Social mobile advertising presents a huge opportunity for brands, not only to influence and inspire shoppers, but also to sell to them. We’ve seen that mobile now can often result in a shorter purchase journey, compared to desktop. This is through the advancements that brands are making across their shopping portfolios, whether that is ensuring the purchasing journey is fast and accessible on mobile web, or the advancements in their brand apps. Facebook IQ recently released a study saying, “purchase journeys see a higher rate in conversion when the first touchpoint is a mobile app, we see that these particular journeys can last longer, have more browsing sessions and expose customers to more products along with their journeys.”
They asked people which mobile phone apps and services they used on their phones during their last retail store visit. Number one was WhatsApp, with 44% of people who use WhatsApp saying that they used it the last time they were in a shop. For example, 18% shared photos or videos taken in stores and 14% asked for recommendations. Amongst people who use Messenger, 20% say they used Messenger when they were last in a shop; 18% of people who use Instagram say they used Instagram when they were last in a shop, and 32% of people who use Facebook say they opened Facebook when they were last in a shop. This provides great opportunities for brands to be advertising on social and trying to persuade certain buying decisions.
Facebook, Instagram and Messenger have been excelling in making the purchasing journey within their apps easy and accessible for consumers to make quick and easy purchases wherever they are. Snapchat is also following suit but in a slightly unusual: they recently opened their own Snap Store, a section within its app for people to buy Snapchat merchandise, such as hats, sweatshirts and a stuffed-animal version of its “dancing hot dog” Lens. In addition to generating revenue through product sales, Snap Store could open new revenue streams for Snap and add to its primary advertising revenue stream at a time when its business could use the help. The most obvious option is the potential for Snap Store to serve as Snapchat’s version of Google Shopping or Facebook’s Marketplace.
All Response Media viewpoint
We strongly believe that the rise in mobile shopping has been due to a lot of work not only done by brands prioritising their mobile experience for purchase journeys, but also ensuring that their apps are at the forefront of shopping. Facebook and specifically Messenger have also helped to make that purchase journey easy for consumers to interact with their chosen brand – encouraging people to make their final purchase within the app. Having a strong shopping experience on mobile is incredibly important to ensure you limit drop off and increase conversion rate. Given that there is a big surge in mobile purchases year-on-year we would highly advise that you take the following steps: is your website designed to make the shopping experience on mobile as quick and easy as possible? Are your ads and content designed for mobile viewing?
