Although mobile is growing, desktop websites are still a priority for digital marketers

Despite the continued shift among brands towards mobile, the vast majority (71%) of digital marketers still see desktop websites – with the incentive of useful cookie data on consumers – as their top priority for customer experience, ahead of mobile sites (16%) and smartphone applications (10%), according to a new study.

The research, which is from the latest Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing report commissioned by Econsultancy and Adobe from a sample size of 3,000 digital and ecommerce marketers, suggests that mobile is growing even if it isn’t seen as a priority.

Around a fifth (19%) of respondents now regard themselves as ‘mobile first’, compared to 13% the previous year. While 62% of companies are planning to increase mobile channel budgets in 2015, compared to only 3% who are set to decrease respective budgets.

Companies are also starting to use mobile in different ways, with adaptive design (+92%), mobile apps (+40%) and mobile optimised sites (+35%) all being utilised more frequently on a year-on-year basis.

However, only 11% of respondents agreed that they understand how mobile fits into the customer journey across devices and channels.

“Companies have increased their efforts around mobile optimisation in line with the increased amount of time spent on mobile,” said Econsultancy’ research director Linus Gregoriadis.

“Businesses surveyed for this research report that, on average, 31% of their total digital traffic is now via mobile.”

Over recent years there has been a notable shift among advertisers towards mobile and digital platforms.

In 2014, UK ad spend hit its highest rate since 2010 as it increased by 5.8% to £18.6bn, according to the annual expenditure report by the Advertising Association and Warc.

The growth was driven by internet advertising and mobile, with both up by respective rates of +15% and +59%

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