Google serve over trillions of search queries every year and out of them over 15% are new search queries they never received before. Day by day the way consumers behave in the digital world is going through a huge change. Especially with more internet searches now taking place on smartphones than desktop or other devices, more shopping searches being conducted from mobile and more local search queries being conducted on the go than ever before. That is why the worldwide ad spends for mobiles have also been immensely increased.

While working with big ecommerce brands, I have seen this swift very closely, especially in last two years. Research says, “We estimate global expenditure on mobile advertising at US$107 billion in 2017, representing 52.6% of internet expenditure and 19.8% of total advertising expenditure (this total excludes a few markets where we don’t have a breakdown by medium). By 2020 we forecast mobile advertising to have grown to US$180 billion, nearly double desktop’s US$94 billion total, having overtaken desktop in 2017. Mobile will account for 65.6% of internet expenditure and 29.3% of all expenditure in 2020 – more than all the traditional media except television put together”. This reflects the amazingly rapid growth of ecommerce marketing on mobile which has brought a revolution among the advertisers and the consumers.

It has been noticed that consumers make decisions according to mobile content that serves the appropriate purpose at the appropriate moment. Content, hence, should be addressed to users intentions and accessible everywhere – throughout different device types, various platforms, and varied channels. And in this context, the importance of micro moments comes.

Are you thinking what micro moments are? Well, in this post, that is exactly what I am going to discuss today. After going through today’s post, you will come to know how ecommerce business is dependent on micro moments and in which way these moments can change the game of sponsored advertising. If you really understand these micro moments of your prospect customers, you can definitely increase the sales through your eCommerce website.

What is Micro Moments?

Google has nicely classified the Micro Moments which is an intent-rich moments, occur when people turn to a device, especially a smartphone, to act on a need – to know, do, buy, or go. This is a unique way to influence consumers or to get more customers which lot of marketers are still unaware of or don’t leverage it.

Let me tell you more elaborately what these Micro Moments are:

• “I want to know” moments – These occur when people research or explore something, but are not really in buying mode.

For example, after adopting an Abyssinian cat, a user has started wondering “what type of food should I get for this cat?” Instead of asking somebody in the family or among friends, the user intuitively picks up the phone and types “best food for abyssinian cats”.

Here the audience is still not in buying position but He may become your customer in the future. If you are looking to expand your brand reach, you can also target “I want to know” users. Here the conversion rate will be low but you can re-target such audiences during “I want to buy” moment.

• “I want to do” moments – These occur when people require assistance in finishing a task or trying something new.

For example, a user just finished a woodwork for decorating his or her house interior. Now the user wants to stain the wood but is not aware of its actual process. Instead of taking advice from a professional, the user turns to the smartphone and type “how to apply wood stain.” If you are working on content marketing campaign to target such audiences, building such content may result in better ROI for the longer run.

This type of audience generally seeking help but sometime they may need professional services to complete the task and you may generate more business. Building DIY guides and resourceful content promoted through the proper channel can help you to reach proper audiences in specific region.

• “I want to go” moments – These occur when people search for the local businesses or consider purchasing something or availing a service at a nearby store.

For example, if somebody from a small town in New York wants to increase some muscle mass, the person will naturally pick up the phone and type “gym near me”. This is the best moments for the businesses operating local services. Google provides tremendous opportunity for the business to target these “I want to Go” audiences through Google adwords.

• “I want to buy” moments – These occur when people decide to buy something and probably require help in what to buy or how to buy it.

For example, on the way back to home from the office, a user feels hungry and wants to grab a bite of pizza. But incidentally all the nearest pizza places are either too noisy to place an order or have no seats available. Instinctively the user picks up the phone and types “order dominos pizza” or “order from pizza hut”.

This micro moment can be best target for an eCommerce website where you specifically run the ads for the “I want to buy” related search queries. Here the conversion rate will be higher and you can generate better ROI too. I know that Shopping ads does not provide the facility to target keywords but you can definitely control them by optimizing shopping feed and using negative keywords list.

