Bigger screens on the new iPhone should reverse the trend away from mobile web browsing according to a new study of user behavior by Adobe. The report also reveals that Pinterest has emerged as the most mobile social network, mobile referral visits from Tumblr produce the highest revenue per visit and the use of iBeacons is becoming mainstream.
The findings are drawn from an analysis of user behavior of Adobe Marketing Cloud which includes data from 18 billion visits to more than 10,000 websites and over 700 million mobile app sessions.
Google’s Chrome has been growing its browser share in recent years in the US – a function of two factors. The first is simply the growth in Android market share. But Chrome also benefits from the fact that many of those Android devices have larger screens.
Social networks across devices: Thirty-six percent of all referral visits from social networks to retail sites come from tablets and smartphones. Pinterest is the most mobile social network with 64 percent of its referrals triggered via mobile browsers. Tumblr referrals drive the highest revenue per visit from mobile devices, 39 percent more than Facebook. In addition, bounce rates for referrals from social networks are higher on mobile devices than desktops, 61 percent versus 53 percent, respectively.
Access and sharing of content across screens: More consumers choose to access the Web via Wi-Fi. Over 50 percent of smartphone browsing and 93 percent of tablet browsing now come from Wi-Fi rather than cellular networks. In addition, mobile users are sharing more digital magazine content via text messaging than ever before. The use of Apple iMessage saw the strongest increase with 259 percent YoY. Sharing content via Facebook is down by 42.6 percent.
iBeacons and geo targeting: In an accompanying mobile survey, Adobe found that iBeacons and geo targeting are becoming mainstream. Eighteen percent of mobile marketers already use iBeacons and the number is expected to double in 2015. Almost half of marketers (49 percent) use GPS positioning to reach mobile users with their brands. Thirty-three percent of mobile users take advantage of mobile assisted in-store shopping.
Mobile browsing often gets over looked as companies focus on the fact that consumers spend over 85 per cent of their time inside apps. However, companies – and specifically marketers – are increasingly realizing that the app experience is not as contestable as the mobile minute share might suggest. That’s because the majority of time on apps is spent either inside Facebook, or in games. That leaves the rest of the world – and several million app developers – fighting over a minority share of mobile minutes.
During a recent interview with Which-50 the CMO of the CMO Council Liz Miller said her organisation, which takes the pulse of senior marketers, expects an increasing share of mobile development budget to return to the mobile browsing experience over the next 12 months.