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The big reveal is in the specific numbers — especially the mobile stats. According to the report (which was compiled from fourth-quarter 2011 data and compared to past data gathered by IgnitionOne — the company’s tracked over 49 billion impressions and 1.7 billion clicks over major search and display networks since 2006), mobile search ad impressions are up 317 percent and ad spend is up 269 percent, year-over-year. Among retailers, mobile search ad spend in 2010 accounted for 5.2 percent of total paid search budgets, and that percentage spiked to 14.2 percent in 2011. Retail search ad spend peaked on Black Friday — 24 percent of spend went to mobile queries that day.

The report also declared the fourth quarter of 2011 the “best quarter ever” for search advertising, with search ad spend up 22 percent year-over-year (26 percent for retailers), and an increase of 42 percent for impressions and clicks and 67 for transactions. Cost per click decreased 8.6 year-over-year — though CPC actually increased 6.4 percent for Yahoo!/Bing. That demonstrates, the report’s abstract pointed out, Google’s success drove the trends in decreasing CPC.  Google also commanded an 81.8 percent market share, and its DoubleClick AdExchange posted a 105.5 percent increase in spend.

The full report, issued today, can be found at IgnitionOne’s website.

In September, Evans pointed out, Facebook claimed 350 million total mobile users, a figure that included both mobile web users and mobile apps users. At the time, Facebook claimed about 250 million people were accessing Facebook via mobile apps on a monthly basis. Looks like it’s been quite an autumn for mobile, then, when Facebook can mark 20 percent growth in this particular market in just one season.

On a daily basis, Evans’ figures show Android pulling ahead of iPhone and iPod Touch in mobile app usage, but iPhone/iPod Touch still trumps Android on a monthly basis (100.4 million for the former, to 87.8 million for the latter). “Meanwhile the iOS and Android apps are on the way to being one platform, with Facebook moving them more and more towards being wrappers for a common HTML5 experience,” Evans wrote. “Next year Facebook will treat that user base as less of a mobile extension to the desktop experience and more as the core product — starting with advertising. What will that do to mobile CPMs, I wonder?”

Good question. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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With the average lifespan of a mobile app hovering at 30 days after being downloaded, push notifications are becoming the centerpiece of solid, long-term mobile strategies. By driving increased consumer engagement, awareness and conversions, push notifications extend the life of an app and add usefulness to consumers. Push is catching on for companies big and small across all industries, giving brands a voice in the mobile channel and allowing them to create deep customer relationships. Push notifications provide personalized experiences, giving users control to personalize preferences and opt in or out at any time.

So what does it take to get started? To send push notifications, you first have to build an app. Smart phone users spend the majority of their time with the device in apps, creating a large opportunity for brands to connect with consumers in new ways. This opportunity is creating a demand for companies to invest more on building solid apps and measuring success in more tangible ways. Gone are the days of building throwaway apps and measuring success using download count and app store rating.  Today success is measured by how many times users open the app, how much time is spent in the app, and conversion rates, among other metrics.

Mobile networks, like Verizon, and platforms, like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, are investing in push notifications too. They are answering the demand to build better user experiences on their devices and enhance capabilities for their customers. This evolution is providing businesses with a new ability to use social, local and mobile context to create more engaging and personal experiences. Social integration, geo-based messaging, the ability to create campaign landing pages within apps, business-friendly composition and measurement tools, along with investments in new offerings such as Notification Center and Newsstand, are helping to bring push notifications into the core of mobile strategies.

Use cases

Companies like ESPN, New York Times, Groupon, Dictionary.com, Warner Brothers and thousands of companies are using push notifications to drive user engagement, awareness and conversions. Push notifications are delivering new content, news, media, local information and deals, and they’re providing social dialogue between people. These companies all benefit from increased interaction and decreased messaging costs, while getting a “built for mobile” experience that can’t be matched by other messaging channels.  Here are a few examples of how Push is driving business results:

Delivering A Daily Dose Of Learning

Push notifications gave the world’s largest and most authoritative online dictionary, Dictionary.com, the ability to create a Word of the Day app that could actively engage their users. Dictionary.com uses push as a vehicle to deliver a new vocabulary-building word every day, directly to millions of iPhones and Androids. “We wanted to provide our popular Word of the Day to app users direct to their mobile device,” said Lisa Sullivan-Cross, Dictionary.com’s general manager for mobile. “Our word-lovers can enjoy our features without needing to launch another program or app.”

