You only need to stand at any bus stop in Australia to know we love our mobile phones, but it’s our preoccupation with tablets that’s world class judging from the latest stats from Adobe.

The Adobe Digital Index Best of the Best Benchmark 2015 confirms that marketers in Australia and New Zealand are increasingly focused on mobile as an effective form of customer interaction and engagement. The research also reflects how mobile-first business transformation is being led by Asia Pacific, as the region outpaces the United States on smartphone visits.

The study compares the overall average versus the top 20 per cent websites as rated on six key performance indicators across eight regions: Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia, India, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Japan and the United States. Key performance indicators are smartphone and tablet traffic; stick rate (more than one page per visit); visits-per-visitor; time spent; conversion rate; and click-through-rate. The research provides insights to determine how the best digital marketing organisations are performing relative to the average.

“In all key performance areas the best digital marketers in Australia and New Zealand are strong performers, especially in areas like conversion rates and smartphone visits,” said Tamara Gaffney, director, Adobe Digital Index.

“Not only did we see the gaps increase for tablet and smartphone visits between the best of the best websites and the average websites, we congruently saw the best of the best are also moving away from the average in terms of conversion, stick rates and visits, indicating the direct correlation between mobile capability and consumer engagement.

“This suggests that not only are the best websites better optimised for mobile usage, they are also delivering higher results in terms of converting visits to action including conversion.”

Key findings in the Best of the Best Benchmark for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) include:

• Smartphone visits increased through December 2014 for the best of the best and average websites optimised for smartphone visitors, indicating that mobile visitors are more engaged.
• ANZ saw the highest share of traffic from tablets than any other country, at 16% for best of the best websites and 11% for average websites compared to an Asia average of 8% for the best websites and 5% for average websites, suggesting that ANZ marketers are capitalising on device optimisation.
• ANZ leads the entire region in loyal return visitors, both from best of the best and average websites, which equates to higher loyalty and reduced acquisition costs.
• Best websites are engaging with high stick rates of 64%, indicating the ability to attract and satisfy consumer needs.
• Time spent on websites which is the best metric for site engagement shows the best websites are 29% higher than the average; all countries in the Asia Pacific region fared better than the United States on this performance metric.
• Acquisition via search is strongest in ANZ, with click-through-rates at 6.5% for the best of the best websites and 3.5% for the average websites, indicating that there is alignment between consumer intent and advertising execution

“It’s clear mobile optimisation is no longer an option, and if businesses are under-skilled in mobile development, it will put them at a severe disadvantage,” said Gaffney.

“APAC is dominating when it comes to smartphone and tablet visits. We’re seeing the best websites in APAC coming out head of the United States, with more than 50 per cent of their visitors coming from smartphones, and increasingly high success rates in areas like consumption and stickiness. The data is telling us that delivering seamless experiences across devices is the key to acquisition and engagement.”

The Best of the Best Benchmark is part of Adobe’s strategy to give back to practitioners. To find out where your organisation falls on within the Benchmark take Adobe’s Digital Marketing Maturity Assessment.

The full report can be accessed here.