New habits connectivity, dominated by mobile devices are redefining how consumers make purchasing decisions. For marketers, the challenge is to understand these processes and ROI adapt to the new scenario “multiscreen”.

We live in the era of permanent connection. The relentless advance of smartphones and tablets is impacting decisively on the behavior of millions of users. Mobile devices, protagonists of this phenomenal change, are significantly modifying access to the digital world.

The penetration rate of smartphones has exploded worldwide: according toeMaketer since 2012 constitute 50% of all mobile phones in countries like the US, UK and South Korea and is estimated this year that percentage also come to Japan and Canada. The outlook for Latin America also are encouraging : in countries like Argentina, Mexico and Brazil is not only growing the number of smartphone users but also consumer habits linked to them. We see in our last study Our Mobile Planet, that 31% of Argentines already have a smartphone and 82% of them use it to search for products from their devices. In Mexico the number of users with smart phones is 37%, and 91% sought a product or service.

In this scenario, consumers have been greatly benefit: never been easier to access information about any type of product or service from anywhere and at any time of day. Therefore, not surprising that the searches from mobile phones increasingly affect purchasing decisions.

In Argentina, 58% of smartphone users shop from their mobile phones at least once a month. In Mexico, 39% of smart phone users bought a product from them at least once, and among them 61% do so once a month.Projections indicate that these figures will grow as mobile connectivity is increased but other numbers, it is essential to understand the habits of users are changing pace of these changes are. The so-called “” multiscreen society “is now a reality and is key to identify how it affects the allocation of ROI.

We can distinguish at least 5 consumption patterns associated to mobile devices:

1. In the shop : Finding and consulting establishments driving directions to a store are common activities in these devices that generate value for this channel.
2. Called : It may seem obvious but the smartphone is a phone and serves to call. In many cases, customers prefer order by phone.
3. Multidevice : 85% of users use multiple devices to make a purchase. They are looking at mobile and then complete the transaction on a computer.
4. Mobile Web : Customers expect have the same experience on any device and if you sell products from your website,is more likely to buy directly from a mobile optimized site.
5. In Mobile Applications : Downloads and transactions that occur in your apps can be two fundamental sources of business.

Other habits, another tool

Faced with these new habits, it is clear that the attribution of ROI needs tobe resignified. Otherwise, marketing analysts will not only lose track of thousands of clicks but planned strategies based on little faithful to reality numbers. In this sense, Google Calculator The Full Value of Mobile(available in google.com/think/es) is a tool that can provide an attribution model to estimate the behavior of the “mobile consumer” by a simple calculation. For example, increasingly, users follow a multiscreen way to buy: can start looking at a device and complete the transaction in another.

To learn how this affects the purchase “multiscreen” in our business, calculator suggests estimate the total number of visitors who came to the mobile portal from clicks on mobile ads, the percentage who subsequently agreed to visit the website for computers. Then you consider the percentage of those who actually materialize a transaction and finally, this figure is multiplied by the average ticket for every purchase.

A new approach to the user: the case Starwood Hotels & Resorts

For Starwood Hotels & Resort is a good example of how companies can grow in the mobile market to innovate and adapt to the habits of its customers. Faced with an increasingly multi – traveler, they began to implement mobile ads with the aim of improving the user experience by providing access to room inventory of its brands without interruption, and capture last minute bookings.

moving announcements stand out among the new features implemented by the company with ad extensions call and location with maps and driving directions to destination, providing not only search by proximity but also simplicity to make a reservation. As a result, mobile search campaign already generated for Starwood Hotels & Resort 20% monthly growth in bookings from mobile and 200% increase in traffic from these devices.

The common denominator of these innovations is a new approach that considers the mobile user as a consumer who has specific habits. You have to understand all the ways that people consume media, particularly digital, and generate multichannel strategies.

Today, the challenge for companies and brands is, in the first place, to provide a seamless experience across all screens; and then invest in tools (such as allocating a specific phone number for the campaign / device) to perform a proper attribution to mobile within the process. It becomes imperative to adapt to different destinations digital devices to improve customer experience and business results accordingly.