Making Radio Social

The Jelli music app aims to provide a dynamic, social, and gamified approach to radio. To better realize this goal, Jelli began promoting community and game features with a social strategy. It used push notifications through my company, Urban Airship, to revitalize social sharing and rating functions, delivering real-time alerts to highlight the app’s unique features. When users suggest a song to Jelli, they will get a push if their song makes it to the radio and if the community enjoys their song. The push notifications drove a 30 percent increase in user engagement along with dramatic increases in app usage and frequency.

Driving Commerce

According to comScore, 14 percent of users respond to offers via push notifications. LivingSocial, Groupon, and Swirl by Daily Candy all offer their daily deals to customers using push notifications. With push, these companies can assure that their customers never miss a sale, even when they are on the go. Giving users the ability to click from a daily push directly into the app has given Swirl a 60 percent increase in mobile traffic and a 20 percent increase in total mobile orders.  They are experiencing 40 percent higher conversion rates than through their mobile browser, which is driven primarily through email.

ADOTAS

In any case, here’s the rundown: Online sales were 16.4 percent higher this Dec. 25 than they were on last year’s Christmas. Mobile traffic on ecommerce sites was 117.8 percent higher this Christmas than last, and mobile sales were up 172.9 percent from that date last year. That means 18.3 percent of all web traffic on ecommerce sites came from mobile devices on Sunday, and 14.4 percent of all online purchases happened on mobile devices. Seven percent of all online shopping took place on an iPad, 6.4 percent on an iPhone and around 5 percent on an Android device. And we didn’t stop shopping on Monday, either (maybe because so many of us had the day off?). Online sales were up 27.8 percent from last Dec. 26, mobile traffic on retail sites was up 109.3 percent this year, and mobile purchases were up 164.9 percent. Mobile traffic accounted for 16.4 percent of all traffic on retail sites this Dec. 26, and 11.3 percent of all online sales were conducted with a mobile device.

As a side note, that’s not all we were doing with our smartphones and tablets this year: We were also downloading apps. A lot of apps. In a study out today, Flurry estimated 242 million app downloads this Dec. 25 — a rise of 125 percent over the first three weeks of December (108 million downloads estimated for Dec. 1 through Dec. 20). After all, folks have to break in those new devices they’ve just unwrapped by downloading something.

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The iPad, of course, is a testament to the genius of the late Steve Jobs, whose passing earlier this year shook the world of technology and leaves a potentially gaping void — but still, I think Jobs’ legacy will prove to be lasting. As Apple migrates from “What will Steve do next?” to “What would Steve have done?,” the company will be tested. Jobs may have left plans for Apple well beyond his passing (his output in the final year of his life is truly mind-boggling); so of course, without his assertive style of management, there will be some struggles for the company as they enter the Tim Cook era.

And through all of this, the world of tech was increasingly entering into the mainstream, with the news cycle dominated by product and company announcements and a whole new generation of adopters eager to talk about their new devices. 2011 marked a turning point in how we talk about — and therefore, how we utilize — digital technology. Every year for the past five years, Fjord has released its Fjord Digital Trends forecast for the coming 12 months. Sometimes we’re right; sometimes we’re wrong. But as we prepare for the release of our 2012 predictions, I wanted to look back at those we made for 2011, this busy year in tech, to see where we’ve been and how far we’ve come.

