Mobile Ad Data Shows Click-to-Call Commerce Leads to $1 Trillion in Consumer Purchases
It’s official: mobile is now a major driver of the economy, as consumers more and more use smartphones to connect directly with businesses.
“Independent data released today from Marchex, a mobile advertising analytics company, forecasts that “click-to-call commerce” will contribute to more than $1 trillion in consumer purchases this year,” according to Marchex. “Further, the study finds that consumers who “click-to-call” directly from a mobile advertisement are four times more likely to purchase a product or service than a consumer who interacts with an online ad.”
For its study, Marchex analyzed aggregated and anonymized data from 24 million consumer-to-business mobile phone calls to customers of Marchex Call Analytics and Marchex Call Marketplace.
“The study confirms that many of those phone calls result in an appointment, reservation, in-store purchase or over-the-phone sale and forecasts that these calls result in more than $1 trillion in consumer purchases,” notes the company.
“Although e-commerce is a major force in consumer spending, it accounts for just 7 percent of retail spending and less than 2 percent of total consumer expenditures,” said Michael Boland, Chief Analyst and VP, Content at BIA/Kelsey, a research and advisory firm. “The other 98 percent are increasingly influenced by smartphones.”
Some of the findings:
- Across more than a dozen industries, between 5 and 25 percent of phone calls from mobile ads convert into sales, appointments, or reservations.
- A “click-to-call” from a mobile consumer is 4 times more likely to become a paying customer than a consumer clicking to a Web page from an online ad.
- Robocalls are a major challenge for click-to-call marketers, and issues vary by severity across mobile publishers.
What isn’t working? Some of the businesses on the receiving end of those calls.
“The “leaky funnel” of click-to-call commerce is often at the call center or local business,” the company says. “For some industries, more than 20 percent of phone calls from mobile ads are unanswered.”
The study also showed that millennials are the most likely to “click-to-call” of any age group — a worthy target for mobile click-to-call campaigns.
To download the Marchex white paper, click here.
