GEN Z Mobile Trends: How to Adapt
By: Marcela Mack
Most people today can agree that Gen Z is the new wave and all the rave. They are the first generation of digital natives. The overly connected entrepenuers have brought all new mobile trends along with them on their rise to the top.
While mobile is surely apart of any millennial’s (or older) daily life, whether it’s for a quick search or a quick laugh, its being used far more by their successors.
“ “Gen Z spend an average 4 hours and 15 minutes per day on mobile with 95% of them owning a smartphone. 78% of them consider their mobile devices their most important device to go online compared to 74% of millennials.” ”
A smartphone is often the life blood of a Gen Z-er; it holds their whole life, sometimes even their business. It is important to keep up with their changing mobile behaviors in order to best reach these tech savvy consumers.
This is Why Mobile First Indexing is Perfect for Gen Z…
Mobile first indexing means that the mobile version of your website becomes the starting point for what Google includes in their index, and the baseline for how they determine rankings (MOZ).
Since so much of Gen Z’s activity is done through mobile, this means most sites they visit will be the mobile version as opposed to its desktop counterpart.
With this change, it is important to keep your mobile site up to date in order to keep the attention of Gen Z viewers and consumers.
“Even with a totally responsive site, you’ll want to ensure that mobile page speed and load time are prioritized and that images and other (potentially) dynamic elements are optimized correctly for the mobile experience”
According to Institute of Business Management, 60% of Gen Z will not use an app or website that loads too slowly.
Something that only seems to grow is the lack of attention span of mobile viewers. Gen Z probably has the shortest attention span yet. With everything ready at the touch of their fingers, why would they wait for something to load, or read something too lengthy?
In order to combat this, you must approach it head on. In the book, Webs of Influence, the Psychology of Online Persuasion by Natalie Nahai, it is advised to take a heuristic approach.
““If your audience is time- and attention-poor with a low need for cognition, then taking a less effortful route can work better. This means designing experiences, messages and interac- tions that leverage cognitive rules of thumb such as scarcity, social proof and liking (among many others).””
Some Gen Z Mobile Stats to Remember
Over 32% of Gen Z transactions take place on a mobile device. (Criteo)
According to Gen Z statistics, 69% believe ads are disruptive. (Review42)
55% of Generation Z use their smartphones for five or more hours daily. And more than a quarter (26%) are glued to their mobile devices for over 10 hours a day. (Review42)
Gen Z tend to be more interested in gaming, modern art and extreme sports than millennials. (BusinessOfApps)
56% of teens use social media apps to express themselves creatively. (Snapchat)
Sources:
https://www.businessofapps.com/news/a-look-at-gen-z-mobile-behaviours-64-of-mobile-users-are-always-connected/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/gen-z-stats
(photo) https://www.uber.com/en-IE/blog/gen-z-trends-managers-should-know/
https://moz.com/blog/mobile-first-indexing-seo
https://review42.com/resources/gen-z-statistics/
https://www.criteo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/GenZ-Report.pdf
https://assets.ctfassets.net/inb32lme5009/5DFlqKVGIdmAu7X6btfGQt/44fdca09d7b630ee28f5951d54feed71/Into_Z_Future_Understanding_Gen_Z_The_Next_Generation_of_Super_Creatives_.pdf