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In the session "Time To Think Seriously About Mobile Paid Search?," the speakers focused on mobile paid search opportunities and strategies for search marketers.

Coverage of SMX Advanced continues at WebProNews Videos. Stay with WebProNews for more updates and videos from the event this week.

Lara Mehanna

Lara Mehanna, Director of Product Management, JumpTap, spoke about the growth in mobile advertising. The mobile Internet is more accessible and there are 5 billion mobile phones in use today.

Mobile web pages continue to improve and the ecosystem is maturing. Purchasing power with mobile is becoming more widespread with 24 percent of users making a purchase via their smartphone and 81 percent use mobile devices while shopping.

Targeting Intelligence Delivers:
DO target your audience
DO take your audience to closest point of conversion
DO bid on keyword relevant to mobile users
DON'T take your Internet keyword list and use it with mobile campaigns (biggest mistake people make!) Searchers act differently

Cindy Krum, CEO, Rank-Mobile, said the true mobile offerings are the iPhone, Android phones and BB Storm.

Messaging strategies
Popular: sports, celebrity, news, wallpaper, ringtones, etc.
Reinforce mobile friendliness

Keyword strategies:
Shorter more generic
Less need for exact or phrase match

Landing page strategy
Test landing pages for mobile

Track success!

Reid Spice, director of search media strategy, iCrossing, said, "Mobile is not for everyonebut unless you've opted out, you're playing!"

With mobile, you basically have to be in the top 2 spots in the search results. Mobile conversion rates are lower.

Handsets and data networks have improved dramatically. It will be hard to move past the limitations of small screen real estate.

Michael Martin, SEO Director of Project Management, Internet Marketing, talked about the monetization of mobile applications. In 2008 most smartphone users spent up to $100 on apps.
Martin predicts 2009 will see the rise of Android. By the end of the year there will be 18-20 Android phones vs. 1 iPhone.

Android service providers will include T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon and Rogers.

Takeaway:
Maximize on the exponential growth of mobile phones and the application demands of 2009 onward.

Best target to advertise - GPS location based mobile social media - next/current evolution of social media
How to advertise in mobile - AdMob DeckTrade and Medio as well as AdWords
Mobile display - HVGA - 320x420 resolution
Great mobile plugin for WordPress is WP-Touch
Branding - mobile widgets to your company's RSS feeds/articles
App Exposure - Apple's app store, etc.
SEM - retains importance

WebProNews anchor/reporter Abby Johnson contributed to this report.