1-800-Flowers (FLWS) is another example. The company says it's customers were two or three times more likely to click to make a phone call from a handset than to click on anadvertisement on a desktop computer. Cable provider Comcast (CMCSK) has found the same to be true. Since starting to use mobile ads in June last year, the company says it has seen a surge in mobile sales, with 270% greater click-through rates on mobile than desktop devices. Mobile advertising now drives more than 10% of the company's online sales, up from virtually nothing last year. "Sometimes customers can do all the research, but they'll still have questions they want to talk to someone about," says Joshua Palau, vice president of digital sales and marketing at Comcast cable, another company.
The hitch? Figuring out how to track the impact mobile advertising has on consumers. Currently, there's no way for advertisers to track if a customer starts their purchasing experience on one device and moves to a different platform to finish. For example, a Comcast customer could research the deals the company has to offer through the company's mobile site or online but, ultimately, end up walking into one of its satellite stores to complete the purchase. Google says it is working to fix that. "Your mobile phone is really becoming a tool to navigate you through the physical world," says Jason Spero, head of global sales and marketing at Google. "Right now, we're not doing a great job of tracking digital in the physical world, but we're very close."
