Mobile is growing, and it’s growing fast. Every year more consumers take part in online shopping, making mobile the big market to be focusing on. Those businesses that can optimize their websites and make them perform dynamically on any mobile device are the ones that are quickly gaining new customers, whether it be through mobile browsers or mobile apps. While before SEO was the only way to reach mobile consumers, Google has now begun developing ways to bring Google Ads solutions to mobile devices. Paid search on mobile has increased drastically, with the mobile click through rate rivalling that of desktop.
Couple this with the much lower cost per click price on mobile than desktop, and it’s almost counterproductive to not be running Google Ads on mobile. Consider that people have their mobile phones with them everywhere they go. Through every commute, on the street, even in bed at night. This makes mobile browsing much more likely than desktop browsing, increasing the opportunities that your ad may be seen. Most impulse buys are done over mobile, and these are the primary source of increased conversions.
Obviously, if you’re running Google Ads for mobile, you would want your website to be mobile optimized. This would ensure no lost conversions, and that consumers can easily see the commitment that put into developing your landing page and website. However, if your site isn’t mobile optimized, you can still run Google Ads, simply using call extensions.
Call extensions allow consumers to call you directly from the search results, all without visiting your website or searching for more of your information.
So what else can you do when running mobile ads? Let’s look at some of the best practices at your disposal, and what the bare minimum is to bring consumers in to your businesses, all from the comfort of their mobile device.
When users search on mobile, they keep their search queries short, because mobile is more short hand writing. Much like with desktop, you can target your Google Ads to specific keywords, ranging from single words to complex phrases. It’s best to have at least several single words in your Google Ads arsenal, to catch pretty much any kind of search.
Also, we’ll stress this just once more: It’s crucial to have a mobile-friendly landing page and website. Although there are work arounds for this, it makes bringing consumers that much easier, and diminishes the risk of someone seeing a poorly performing landing page, and being pushed away from your business.
Don’t forget to keep the ads clean, and reflective of exactly the products and services that you offer. A misleading ad will lead to an angry customer, because at some point they will realize that the ad was not accurate. Ads that are too long and confusing can also be seen as misleading, because consumers won’t take the time to cipher through what you’re trying to say. That means building the ad with as brief a text as possible, and including all the most relevant keywords. The ad should accurately represent what it says on your landing page and website, so that there’s consistency in your brand image. The length of content applies not only to your end of the work. The consumer shouldn’t have to fill in tons of forms and input every thought of theirs into your system. If you have an email request form, or a call to action, it should be short and easy to fill in, with minimal information requested from the consumer. Name, number, and email are the bare basics that you need in order to follow up with a user, and asking for anything more can simply lead to them losing interest altogether.
When running Google Ads, timing is key. You want consumes calling in and contacting you during business hours, so that you have the resources to take these calls and turn them into leads. If you’re running Google Ads when your office is closed, the cost you’re paying per click is absolutely going to waste. Considering that most shopping is done during business hours, run Google Ads at those times, and allocating the time and funding to be handling all consumer communications.
If you decide to run both mobile and desktop ads, they should be separate campaigns, as they rely on totally different keywords and practices. On mobile, screens are smaller and users type less, so you want the top search listing position, with short and specific keywords bid on. On desktop you can get away with being lower in the search results, as well as with bidding on longer phrase keywords. Running both desktop and mobile in one campaign may lead you to performing poorly in both.
