Mobile PPC Optimisation – More Important Than Ever!

Slowly but surely, web searches and advertising spend on mobiles has increased year on year. Today it was revealed by The Drum that mobile ad spend has increased ‘157% from 2010 to 2011’ a statistic that cannot be ignored by those who are yet to create an independent mobile strategy. From a PPC point of view, mobile advertising is a massive market that is waiting to be tapped into. There are several ways you can start to optimise your AdWords campaigns for the mobile generation. If your campaigns are currently opted into ‘all devices’ you may think you are ahead of the game; your ads are showing on mobiles so why should you make any changes? Simply; mobile search results appear differently to desktop search results. Instead of having 3 ads at the top of the page, and 6-7 down the side, there is only 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom. It is therefore crucial for your bids to be optimised in order to appear in the top two positions, or suffer a low CTR. Creating separate ‘mobile’ campaigns will allow you to monitor the position, analyse the performance and target the mobile user much more effectively. If you are unsure whether mobile campaign would work for you, check out the data you already have. In the AdWords interface, under the campaigns tab, select ‘segment’ and segment your data by ‘device’. This will split out your campaigns into ‘desktop’, ‘mobile’ and ‘tablet’. This way you can see if a device is working well for you eg. Lower CPCs or lower CPA’s and split it out into its own campaign. If not, change the devices you are targeting. If mobiles are working well for you and you haven’t actively been optimising for this device, imagine what you could achieve by splitting it out. If you are not currently targeting mobiles, then it is time to be smart. People search differently when they are on their mobiles; they are more likely to be on the move and looking for something more specific and faster. Utilise the tools that Google provides; You can chose only to see ‘mobile’ keyword ideas in Google Keyword Tool to give you more of any idea how people will search for your product or service on their mobile. Once your ads are live, you can also use the Ad Preview Tool to see how your ads will be displayed on a mobile device. As people are likely to be on the move, utilise all the Ad Extensions in AdWords. Get Location Extensions set up so that the user knows exactly where you are. Set up Call Extensions so that it is straight forward for people to get in touch with you with one simple click. Get Site Links or Product Extensions set up so it’s easier for the user to get through to the content they really want. We hope this clear up how best to optimise for mobiles. If you would like to talk about setting up a mobile PPC campaign or for any PPC advice, give us a call today.