Myth: Build for Mobile Devices First

I despise simplistic generalizations.

Here’s one of my “favourites”: “Build for mobile devices first.” Garbage advice. Stupid and dangerous.

I have a better one: “Optimize for whatever makes sense in your particular case, for your niche, demographics, user behavior, and acquisition channel, based on real data.”

Look at your reality, not the global averages.

“70% of world’s traffic is mobile.” Wow, I’m impressed.

But let’s now look closer:

Video streaming, social scrolling and mobile games consume a lot of traffic and most of it comes from mobile devices. I don’t disagree. Teenagers stream 4K video on their phones. Does this mean your potential B2B customers are browsing your pricing page on a mobile device? 100% no.

Next, without segmenting by event type, device metrics are meaningless.

Take trading apps. I might check my portfolio 20 times a day on mobile (yes, I know), but I only do the real trading on a desktop, because I want full control and concentration.

Same with forms. I hate filling out forms on mobile. I send the link to myself and finish it on a desktop, in a quiet room, with a real keyboard.

Next, mobile usage heavily depends on geography and some markets skew the averages.

In emerging regions, more people go online from cheaper mobile devices. For example, in Africa the estimated penetration is 80-90%. In developed markets this number drops to around 50%, and even lower in certain niches.

If you’re a financial advisor serving HNWIs in Milwaukee WI, I bet your highest quality organic visitors and conversions will come from desktops.

Why?

• To be a HNWI, they’ve likely been saving for 20-30 years, so they’re probably 50+.
• Eyesight declines with age. They want big screens.
• They also want a quiet environment with no distraction to make big commitments. They don't transfer $500k while changing trains.

It just makes sense.

But!

If you plan to run paid Meta ads campaigns - you should 100% optimize for mobile, because 90% of your clicks will come from mobile devices, even in Milwaukee. But realize that the final conversion might still happen later, on a laptop.

You see? Context matters. Simplistic general advice works great for engagements on social. It doesn’t mean you should follow it.

Collect your own data. Do your own research.