2011 Prediction: Pimp Your Life, Gaming Style

Foursquare mayors have to work hard to maintain their positions — their places assured not by campaigning but by customer loyalty. With its Radar feature, it becomes a local guide and, for many, a trail of places visited. Instead of just check-ins, the service takes up a central place in the social and local scene, providing increasingly creative marketing solutions (and, for the user, still offering a competitive experience). In 2011, perhaps spurred by Foursquare’s lead, we saw that anything can become a contest — customer loyalty, yes, but also household chores, weight loss, physical activity and more. And for the less competitive amongst us, gamification offers a platform for encouragement. Facebook, for instance, is the stage on which you can act out the play of your weight loss, your increasingly challenging jogging routes, your quest to find the best hamburger in New York: Your friends, your audience, are there to applaud your achievements. The dual spheres of competition and encouragement are moving beyond the realm of social and into the real world, with marketers seeing the value of making their campaigns games. Brands are tapping into our naturally competitive instincts and rewarding us for striving against our peers.

Lifeboats for the “App Flood”

With more devices launched in 2011, there are now even more places where you can buy apps. But how can you keep them all straight? Aggregators like Appolicious this year helped us find apps, but 2011 also saw the launch of several “Super Apps” — apps like Angry Birds that transcended the app store and took on lives of their own, marketed initially through their ranking and valued through CPMs. Angry Birds has even taken on a life outside of the app world, with t-shirts, stuffed toys, and even a retail store in the works.

Return to this space on Tue., Dec. 27, to read Christian Lindholm’s analysis of how the rest of Fjord’s predictions for 2011 have checked out, a year after they were initially made.

ADOTAS

All — or at least many — eyes are on mobile at the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, after the mobile realm has spent the past couple years proving itself and coming into its own. Mobile is now part of a standard dialogue for advertisers, and it’s extremely likely the standardization of HTML5 and the potential of location-based advertising will see a steady increase of dollars (or Euros, for that matter) into mobile advertising. In a press release, Berg telecom analyst Rickard Andersson also pointed to the popularity of apps and the rise of opt-in SMS ad campaigns. Berg’s statement acknowledges mobile is still in the process of being tamed, with a number of companies vying for the same space, but it also points to the continuation of that taming process. “Many acquisitions have recently taken place within the mobile marketing industry,” the statement reads, “and further consolidation is expected to bring about an ecosystem consisting of a few dominant digital advertising networks spanning all types of devices.” It’s worth noting a cleaner, less cluttered marketplace could very well prove more appealing, or effective, to major brands.

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Although a Tapjoy spokesperson said this plan had been in the works before the Apple smackdown, it’s hard not to see Tapjoy’s beta version of its Personal App Marketplace and reformatting of its website to a consumer-facing entity as a response to its banishment.

After garnering app information from users signing up through the mobile website, Tapjoy recommends other apps based on likes and dislikes, apps currently being used, apps used by friends and other factors. In addition, the site informs users of value exchange opportunities for virtual currency, including incentivized downloads and video interaction deals.

It sounds a bit like mobile app depot GetJar — particularly the social integration that allows users to hook up with friends — with more marketing opportunities for both developers and advertisers.

The current-day version of Tapjoy emerged after offer marketer OfferPal acquired the company and its name following a media scandal about deceitful offer-marketing schemes linked for virtual goods on social gaming sites.

Last week, Google finally silenced mobile critics and settled the debate by publishing some impressive numbers from its mobile advertising business. From this report, there was one simple piece of advice for all marketers who want to be successful in the future: get a mobile presence and make it presentable, now.

November is here and this is when you should start sending your holiday news and promotions for the Christmas season (as you can easily do with GraphicMail). Given the increasing number of smart-phone users, as the holidays approach it will be more likely that consumers start buying on the go.

• According to Forrester research, while 13% of the U.S. population searched with a mobile device in 2010 (90% with Google), mobile searchers will account for 28% of the U.S. population by 2015.

• Mobile search could become as big for Google, if not bigger, than desktop search. This holiday season, Google expects that 44% of total searches for last minute gifts will be from mobile devices.

Believe it or not, the company is already on track to bank more than $2.5 billion for mobile advertising in the coming year. Their growth in mobile advertising revenue means businesses must to get onto mobile as soon as they can. With Google itself optimizing for mobile, marketers need to follow their lead if they are looking to have a better stance online. Period.

And the most important takeaway of all: You really should have a mobile site irrespective of whether you think people will actually make purchases from it…

Users are looking at mobile marketing sites to make conclusions about businesses as a whole. How good your site looks on mobile is now more frequently used to determine what people think about you.

