Yelp: 35 Percent Of Searches Mobile Now

Yelp released some new mobile data yesterday based on usage and activity in December. The company said that its mobile apps generated calls to local businesses “every other second.” Here are some of the other data:

• 3.2 million unique visitors used a Yelp mobile app
• Every other second a consumer generated directions to a local business
• A photo was uploaded every 30 seconds from a Yelp mobile app

Most striking to this audience will be the following stat: “35% of all searches on Yelp.com came from a Yelp mobile app.”

The mobile audience on Yelp is more active and engaged than its PC audience. This characteristic of mobile users (vs. PC users) has been confirmed again and again by Google, Microsoft and Facebook in their statements about mobile usage. In many contexts conversions are higher and leads are better because of the greater intent or needs of mobile users.

Last year, 2010, was the year that consumers broadly adopted the mobile internet (now 91.7 million in the US according to Nielsen). This year, 2011, is the year that marketers get (mobile) religion as they see the kind of value it can deliver.

In addition to being a very powerful search medium, mobile is (somewhat counter-intuitively) a tremendous branding medium as well — perhaps even more effective than TV. Indeed, new data from Campbell’s Soup and Nielsen seem to confirm this potential:

Those exposed to one of Campbell’s iAds were more than twice as likely to recall it than those who had seen a TV ad. Indeed the five-week study, conducted by Nielsen, showed that consumers shown an iAd remembered the brand “Campbell’s” five times more often than TV ad respondents and the ad messaging three times more often.

We’ll have a couple of great mobile sessions at SMX West (Mobile Search Ads, Mobile Apps) and several local sessions that will directly or indirectly touch on mobile. There’s also a Yelp-specific session that I’ll be moderating.

If you’re a marketer and haven’t yet started actively using mobile, you’re already behind.

Related entries:

• A Year Later Even Google Surprised By Success Of Click-To-Call
• Review Sites’ Rancor Rises With Prominence of Google Place Pages
• Microsoft: 53 Percent Of Mobile Searches Have Local Intent
• Google’s Mobile Moves Tighten Its Grip On Local
• Report: Local Search Users Better Prospects, But Market Complex And Fragmented
• Google And Yelp Express “Complicated” Relationship In Conference
• Yelp Targets Foursquare, Facebook With Check-In Offers
• Big Deal: Facebook Emerges As Major Player In Mobile And Location-Based Services