Consumer mobile usage and adoption. Use our mobile marketing statistics compiled from the best free sources to inform your digital marketing strategy and mobile user experience

It's hard to imagine today that there was a time when smartphones weren't the major device for accessing the Internet. Desktop used to dominate. I recall a headline from back in 2008 when it was forecast by by Mary Meeker, an analyst at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers that "Mobile to overtake fixed Internet access by 2014". That same year, Eric Schmidt of Google exhorted businesses to take a 'Mobile First' approach to designing web experiences, informed by customer-focused smartphone analytics. Our mobile marketing statistics compilation contains 15+ years later, in 2024 understanding mobile engagement of online users is more vital than ever so digital markers can eng2age and influence their mobile audience. Today, the latest research from Statista shows that more than…

2024 Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) statistics: Discover the latest search usage and adoption data to inform your search strategies

Statistics help us turn data into information, allowing us to make informed and rational decisions and that's exactly the purpose of this article. We're huge fans of search engine marketing, both search engine optimization and paid search marketing. But with behavior changing so quickly, it's vital to keep on top of search engine marketing statistics to inform your strategy. We have a wide range of tools and templates for marketers looking to make data-driven marketing decisions. Whether you're looking for channel excellence or marketing strategy advice, we've got resources to support your digital marketing optimization journey. [si_blog_banner_cta]

Search marketing data for 2024 - February update

This summary of search engine marketing statistics is aimed at helping you make better-informed decisions about the running of your search marketing. I'll start by reviewing…

E-commerce conversion rate and lead generation landing page stats for desktop and mobile devices for benchmarking averages across different industries

As you will know, conversion rates are often used as a KPI to review the effectiveness of e-commerce sites. Naturally, all site managers and owners want to know the benchmarks - "how do our conversion rates compare?". As consumer and business confidence falls, it's more important than ever to audit and optimize your marketing success metrics. In this post, I have compiled different free industry sources focusing on retail e-commerce conversion. At the end of this article, we also feature an analysis of landing page lead generation conversion rates by industry sector towards the end of the post. We keep this compilation updated as new conversion data is published in 2024.

E-commerce conversion funnel

This funnel-based view of the conversion process is a useful starting point since as well as the typical average basket…

Chart of the Day: The top reasons which stop consumers converting on smartphone

The m-commerce gap is a well-known and growing challenge for retailers. We all know the tremendous growth in the use of smartphones shown by the rise in % of mobile share of digital minutes which, as our mobile-smartphone stats summary shows stands at 71% in the US, 62% in Canada, 61% in the UK and higher in Latin (Mexico, 75%) and South America (Brazil, 72%) and higher still in Asia (China, 71% and Indonesia 91%). The problem for retailers is that ecommerce conversion rates on smartphones are significantly lower than desktop. Smartphone conversion rates are at about half of conversion rates on desktop, as a rule of thumb. This is partly inevitable since some smartphone users will prefer to make the purchase on desktop for convenience when they may prefer to browse on smartphone. Yet, many retailers will still…

How mobile devices are serving a wide range of consumer needs

We all know that the majority of web traffic is now on mobile devices, and consumers around the world are using their mobile devices for a wide range of tasks, including the all-important task of making key purchasing decisions. But how does the use of mobile vary when it comes to fulfilling different needs? And how does the use of mobile vary between countries? It is important marketers understand the answers to these questions, so they can understand how best to reach and connect with their target audience. This infographic from ComScore can help you understand how consumers are using different mobile technologies to fulfil various needs. …

Chart of the Day: How the importance of mobile search varies by sector

It's often said that we're now well past the mobile tipping point where mobile accounts for more than half of site visits and searches. Yet this average masks a wide variation across sectors. For example, in B2B search is still dominated by desktop rather than mobile. At Smart Insights we see just 15% of our 500,000+ new organic visits are mobile. This recently published research from Hitwise from the US and UK shows the difference in the percentage of mobile search by B2C industry sectors.

Mobile search share by industry: United States

Mobile search share by industry: United Kingdom

The main sectors where desktop is still relatively important are banking,…

Charts of the Day - New Research shows how mobile dominates digital minutes, but multiplatform use is huge as well

You will know that in most consumer marketing sectors, in most countries, we're well past the mobile tipping point where mobile web usage is more important than desktop measured by number of site visits. Another way of looking at the importance of mobile is looking at the mobile share of digital minutes. This is measured by the large, international panel providers like comScore and in their latest report on Mobile’s Hierarchy of Needs they have a report that shows the importance of mobile in all countries. So it's no longer a case of asking whether mobile marketing important, we know it is! It's now a question of using the statistics to understand how consumers behave when using different types of mobile devices,…

Chart of the Day: Conversion rates of online shoppers by device and platform

Data based on more than 1.9 billion shopping sessions collected by Monetate, clearly shows 'traditional' (desktop) web users still have conversion rates more than triple that of those browsing on Smartphones. It is interesting though that tablet e-commerce conversions are only very slightly behind desktop conversion rates. It seems screen size does have an impact on conversions, since people don't want to fill out fiddly payment details on Smartphone screens. This may mean new tools, like chatbots, can change the mobile user experience and make conversion much simpler. By removing the need to complete complex forms they could lead to a big leap in mobile conversion rates in the coming year. It's also interesting to look at conversion rates by device, where Mac leads with Windows close…

Chart of the Day: Third Quarter Smartphone ownership stats show near total adoption among under fifties

A whopping 97% of under 45s in the US own a Smartphone. That's just about as high a rate of adoption as it's possible to get. The adoption rate is now as high as it is for fridges! A technology that's almost 100 years old Vs a technology that only really became widespread after 2008. It's also interesting that Smartphone adoption is by no means restricted to the young and middle ages. Even the over 65s have a fairly high adoption rate of 68%. If current trends continue we can expect adoption rates of 80% or higher among the over 65s within just a couple of years. Customers of all ages are now using mobile devices to search for products, browse and consume content. The people are mobile first. You should be too.

How the the Multichannel Majority varies between different sectors

Our mobile marketing statistics summary shows how mobile use has increased such that it now exceeds desktop use in many categories. Following the lead of Google and others, you now often hear marketers and designers talking about adopting a Mobile-first design approach when upgrading their websites. Many responsive designs are led by the mobile experience. This often leads to a simplified design approach which is positive for users and conversion. I was recently working on  a consulting project in the insurance sector and it was interesting to see how insurance comparison sites like Money Supermarket, Confused.com and the AA have all adopted a mobile-first design philosophy with simplified designs and reduced copy. While this is positive, I've chosen today's Chart of the Day to show that it is an over-simplification. The reality is that while smartphone use is overwhelmingly popular for some…