To make the mobile migration easy, GraphicMail has an innovate product that marries mobile websites and push marketing by way of a personalized web-link within bulk sms marketing sends. This enables a message to be delivered directly to subscribers’ phones with a simple click-through from an SMS, to channel viewers to an image-rich, personalized mobile site.

Cross-published at the GraphicMail blog.

GRAPHICMAIL

Instead, we have to compete with the deafening buzz of different media channels and businesses are fighting to be heard. People are looking for more authenticity; brands that share their values, simplify their lives and engage with them in meaningful communication. Retailers that treat each customer as an individual are achieving results, and this is where the mobile phone and bulk SMS marketing enters.

The adoption of bulk SMS marketing is a growing trend around the globe as consumer spending slows and retailers are forced to become more creative.

• Over 6.1 trillion text messages were sent in 2010 worldwide, according to a report from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

• The ITU study found that when it comes to a preferred method of contact, 31% of adults would choose a text message, 51% would choose a voice call and 14% say it depends on the situation. 55% of heavy texters, those who exchange 50 messages or more a day, prefer texting to talking.

• Bulk SMS messages can be targeted directly to the mobile phone of the user. It is capable of reaching 91% of the US population, with consumers on average opening 98% of text messages and responding directly to 26% of them.

There is no disputing the extraordinary reach and power of mobile marketing solutions. Today, people rarely go out without their mobile phone. Even at home, it’s usually within arm’s reach. A Pew Research Center study reported that 4 out of 5 young adults sleep with their phones on or near their beds and many said they never even turn their phones off.

Very simply, there is no technology that is more compelling, universal and immediate — making bulk SMS marketing with email marketing mobile a winning solution for retailers everywhere.

ADOTAS

Now, what if more than 50 million people in North America now have an app on their smartphone that can read a standard QR Code, and comScore found that 14 million Americans scanned in June alone? Sounds great, right? Now, you can go QR crazy and throw a code onto anything. People will go right to your home page and they will get all of the information they could ever want!

Not so fast.

In their simplest form, codes are a quick way to get to your website, but there is a much bigger opportunity to be realized. Deploying QR codes should come from a strategic idea that solves a need for your users. To demonstrate the effectiveness of deploying a strategic QR Code campaign, let’s look at some recent campaigns from Taco Bell, Tesco and Ford.

When Taco Bell sponsored MTV’s Video Music Awards they wanted to deliver exclusive MTV content to its customers in a way that would engage them with the actual product. ScanLife-powered QR Codes were placed on items like cups and boxes that would immediately link to mobile-formatted content.

What made this campaign unique was that the content was refreshed every week, so each time a code was scanned customers would see something different. This led to over 400,000 scans in just six weeks, which was a direct result of strategically combining code context and content.

Speaking of context, the next example is a gold standard. Tesco, a global grocery retailer, developed a program in Korea that combined the best of brick & mortar and e-commerce into a single shopping experience. It papered an entire commuter train station with what looked like real store aisles – milk, eggs, and other staples, but they needed one more ingredient to make this static installation come to life – QR codes.

Image courtesy of 2d-code

The program allowed customers to simply scan the codes to add an item to their shopping cart, buy, and ship the order to their home. Tesco could even make suggestions based on scanning behavior for other items that may not have been visible in the station. This was an amazing example of how codes can turn anything into a virtual store with ink, paper, and a great idea.

Finally, many people think that QR codes need to always link to the same content because the data is “hard wired” into the code. While this is true at a basic level, there is much more you can do to make your code smarter.

Ford ran a campaign that asked people at an event to “collect” or scan five unique codes that were distributed on Twitter and event signage. Once the same user scanned the entire group, he/she was automatically entered into a Ford Focus sweepstakes. All consumers had to do was enter an email once, and the real-time metadata did the rest. It’s important to understand that each code is unique, each user is unique, and – once you combine the two – you can have a really engaging experience that is relevant and exciting.

The world of QR Codes is upon us. Codes are being published in droves, and people are now ready to scan. But don’t disappoint them! They are taking the time to engage with your brand, so take advantage and give them an experience that will make your QR Code proud.