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Google Says Micro-Moments Are The New Path To Purchase

New data shows consumers use mobile devices more often, but in shorter periods of time, to research and buy.

Ginny Marvin on June 3, 2015 at 9:05 am

Last month, when Google announced several mobile-centric updates for AdWords — shiny image-based ads for car manufacturers and hotels, among them — the company said the updates were in response to mobile’s impact on the way consumers are making purchasing decisions. This week, Google released new stats on what this behavior looks like.

As mobile’s share of web sessions has increased 20 percent in the past year, the time spent per visit has fallen by 18 percent, according to the company. Users dart on and dart off their phones to find information, but Google also says that mobile conversion rates have also increased by 29 percent, aggregated Google Analytics data shows.

AdWords head, Jerry Dischler, has explained that if we thought there was a linear customer journey before, that idea is now dead. Rather than dedicating periods of time to researching products on a desktop or laptop, we now turn to our phones in a series of small time increments, says Google. The company is calling this new behavior — these short bursts of activity that occur primarily on mobile devices — micro-moments.

In Google study with Ipsos called “Consumers in the Micro-Moment”, released last month, 60 percent of online consumers said they now make purchasing decisions faster because of online research now compared to a few years ago.

The challenge for brands, now, is to be visible in the moments whenever their target consumers choose to pick up their phones during their decision making.

Google has launched a new website Micro-Moments website to house the insights it is collecting on consumers’ mobile behavior — 82 percent of smartphone users research products on their phones when making in-store purchases — and to help marketers understand the opportunities and challenges of meeting consumers in these moments with relevant messages.

Jerry Dischler will be talking about some of this research and what it means for marketers with us during the keynote discussion Wednesday at SMX Advanced in Seattle.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.