Despite smartphone penetration in Australia doubling since 2011, with two thirds of the adult population now owning one, 60% of large advertisers do not have a mobile website. That's a big fail, according to Google. The time to develop a mobile strategy was "yesterday" and it has to be tightly integrated with campaigns that work across all screens.
The internet giant said 68% per cent of smartphone owners had made a purchase from mobile compared to 28% last year. Around two in five people who start to research products on smartphones go on to complete purchases on desktop or in person, according to the firm, which commissioned IPSOS MediaCT to interview 1,000 Australian adults.
The survey also found that one in three Aussie smartphone owners would give up their TV before their smartphone, and almost half of smartphone owners regularly use their mobile while watching TV. Google said there was a major opportunity for marketers to create campaigns that work across screens. Six in ten of those surveyed said they searched for a product or service via their mobile after seeing an offline ad.
The data suggested that around half of smartphone owners have searched for food and drink and travel from mobile, and a third have house-hunted from smartphones.
Meanwhile, the vast majority (over 90%), have searched for local information with 80% taking action (buying, booking visiting a business) as a result.
"There is no business in Australia that is not being transformed by mobile," said Jason Pellegrino, head of mobile sales at Google.
"If you're wondering when to develop your mobile strategy, the answer is yesterday ... Australians are master multitaskers, so mobile is no longer enough. Businesses need to start creating campaigns that work across all screens: desktop, tablet, mobile and TV."
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