Paid search rules for ROI on mobile: report

Lead generation and direct online sales represent the two most important objectives for mobile marketers and paid search is the key mobile channel for achieving these objectives.

This is according to our new ClickZ Intelligence report on the State of Mobile Advertising 2016, produced in partnership with Search Optics and based on a global survey of more than 400 marketers and digital professionals.

At least half of the respondents cited lead generation and direct online sales as their main aims when running mobile paid search (70%), social (50%) and display advertising (54%) campaigns.

Paid search came out as the top mobile channel which marketers relied on to meet lead gen and sales objectives partly because paid search is easier to measure compared with other mobile ad formats.

Paid social can be similarly easy to measure effectively. However consumers often have a lower purchase intent when using social media than when searching, so the objectives for this channel lean more towards branding and traffic.

Some marketers believe that ROI in mobile advertising is lukewarm or unclear, especially when compared with more tried and trusted desktop media approaches.

Overall, mobile advertising was described by fewer than a quarter (23%) of respondents as delivering ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ ROI, while a similar proportion deemed it poor (20%).

Questions around both ROI and ROI visibility are raised markedly around display and social advertising channels for mobile.

Only 15% of marketers deemed mobile display advertising as providing ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ ROI, and only 23% said the same for social. Compared to search, which 32% viewed as positive.

The greater confidence in mobile paid search ROI is also evident when looking at both client and agency side marketers. Marketers on both sides consider search a safer bet when it comes to ROI, with 31% and 35% of respondents respectively rating this channel either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ in terms of ROI.