Catching up with Rachel Pasqua, iCrossing VP of Mobile

We caught up with Rachel Pasqua of iCrossing to discuss her clients’ increasingly strong interest in mobile search marketing, as well as trends in mobile content development.

is a global agency that helps CMOs build connected brands. The company recently expanded its presence to Latin America and Spain with the acquisition of Wallaby Group, rebranded as iCrossing Latin America/Spain. And in 2011, Melissa Parrish of Forrester Research cited iCrossing’s mobile advertising capabilities in the May 16 report, Agencies Deliver Strategic Mobile Display Expertise.

As VP of Mobile, Rachel Pasqua works closely with iCrossing’s clients to guide their mobile search and display strategies. She has offered to share insight on what’s working and the many options brands now have for making the most of mobile:

Google Mobile Ads (GMA): What mobile changes and trends have you seen with your clients in the past year?
Rachel Pasqua (RP): Every year, mobile becomes more and more important to our business and the brands we work with. 2011 definitely represented a leap forward with the momentum gained for mobile. At the beginning of 2010, most of our clients saw roughly 10% of their overall site traffic coming from mobile devices -- and about 50% of that mobile traffic came from smartphones (mostly from the iPhone). Fast-forward to today, and most of our clients across all verticals see about 20% of their traffic coming from mobile devices, and the majority of those devices consist of high-end smartphones and tablets.

The acceleration in traffic has pushed mobile much higher up on our clients’ agendas. Mobile users are arriving in greater numbers, spending more time and performing more key actions than ever before. Clients are looking at these factors and 50% growth of mobile traffic over the past 18 months and realizing that it’s critical to support their customers on their platforms of choice - desktop AND mobile. Many of them are turning to us for help in building their mobile web sites but what we find most interesting is that even more of them are asking us to help them figure out their mobile strategy - web, apps, search and everything in between.

Almost every single client is running mobile search campaigns. The clients with mobile sites and mobile apps are investing significantly - it’s not just small test budgets anymore. Our clients are embracing mobile as a source of creating compelling content and, as a result, are focused on developing marketing content for smartphone browsers and for tablets as well.

GMA: How are your clients tackling the challenge of creating mobile content?
RP: From iCrossing’s perspective, the two main options a client has are hosted sites, third party platforms that render a mobile version of your .com site and integrated sites, an approach wherein the existing .com CMS is used to render mobile content.

The easiest and quickest option is to work with an external, hosted mobile web platform. These vendors usually offer a reverse proxy service that mobilizes your existing web site in real time and maintain it on a monthly basis. They are extremely appealing to marketing managers in that they can usually get you up and running in 4-6 weeks and require little or no involvement with your IT team. However, they have limitations in terms of tracking, SEO and the types of user experiences they can support.

The alternate route is to integrate mobile content into your existing web environment. For brands already utilizing a content management system, this route is often very possible and the most practical long term from the standpoint of cost and maintenance. A web environment that hosts both mobile and desktop content enables you to update content simultaneously across all platforms. The consolidated maintenance is far more time and cost-effective and enables you to fluidly address new platforms as they emerge by simply adding new templates to your CMS. This approach also enables you to create the richer, more app-like interfaces that are so appealing to users now. The Toyota Touch (http://touch.toyota.com) site built by iCrossing is a great example of this app-like mobile web approach.

Which route a client takes depends on factors such as budget, marketing goals, and upcoming plans for web site redesigns. The important thing is to create the best possible experience and most relevant content for your mobile users.

GMA: Do you need to have mobile content before you can consider experimenting with mobile search marketing?
RP: Not necessarily. We do strongly recommend to our clients that they create the best possible mobile experience, and most of them have either done so already or are in the process. A lack of mobile content right now doesn’t mean you can’t see success with mobile advertising - but good mobile content will yield the very best results.

