I was able to attend a Google-hosted event in Manchester last Thursday in the form of Google@Manchester.

It was an amazing event with some incredible speakers and the content of the talks was very forward-thinking. Do you know the sort of events that leave you buzzing with ideas when you leave? Well, it was one of those. I’m still mulling the numbers over and thinking about how I can action some of the things talked about to even further improve our clients’ campaigns.

I Tweeted a lot of the key stats on my Twitter channel during the event but 140 characters only allow you to say so much. So here is a (much lengthier) summary of the main takeaways from the event.

The Speakers and the Sessions

google@manchester event

We were fortunate enough to hear from some great and well-informed speakers, with the sessions including:

  • It’s All About You – Mark Howe, Country Sales Director, UK, Google.
  • The Video Revolution – Ben Faes, Managing Director, Media and Platforms NACE, Google.
  • Connected TV – A panel with Ben Faes, Tim Elkington (Director of Research and Strategy at IAB) and Phil Fearnley (General Manager News and Knowledge, BBC)
  • Who Wants to be a Millionaire – Shane Cassells, Online Conversion Specialist at Google UK and Ireland and Andrew Barke, the agency Industry Head at Google.
  • Mobile – It’s Not too Late to be Early – Amanda Rosenberg, Business Development Manager for Mobile at Google
  • Full Value of Search – Shane Cassells
  • Hanging out with the G+ Crew – Many of the G+ team (included a live Hangout with product Director, Dennis Troper, from Mountain View, CA).
  • Bringing it all Together – Dr Patrick Dixon, Chairman of Global Change Ltd

The Main Messages

I’ll try and summarise 4 hours of data packed sessions here into the quick points:

  • The Internet is a ”˜good news story,’ accounting for 7-8% of the UK GDP and continuing to grow
  • Google’s future lies in ”˜Solomoco.’ (Social, Local, Mobile, Commerce)
  • Mobile ”˜bridges the gap between the web and real-life,’ and (as we knew!) it’s only growing! We were also treated to the UK’s first live demo of Android 4.0 though that will be a blog post in itself (coming soon!).
  • Marketing online isn’t just about a desktop or a mobile. It’s about marketing seamlessly across all devices and verticals. Your desktop audience is also your mobile audience

The Key Facts, Figures and Thoughts

One of Google’s biggest assets is its data and they were happy to share facts and figures (both their own and those from other sources) in their droves at the event. The main ones:

Mobile

mobile facts from google@manchester

  • 1 in 3 mobile searches have a local element to them
  • Only 17% of UK businesses have websites optimised for mobile but 45% of consumers use smartphones while shopping.
  • Mobile is “the bridge between the web and real life.” (Mark Howe of Google)
  • 10 years from now, mobile commerce will be worth £19 billion globally.
  • Click through rate for banners served on Apple is twice as high as on Android! (Apple users are more likely to click on ads!)
  • Mobile users are twice as likely to click on a banner on their mobile after 7 pm as they are at 7 am.

Video

video google@manchester

  • Youtube now has 800 million users, 200 million of which visits every day.
  • Youtube accounts for 20% of all UK and US internet bandwidth
  • Netflix accounts for 25% of the US Internet bandwidth
  • Youtube is not a competitor to broadcasters and content creators – it’s a distribution platform.
  • There is the equivalent of 18 years worth of ”˜engaged views’ of Youtube Trueview ads every single day on Youtube.

Search

google logo

  • 70% of clicks from search engine results pages are on organic results.
  • Of the organic clicks, 60% go to the top three results.

Social

google plus

  • The Google +1 button is now being served around 5 billion times per day.
  • Users are more likely to read blog posts in the morning and Tweets in the evening (via Dr Patrick Dixon)
  • 94% of the US top 100 companies now have a business presence on Google Plus.

Conversion and Tracking

  • 52% of conversion journeys are multi-click, yet 90% of Adwords advertisers attribute the conversion to the last click.
  • 40% of consumers will research online then purchase offline.

These were the key stats and facts but it would be impossible to summarise the whole event. Instead, I’ll be blogging in more detail over the next couple of weeks about various things discussed at the event and what they might mean for businesses in real terms!