile by end of 2011
3000 mobile devices out there
2. Among the mobile phones 70% are the feature phones and 30% are smart phones
Mobile usage is rapidly exceeding the Desktop usage
3. 65 million visits to angrybirds from mobile every day
79% of the websites don’t have mobile optimized websites
Price line stats
1. 82% of mobile users booked for the same day or next day arrival
2. 42% on Desktop did the same day or next day arrival
3. 58% of hotel bookings are within 20 miles of their stay
Its NOT too late to be early in mobile. Good examples of mobile implementation and analytics are:
1. Netbuscuits
2. Alaska Air
So what is mobile strategy?
1. Having a strategy — This means being ready for mobile. Talking about product suitability, objectives, commitment and measuring ROI. A Killer app is an app which is location based. Self service e.g ticket exchange/change seat changes. Upgrade rooms etc.
Having a good social media presence
2. Measurement — Establish KPI’s for your mobile strategy. Tie your KPI’s to business objectives. Asses technical limitations. There are three approaches to mobile measurement. Fixed Web, Mobile Web and Mobile applications. Make sure that these are measured appropriately. For non java script devices perform server side tagging.
3. Analysis — Appropriate dimensions, metrics should be identified.
Reporting — Leverage the data visualization. Allow for data interaction, appropriate level of detail, automate where possible.
4. Tactics — Segmentation(Can’t stress enough about this), Chanel optimization, experimentation
5. Mobile ad campaigns — Be crisp in what you campaign and present. The screen limitation asks for some key innovation in terms of marketing on mobile. SMS is a greet way to market on mobile devices.
There are three things that needs to be done from measurement perspective
1. Understand device capability (Screen, input, browser etc…)
2. Mobile app metrics (from app store) — downloads, users, active users, new users, application running in background?, Geo location, app store commision
3. Web metrics — page views, visits, new/returning visitors, depth of visit, conversion, application status, session length, gross revenue
Challenges
1. Not all devices use JavaScript
2. Cookies will not be allowed on feature phones
3. non-standard browsers
4. carrier limitations
5. sometimes carriers strip http headers
6. characters limitations
Best practices
1. Known device type targeting
2. Use SDK for mobile apps
3. Server side libs usage
4. First party cookie
5. use accountID for cross channel