Findings from Adobe Digital Index’s ‘Asia Pacific Best of the Best’ study confirms that brands in Australia and New Zealand are increasingly seeing social media and mobile as an effective platform for customer interaction and engagement.

Adobe Digital Index has analysed website performance in Asia Pacific to compare the performance of the top 20% versus the average. It looks at key performance indicators are social media traffic, stickiness, smartphone and desktop conversion, smartphone and desktop visits and consumption.

The analysis shows how the best digital marketing organisations are performing relative to the average across various industries in Australia/New Zealand (ANZ), Japan, India, Hong Kong, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

Key findings include:

• In addition to leading APAC in social media traffic rates, the best ANZ brands are moving away from the average, indicating that it is essential to understand multi-touch social marketing and emphasises the importance of social channels.
• Smartphone traffic increased for the best of the best and average websites, indicating that brands are optimising smartphone content. In addition, all industries saw a year-over-year increase in smartphone traffic, while desktop traffic decreased in ANZ and across all industries.
• The best brands have pulled way ahead of the average in smartphone conversion rates (129% difference) – the highest increase in APAC.
• Smartphone average monthly website visits per visitor decreased, showing that while traffic is high, repeat visits from the same individual decreased.
• Time spent on a smartphone lags behind both desktops and tablets, indicating that websites have not reached their full potential regarding mobile optimisation. However, APAC consumers generally spend more time on a website than US-based consumers.
• Stickiness has decreased among both the best and average brands, though ANZ is still among one of the highest in APAC with the average (44.9%) falling just behind that of South Korea for the average and behind Hong Kong for the best of the best. The best are pulling away from the average, indicating those who invest in methods to attract and retain traffic are succeeding in the delivery of relevant and engaging website experiences.
• In terms of average websites, ANZ sees the second highest visit rate on both desktop (1.67 per month) and smartphone (1.57 per month), coming in behind Japan. This equates to higher loyalty and return traffic.

RELATED: Adobe Digital Index’s Tamara Gaffney shares key insights from the 2014 round of digital marketing benchmarking research conducted across Asia-Pacific markets »

Here’s a slideshow of the full report:

The report shows consumers are becoming less willing to waste time browsing and demanding better experiences on their mobile devices, says Paul Robson, president, Adobe. “These frustrations and shorter attention spans mean people still prefer to convert on desktops,” he writes in a blog post. “It’s never been more important for marketers to remember that consumers are increasingly using smartphones for communicating with their family and friends as well as with brands. Understanding the impact that has on the experience of your brand is critical.

“To combat the decline in engagement, smartphone optimisation is essential. Marketers need to meet the rise of smartphone traffic across all industries. Desktop has retained 100% relative consumption length compared to 59% on mobile, and that means brands need to provide an amazing experience for their customers on mobile,” he says.