With more consumers connecting with mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, the challenge for marketers is finding messages that get their attention and resonate.
Google group product manager James Beser addressed this topic and presented results of an audience engagement study at Integrated Marketing Week in New York City this week. The study (conducted by Google and AdAge) focused on how consumers are engaging with brands in the online marketplace.
“Consumers are being inundated with marketing messages across devices, and consumer focus and 
attention is a scarce resource,” Beser says. Consumers have changed the way they make purchasing decisions, but marketers have been slow to adapt to those changes. In the digital economy, consumers are always looking for information – whether or not brands may have that information in the channel and ready to go.
“Marketers need to focus on the middle of the funnel—the consideration phase. Consumers are getting better at using the web when making decisions and marketers are not adapting to that,” Beser says.
The Google/AdAge engagement study showed that of the majority of consumers who regularly engage with brands online, those who purchase more correlate with those who engage more. These “hyper-engagers” make up 63 percent of the online population, according to the study.
“Hyper-engagers are more than four times more likely to purchase a product online than regular engagers or web traditionalists,” Beser says.
The study showed that marketers can best engage online consumers with informative ads that present information they want to learn about. A total of 86 percent of advertisers and agencies agree that consumer engagement is a priority, but only 46 percent believe it’s a priority and are taking action to address the matter. Meanwhile, 40 percent think it’s a priority and are not acting on it.
Beser also dug into Google’s new Engagement Ads offering, which focuses on user engagement as opposed to clicks and conversions. Advertisers only pay when consumers actually engage with an ad, as opposed to just clicking on it. With a focus on creating rich, creative ads that foster engagement, these ads are designed to be simple, mobile-first and always-on to reach consumers whenever they are looking for information. Engagement ads just launched for mobile, with consumers clicking on a banner to trigger a video that runs on the top half of the screen, with product images linked to the brand’s site displayed below the clip. The user is only charged if the consumer chooses to click on the banner and engage with the brand.
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