Mobile Web site traffic in the Quattro Network as a percentage of corresponding online Web site traffic has grown 35 percent in the first quarter of this year from the fourth quarter of 2007.

That data show that online publishers with corresponding mobile sites within the Quattro Network are seeing a larger percentage of their visitors accessing their .com site through a mobile device in the first quarter. The data is part of a new North American study from mobile site developer and ad serving firm Quattro Wireless.

"It reflects the move to the flat-rate data plan, which I believe is still key to the success of the mobile Web," said Andy Miller, CEO of Quattro, Boston.

The .com domain carries clout on mobile. Mr. Miller noticed that sites with WAP or .mobi did not attract as much traffic within the Quattro Network as those with .com domains.

"NFL.mobi was not doing well in terms of traffic to the site, but once we got NFL.com [to render on mobile] the traffic went through the roof," Mr. Miller said. "No one knows WAP or .mobi."

Smartphones account for 60 percent of traffic to the Quattro Network sites. Traffic from Research In Motion Inc.'s BlackBerry mobile accounted for 48 percent of the traffic and the Apple iPhone 18 percent.

The typical smartphone's QWERTY keyboard and larger screen size, plus their growing affordability help with wider adoption. Which means the demographic of the average smartphone is changing from the early adopter or affluent consumer to more mainstream -- good news for mobile marketing.

"It just shows the U.S. mobile advertising market has this huge base," Mr. Miller said.

"We really believe that big screens and big keyboards will result in major interaction and strong engagement with mobile advertising and content," he said.

Usage mirrors mainstream
Quattro data also debunk another myth: that the mobile Web is consumed only between breaks or by work commuters. Not so with the more than 100 North American publishers who are Quattro clients, including NFL.com, TMZ, NBA.com, CBSNews.com and Univision.

In fact, patterns show that the mobile Web has all-day usage. Comparison with the computer Internet helps.

For example, 18 percent of Web browsing is done in early morning on the computer Internet versus 27 percent for mobile. The computer Internet accounts for 54 percent of all browsing compared with 35 percent for the mobile Web.

For the evening, it's 28 percent for the computer Internet versus 38 percent for the mobile Web.

The computer Internet data for time-of-day Internet usage is from comScore data. ComScore, Reston, VA, recently bought M:Metrics, a leading mobile media measurement firm (see story).

Significant browsing activity during non-lunch work hours may mean that office workers are locked out of visiting their favorite Web sites by employers on their work computers.

"If you look at the statistics, the usage is all-day patterns," Mr. Miller said. "The smartphones cuts across all demographics because of its price point. The result is that the mobile Web is not a bunch of kids or a bunch of travelers. It's just the Internet and there's an audience there for every marketer."

Observed behavior within the Quattro Network shows that time spent per session on the mobile Web -- 4.7 minutes -- is higher than the computer Internet's 4.2 minutes, as measured by comScore.

Quattro noted that mobile visitors average 3.91 page views per visit to Quattro publisher sites. By contrast, the average page views per visit for the computer Internet is 4.9 pages, per comScore. Mobile Web's slower page loads and limited page content are likely reasons for the difference.

In a related finding, mobile users average 5.08 visits per month to the Quattro Network publisher sites -- a tad lower than the 5.19 for the computer Internet, as measured by comScore.

Ads click with visitors
On the advertiser side, Quattro compiled data from more than two dozen national branded campaigns that ran in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 on the company's ad network.

The qualifying campaigns needed to see a minimum of 20,000 unique visitors to the advertiser's mobile Web microsite. The advertisers ran comprised industries such as consumer packaged goods, electronics, movie and digital media, beverage and automotive.

Mobile display ad campaigns on the Quattro Network average a 2.33 percent click-through rate, Quattro claimed. This falls within the 1 percent to 6 percent band for campaigns of this size and scale. Compare that with the typical 0.2 percent click-through rate for computer Internet campaigns, per ABI Research.

The banner ad unit's share of screen on mobile and the fact that there are rarely two ads visible simultaneously on mobile Web sites works in favor of mobile Web advertising.

Post-click analysis shows that visitors to a Quattro-built and -- hosted advertiser advertiser microsite average 3.01 page views. Post-click page views ranged from 2 to 5. Movie-related advertising microsites saw recorded the highest page views.

"All the P&G sites and all the movie sites are putting their computer Internet assets on mobile and on video," Mr. Miller said.

Advertisers within the Quattro Network won favorable results by mixing mobile formats into their microsite offerings.

For example, SMS signups for text clubs, alerts and sweepstakes see high conversions. Text club conversions fall in the 3 percent to 5 percent range while phone number submissions are about 15 percent of all visitors to the advertiser's microsite.

Also, free sample requests from mobile consumers have consistently been double that of the corresponding print requests.

Equally interesting, 26 percent of visitors accessing an advertiser microsite in the Quattro Network with a video component have downloaded or streamed at least one of the video offerings on the site.

"It just shows the viability of the mobile Internet as a viable platform for premium content and premium advertisers throughout the day," Mr. Miller said.

Studies such as Quattro's, titled "Wired to Wireless Web: A Premier Network Study," are designed to clear the air around mobile marketing and media. Advertisers and advertising agencies often require results and research to carve or move budgets to new mediums.

"If you want to take the mystery out of mobile, it's not the mobile Web or the wired Web -- it's just the Internet," Mr. Miller said. "That's a lot of what media buyers need to understand.

"It's the Internet, it's a little bit more personal, it's a little more engaged, it's a little more complex, but it shouldn't take too much time," he said. "It's just the Internet."