Mobile App vs Mobile Site?

Have you been trying to figure out your mobile strategy? Mobile’s only growing, and it’s already pretty big. If you don’t have some kind of mobile strategy, you’re likely missing out on a lot of opportunities. 

You may be struggling to decide whether you what to go the route of the mobile app, the mobile website or both. According to ebookers’ Director of Product Strategy Rob Define, "You need to have both." 

Define’s words are highlighted in a post on the Google Mobile blog. Google Mobile Ads Product Marketing Manager Matt Brocklehurst dicusses his speech, saying:

To help customers “book easier”, last January ebookers launched the first fully transactional multi-product mobile site of any online travel agency in Europe. “What we wanted was really to have 100% the same product that we have on desktop,” said Rob. This meant the mobile site offered a lower cost, faster development time and more straightforward support than an app. Based on the experience of their US-based sister company Orbitz, ebookers also knew that a mobile website would bring more bookings than an app. “As an e-commerce transactional website, we wanted to drive through bookings first.”

The second part of ebookers’ mobile strategy was to help clients “travel happier”. “We did that by launching the ebookers Explorer iPad app in May,” Rob revealed. Mashing together content from several social media sites to create a dynamic travel magazine, the app set out to build customer value and brand awareness through differentiation, and to focus on innovation and inspiration rather than just transactions. 

He goes on to say that ebookers experienced a 90% jump in visitors and bookings via mobile during the first five moths after launching their mobile site.

Define also suggested a dedicated mobile PPC account and the testing of mobile ad-specific test. Using mobile specific text, the company says, can increase CTR up to 25%. Clearly, Google has a vested in interest in you using PPC, but the mobile-specific vs. desktop test is at the very least an issue worth exploring.  

There is a full case study on ebookers’ mobile strategy here. There’s also an 11 minute video of Define talking here.