And according to ComScore, this is usually in a few hours. Several studies were conducted to obtain these recent findings. Ipsos conducted an online survey of consumers across nine vertical segments: Auto, CPG, Finance, Local Services, Media & Entertainment, Restaurant, Retail, Tech and Travel. The firm also reviewed and incorporated data from a smartphone shopper diary study. The survey found that 88% of smartphone users and 84% of tablet owners conduct local searches. The leading searches were for business hours, directions to the local store, local store address, business hours, and product availability queries. Consumers conduct local searches both at home and on the go, with local search being used at all phases of the purchase cycle. Ipsos found that exchanges after a local search were more than twice as likely vs. a non-local search. Following a local search, half of smartphone searchers visited an offline store within 24 hours. The study also found that 1 in 3 searches on a smartphone occur right before consumers visit a store. In addition, the majority of store visits following a local search occurred within 5 miles of the user’s location. It noted that consumers prefer and act on location-based ads. 4 in 5 consumers want ads customized to their city, zip code or immediate surroundings. Roughly 60% of mobile device owners have interacted with or used location information in search ads. Important information to consider is the address, a link to directions, phone number, and call button. Exposure to local search ads often resulted in unplanned visits and purchases. Since almost 90% of mobile users search for local information, they expect information returned or presented on mobile devices to be localized. These are high quality searches that often turn into (mostly offline) purchases and marketers need mobile optimized sites with complete location information to satisfy user expectations. For AdWords advertisers, use Google extensions to localize/personalize ads.
Full article at http://searchengineland.com/research-56-percent-go-searches-carry-local-intent-190655
