Mobile PPC Advertising in the Online World
Mobile PPC advertising carves the future of marketing. Mobile devices gain more and more market share every year.
In Canada, smartphone ownership grew from 55% to 68% from 2014 to 2015. This impressive 24% growth, reported by Catalyst, is a testament to the adoption of mobile devices in Canada.
Similarly, in the USA, a Pew Research Center study has placed American adult smartphone ownership at 64% as of October 2014.
Moreover, in May 2015, Google announced that mobile searches have surpassed desktop in 10 countries, including the USA and Japan. All of these statistics signal one thing—the importance of visibility on mobile devices for businesses.
The initial step for businesses looking to adapt to the mobile advertising era is to optimize their website for mobile browsing. Proportions and interactions are different on smartphones and tablets, if your website doesn’t cater to these differences when visited by a mobile user, they won’t be a visitor for long.
Having a mobile-friendly website helps to fortify your position in the mobile advertising world, but mobile PPC advertising can help you build skywards.
When someone is searching on their tablet or smartphone for the services or products you provide, are you showing up in the search results?
Mobile PPC Advertising Strategy
What works for laptops and desktops often does not translate into success on mobile devices. Mobile must be approached as a different channel with users who interact in different ways.
Keywords on Keyboards vs Mobile Devices
The typewriter of the future, the keyboard, has allowed us to communicate at ever-increasing speeds. The only caveat for these word makers is that we usually have to be sitting down (or standing, if you’re healthy and have one of those neat desks) to use them. Mobile devices cater to people on-the-go and to people who’d rather reach for their smartphone or tablet instead of setting up their computer. Mobile users don’t type as much. The proliferation of shortened words and phrases like “u”, “lol”, etc., are
Mobile devices cater to people on-the-go and to people who’d rather reach for their smartphone or tablet instead of setting up their computer. Mobile users don’t type as much. The proliferation of shortened words and phrases like “u”, “lol”, etc., explain a lot. This means that long-tail queries are not as viable on mobile.
Shorter keywords require smarter targeting. As the keyword shortens, it becomes eligible for more and more phrases that someone might search. Staying ahead on mobile PPC advertising involves a fine balance between brevity and accuracy.
Three of the best ways to get this accuracy are geo-targeting, device targeting, and network selection. Choose where your mobile ads serve, choose on what devices they’re served, and choose by who they’re served respectively. These options allow you to hone in on the perfect customer.
The Real Estate
The first thing you are aware of when comparing desktop to mobile is the screen size. There is simply not as much room to display information. These tighter display spaces require well-formatted ads that are concise and efficient in their copy.
There are advantages to the tighter ad space though. As you can see from the ads below for insurance Vancouver, the first two ads take up the majority of the mobile results page.
The first ad also features a mobile exclusive campaign-type, “call-only.” These advertisements will always trigger a phone call when the user clicks on your ad. These call-only ads are great for lead generation as you can immediately connect with your potential customer in a social way, allowing your representatives to address any of their unique questions.
Learn more about tracking phone calls for marketing insights here.
It’s extremely important to take advantage of time-sensitive targeting when using call-only campaigns. Creating limits for when your ads will be served allows you to direct phone traffic to your lines only when they are open and ready to take calls, limiting wasted ad spend. You can even tone down ad spend at certain times during your operational hours to adjust for low-converting times of day.
Mobile PPC Advertising Landing Pages
When your mobile optimized ad safely lands your potential customer, is the landing page mobile-friendly?
A mobile-friendly landing page will have a layout that fits the smaller screens it’s being browsed on. The layout will have less text than its desktop counterpart (which should already be concise). Mobile users are used to skimming, if your landing page requires too much of a time investment to process, they might just move on.
If you’re a lead based business, the layout should also include a form that is easy to fill out on a mobile device. Use simplicity to limit what the user is required to do on their mobile device, i.e., do not make them fill out 14 sections before being able to sign up. The same is true for products; make the mobile converting process simple and fast.
The tried and true trick is to keep your page simple. Start with something basic, and, perhaps later on, you can test out modifications. But in the beginning, keep it easy, concise, and clean for your mobile customers.
Find out how to create landing pages that perform here.
Mobile PPC Advertising Importance
Many customers will make contact with a brand through a mobile search. This initial contact often comes in the form of research. The research people do on your brands and products must be available and visible on mobile devices. Moreover, mobile PPC advertising aids your overall marketing efforts; results improve year over year as technologies, strategies, and adoption rates improve.
Mobile PPC influences desktop and laptop PPC as well. The research mentioned above often leads the customer to their computer where they will be ready to make the purchase.
Make sure you are optimized for mobile or you’re missing out on a massive, growing audience. If you’re unsure about how to do this or want advice on your current mobile strategies, feel free to contact us.
Read the next PPC Fundamentals series article: The Extensive Guide to Successful PPC Remarketing: Part 1
Read the previous PPC Fundamentals series article: SEO & PPC Advertising: A Match Made in Marketing Heaven
