Marketers Are Neglecting Mobile, And It’s Hitting Their Conversion Rates Hard

New data reveals that many digital marketers seem to be neglecting mobile, and it’s taking a serious toll on their conversion rates. In Unbounce’s 2024 Conversion Benchmark Report, which analyzes insights from over 57 million conversions across more than 41,000 landing pages, mobile traffic accounted for a staggering 82.9% of all landing page traffic. Yet, desktop visitors converted 8% better than mobile. This confirms that while buyers are browsing via mobile, marketers are either deprioritizing mobile or not optimizing effectively—and it’s costing them conversions.

Mobile optimization is an essential form of personalization

It’s no secret that personalized marketing works. But if most of your audience is on mobile and your landing pages are designed for desktop, you’re leaving money on the table by not maximizing ROI from every campaign. Imagine telling your team that they created a killer piece of content, but you lost hundreds or even thousands of conversions because your landing page wasn’t mobile-optimized. Yikes!

Think of your desktop landing page as a storefront, and imagine you had to cut your floor space in half. If you clutter that space (or worse, hide the best parts), your customers are going to get frustrated and leave—or miss your best product or offer entirely. Your job is to guide them smoothly to the point of conversion, providing just enough information to convince them to take action, and presenting it in a mobile-friendly format.

Mobile optimization has been a must for over a decade, but these stats show us that many marketers aren’t aware of the impact or, worse, don’t know how to optimize effectively. It’s not enough to just shrink your desktop landing page for mobile; you need to rethink your entire approach.

Let’s break down a few things you can do to optimize your mobile conversion rates.

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Know your industry, know your buyer

One-size-fits-all strategies don’t work in conversion rate optimization (CRO), and they definitely don’t work for mobile. Industry-specific data is crucial for knowing how important mobile optimization is for your sector, and what you can do to convert more customers. Here’s a taste of what the 2024 Conversion Benchmark Report revealed:

1. Health and wellness:

Landing pages in this industry get 7x more traffic from mobile devices, but desktop visitors convert 22% better.

2. Professional services:

Landing pages in this industry get 4x more traffic from mobile devices, but desktop visitors convert 40% better.

What does this tell you? It’s essential to understand how mobile and desktop users behave in your industry—and at different stages of the funnel. For instance, if you’re selling a complex product, your bottom-of-funnel pages may attract more desktop traffic as buyers carefully review all purchase details before converting.

Keep using industry benchmarks as a guide to start optimizing for mobile. You can then build a more precise strategy by regularly assessing your landing page performance based on traffic volume from different devices, conversion rate by device type, and conversion rate by funnel stage.

Optimize your approach to paid media based on buyer behavior

You already know that your ad copy should match your landing page. But are you considering which traffic sources align best with your buyer’s behavior on mobile? If mobile traffic is dominating your landing page, it makes sense to optimize your paid media channels accordingly.

For example, Instagram is a mobile-first platform that leads in paid social conversion, according to Unbounce’s latest benchmark data. Testing mobile-first channels like this can help you drive more conversions by tailoring your channels to your buyer’s preferred device.

Conversion-centered design, optimized for mobile

You’ve heard of conversion-centered design (CCD), right? It’s a design philosophy that focuses every element of your page on driving a specific conversion goal. While CCD applies to both desktop and mobile landing pages, you’ll need to make some key adjustments for mobile visitors. Here’s how:

1. Focus on one conversion goal:

Dual CTAs (like “Buy Now” and “Learn More”) aren’t typically best practice, but they’re even less effective on mobile. Keep it simple and make it clear what action you want the user to take.

2. Cut down on links:

On desktop, it’s easy to jump between tabs and go back to previous pages. On mobile, it’s more difficult—which means it’s best to use fewer links. If users click away to a secondary page, it’s unlikely they’ll make the effort to return.

3. Prioritize your content:

Use a clear information hierarchy, starting with a strong hook—whether that’s a compelling headline or a striking visual. Only include elements that support your conversion goal. Avoid wasting prime mobile real estate on unnecessary branding or distractions.

Cut down your landing page copy 

Mobile optimization doesn’t stop at design—it applies to your content too. When it comes to landing page copy, less is more, especially for mobile users.

Most industries analyzed in the Conversion Benchmark Report hit their conversion rate benchmarks with landing pages that had between 425 and 475 words. That’s the sweet spot to aim for, but as always, testing is a must. If you’re currently working with long-winded copy, try creating a shorter, more concise version for mobile and see if your conversions improve.

Embrace the mobile-first mindset to maximize ROI for every campaign 

Marketers are grasping for ways to get better results with fewer resources. When it comes to mobile optimization, small tweaks can have huge payoffs, especially when the majority of your landing page traffic comes from mobile devices.

Landing page optimization is no longer just about fitting your design into a smaller screen—it’s about crafting an entirely different experience that meets your mobile visitors where they are and how they behave. They’re on-the-go, often multitasking, and they won’t take the time or energy to sift through a clunky, overstuffed landing page. When you optimize for mobile, you’re not just improving usability—you’re making a strategic move that drives revenue.

So, if you haven’t already, now’s the time to audit your landing pages and start making changes. Because if your competitors are doing it and you’re not, you can bet they’ll be the ones reaping the rewards.

About the Author:

Alex is a results-driven Marketing & eCommerce leader and the Vice President of Growth at Unbounce. As a self-proclaimed data nerd, he is obsessed with digging into a company’s business model to pull out the insights that help to build a profitable marketing machine.

As well as helping to grow B2B SaaS businesses like Unbounce, Alex has extensive experience across a variety of businesses such as INDOCHINO, BestBuy and Hootsuite.

Alex loves mentoring and developing digital leaders in how they can translate data into dynamic stories that build brands and drive sales. In the past, he has leant his unique voice and insights to a host of marketing webinars and podcasts such as Metric Stack and Unprompted: AI, Marketing and you.

When he’s not growing brands through data-driven insights, Alex can be found growing his collection of houseplants (he has over 20!), hanging out with his dog, or hitting the local trails in his beautiful hometown of Vancouver, BC.

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