For those of you who missed the ironing of a new term, micro-moment marketing is the moment when a searcher turns to their smartphone to find information about a place they want to go, a thing they want to do or a thing they want to buy.

Mobile devices are taking over the Internet and you know it! Desktop computers are slowly fading away (at least when it comes to users who don't need them for professional reasons). All shapes of marketing are being seen through tablents and smartphones and mobile is becoming essential in digital marketing. 

Micro-moment is a chance for brands and companies to capitalize on the chance to get in touch with potential consumers. This further allows them to adjust their decisions in regard of their product placement and possibly small shifts of products themselves. For marketers who want to understand consumer behavior and meet changing expectations, a deeper understanding of micro-moments is crucial.

Google says one in four people now use a smartphone only for search during the day as they seek to meet an immediate need (to locate an answer to a question, find a local business etc)

This is a pretty seismic change for advertisers. There are no longer just a few sporadic “a-ha!” moments of truth; now there are countless moments that matter. For example, we’ve seen that 69% of leisure travelers use their smartphones to search for travel ideas during spare moments like standing in line or waiting for the subway. Then nearly half of those travelers go and book through an entirely separate channel (like their work laptop). As a travel brand, if you don’t win that first moment, you don’t have a shot at the second.

Retail is another example where we’ve seen a massive shift in behavior thanks to mobile. One in three consumers report using a mobile phone in a store versus asking a store associate. Overall, 82% of smartphone users consult their phones while they’re standing in a store deciding what product to buy. One in 10 of those end up buying a different product than they planned.

In these micro-moments, consumer expectations are higher than ever. The powerful computers we carry in our pockets have trained us to expect brands to deliver exactly what we are looking for – the moment we are looking. We want things right, and we want things right away. In fact, 69% of online consumers agree that the quality, timing, or relevance of a company’s message influence their perception of a brand.

As a brand, you can therefore turn to micro-moments to elevate your search marketing performance. By being there and being useful exactly when it’s needed, you can use micro-moments as a vehicle to increase engagement and ROI.

To do that, you need to know exactly how to leverage micro-moments and what those moments really look like for you and your customers.

Google identifies 4 key moments when a person turns to a device to act on a need:

If you haven’t yet optimized for mobile search, now is the time to do so. With useful content ready to be discovered and a strategy ready to capitalize, the last thing you want is to frustrate your hard-earned traffic with a clunky, slow or hard to navigate site. Optimize for speed, search visibility and the user experience.

Special thanks to Wall Street Journal  and WordTracker