GMA: If you’re in the process of developing a mobile site but only have desktop content available at present, what are your best options for increasing your presence on mobile?
RP: The single most important thing to do is to create specific, mobile-only campaigns. We’ve seen a remarkable before and after difference in click-through rates to these devices when we do so for brands that don’t yet have mobile content. You should also be prepared to set aggressive initial bids for these campaigns to ensure that your ads reach the top 1-2 positions. Reaching those top two spots is crucial for optimal ROI on your campaigns. Another highly effective thing you can do if you have a local business or any type of brick-and-mortar presence is to claim your Google Places listing. So much of mobile traffic is local, and claiming your Google Places listing is a quick and easy win.

Keep in mind that if your desktop site performs very well on a mobile device, you can probably test drive many of the  more sophisticated mobile advertising options. If it doesn’t, you’re probably wise to start small. Observe the behavior of your mobile visitors and apply what you learn to your mobile content development efforts.

GMA: What advice do you have for brands that do have mobile content and are ready to really invest in the mobile search opportunity?
RP:  Bidding to reach and maintain that optimal first or second position on a mobile search results page is the most important recommendation. Mobile is competitive so prepare to bid 2x higher to mange to the 1st and 2nd positions and then maintain from there. Another top level recommendation that applies to brands across every vertical is to use broad match and brand keywords to maximize impressions.

Be sure to utilize analytics and conversion tracking since this enables you to test how effective your ads are and if they result in specific site activities. Make note of what mobile users do, where they come from and how their behavior differs from desktop users, then apply what you’ve learned to subsequent campaigns.

Understanding these mobile behavior patterns is crucial because your customers may have very different objectives in mind when searching via mobile so you can’t assume they will respond to the same calls to action as they will on the desktop. For instance, if you are a retail brand with brick and mortar storefronts, it is fair to assume that a smartphone user who just googled your closest location is much more likely to respond to a limited time offer than a desktop user who may be much further back in the purchase funnel. Tailor your ads to what you know about the mobile context and about your own users in particular.

GMA: What about the ads themselves - what makes for a strong and effective mobile ad?
RP: First and foremost, a mobile specific call to action. For example, we see terrific success for many of our clients with click-to-call on mobile ads. It’s important to understand all the action your users are most likely to perform when searching for your business on a mobile device whether it being clicking to call, clicking to an offer, clicking to Google maps, etc. Once you understand those customer goals, you can build ads that will resonate with those users. It helps to pay attention to the actions mobile visitors take to your site in general. Use your site analytics!

GMA: Have you seen certain ad types to be more effective on mobile than others?
RP:  Certainly - click to call on mobile is especially powerful for mobile, for all the obvious reasons. Of course, click to call is not applicable for every brand, but brands using the AdWords call extension have seen CTR increase by as much as 30%.

We’ve also seen great success with location extensions and hyperlocal. 1 in 3 searches have local intent so for any brand with brick and mortar locations these are very smart ad choices since they enable you to target users in the immediate vicinity of your location with ads that can draw them into the store - e.g. sales, limited time offers. We’ve seen a positive response from mobile site links as well. The ability to offer mobile users variety of choices from within a single ad is highly beneficial since it increases the liklihood of the users finding what he or she wants very quickly.


GMA: Are there any trends you’re seeing that brands should be wise to?
MM: Well, if you have mobile apps, you’d be smart to test Ads for Apps. While the App Store and Android Market represent the most immediate channel for app discovery and download, search engines play a increasingly strong yet unrecognized role in app discovery. For some of our clients, we’re seeing a very strong click to download rate for their mobile applications from this new ad model. Moreover, experimenting with SEM for apps enables brands to gain that crucial understanding of how users search for mobile content.

GMA: Any closing advice?
MM: Experiment, analyze and invest! Mobile search traffic is only going to increase. Now is the time to gain an understanding of your mobile customers and how to connect with them successfully!

We’d like to thank Rachel and iCrossing for taking the time to talk to us about their experience with Mobile Ads so far. To learn more, including how to get started and best practices, please visit the Google Mobile Ads site.

Posted by Sonja Lee, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile Ads

Catching up with Rachel Pasqua, iCrossing VP of Mobile
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