Hope you have understood that these acts or moments help the consumers make decisions and shape preferences. In these moments, the expectations of the consumers stay at the highest pick. Thus the marketers should be aware of the micro moments to meet the ever-changing expectations of the consumers and capitalize those moments through flawless consumer interaction.

What Opportunities Micro Moments Bring for an E-Commerce Marketers?

Research says across numerous major industries, the volume of online searches, especially from mobile devices, is growing year after year. For example, in the home and garden industry, mobile search volume has been increased around 45% year-on-year, whereas the year-on-year growth of mobile search volumes is around 40% in electronics and apparel sector and around 30% in food and beverage industry.

This growth certainly brings a handful of opportunities for the emarketers to communicate with their target audience, build brand loyalty, make customer relationships stronger and nurture conversations. And in all these major areas, a detailed understanding of micro moments can help immensely and can be used as a marketing resource.

If you have a brand to promote, you should turn to micro moments to uplift your brand’s search marketing performance. By being there and staying useful precisely when it is required, you can utilize micro moments as the means of elevating engagement and Return on Investment (ROI).

To be successful in this process, the marketer needs to be aware of the methods to leverage the micro moments the best possible way and what those moments actually look like for their respective brands and the customers. If you make sure that you will be able to be there, give useful answers to every customer and offer a good user experience, there is nothing that can stop you to reap the benefits.

How to Optimize Adwords Campaign According to Micro Moments

As we already discussed four key micro moments in first part of the article. Now you need to understand that for each moment, users search for particular piece of information. Now, let’s talk about how you can optimize your Adwords campaign and map your ad to the users’ search intents in each of those micro moments.

1. Optimize Your Ad for “Want to Know” Moments

An ideal ad that maps to the query of this kind of micro moment denotes the users that they will get the information they are looking for once after clicking the ad. Such ads can comprise product comparison charts, a click to call link for more information, user-friendly information on a landing page etc. And make sure the pages, having all the information, are mobile-friendly.

Detailed comparison data with your competitor product will do the magic here. Representation of information is the crucial part for this type of audiences.

2. Optimize Your Ad according to “Want to Go” Moments

An ideal ad to meet the query of this type of micro moment shows local result and highlights that it can be conveniently mapped out. This micro moment can give you a competitive advantage if you make your ad local in the best possible way.

Are you thinking what are the best ways to make your ads local? Well, there are two basic strategies that you should follow:

• Harness the benefits of location extensions. Connect your Google AdWords account with your Google Places account to active the extensions.
• Add the location in the ad title.
• You can also run the call only ads

This way you can tell your users that how exactly your ad is relevant to their “I want to go” micro moments.

3. Optimize Your Ad according to “Want to Buy” Moments

If you want to optimize your ad according to this specific type of micro moment, you need to provide information that matches such queries or show to the users the ways of buying directly from their own devices, especially cellphones.

You can use Adwords shopping campaign to implement local inventory ads, providing details about your business, store, and products. Here you need to user negative keyword lists to stop appearing your ads for other type of micro moments and should focus more on “Want to buy” moments.

4. Optimize Your Ad according to “Want to Do” Moments

An ad, which matches the best with the search query of this type of moment, proffers clear-cut step-by-step directions about the ways to achieve the task a user is looking for. Make sure your ad should be informative rather than mere promotional.

One of the great formats to meet such queries is video content. However, you must ensure that your ad can take a user to a properly optimized mobile-friendly landing page with particular instructions. You can also run video ads to target this type of audiences.

Believe me, this type of ad can help you attain a certain level of goodwill with the users and introduce them to your products.

Over to you

Hope this post has given you a detailed idea about micro moments and their impact on the marketing strategies. So, what are you waiting for? Take your Adwords campaign to the next level by optimizing it according to the micro moments those are relevant to your business. If you have already started using tactics to optimize it, do share your experience with us in the comment section. We’d love to know.