With the seemingly exponential growth of the mobile search market, it is becoming more and more apparent that the time to expand your PPC efforts to mobile was yesterday. The entire search marketing community is starting to take notice of the rising trend, and having a strong mobile presence has become a necessity.
The thought of extending your reach to mobile can seem daunting, but it can be a simple addition as long as you know the basic “dos and don’ts” beforehand.
Do: Create a Mobile Friendly Site
Creating a mobile-specific site may sound like an overwhelming task, but not doing so can be detrimental to your ad campaign performance and overall brand perception. Keep in mind that searching from a phone is a completely different experience than searching from a desktop. In order to ensure the user’s mobile experience is a pleasant one, it is important to:
- Optimize for smaller screens
- Simplify for faster loading times
- Create easy, user-friendly navigation
Not having a mobile friendly site can lead to frustration and disinterest, costing you the opportunity for positive brand exposure and a potential sale.
Do: Set up Mobile Specific Ad Copy and Ad Extensions
It is important to understand the unique needs of the mobile user. Assuming most people searching on their phone are on the go, cater to this by making it easy to find the nearest store or store phone number. Rather than make the user click through the site to find a phone number or address, set up click-to-call extensions and location extensions so that potential customers can quickly and conveniently get in contact with your store.
It is also a good practice to highlight mobile use within your ad copy. Draw the user into the mobile experience with copy like “shop from your phone” or “call now.” Or, invite them to download your mobile app.
Don’t: Use the Same Keywords and Match Types
Typing on a phone is often less accurate than typing on a desktop. The popular voice-to-text features are often unreliable, and thumbs always seem to be a few sizes too big to navigate the tiny mobile buttons. Anticipate these inaccuracies and allow room for texting and voice-to-text error by including more broad match keywords and enabling close variant options for phrase and exact match keywords.
A looser keyword approach will also be beneficial to your understanding of the user, by pulling in more keyword variations to discover in your search query mining efforts. It is also a good idea to add keywords that relate to mobile searches. Keywords that include words like “phone” or “mobile” are a good idea to test.
Don’t: Measure Mobile Success by Sales Conversions
Mobile searches and their outcomes are very different than desktop searches. Although it appears the trend is beginning to shift, there are typically less sales conversions on mobile. Track your success based on click-to-call and store locator engagement, indicators that they will likely be visiting a store. It may make it harder to measure the return on investment, but you are strengthening brand recognition and enhancing a user’s interest.
Expanding your reach to the mobile market can seem like a lot of work and a lot of risk, but mobile PPC offers exceptional potential. The trend of users searching for products from their phone is on the rise. By expanding your reach to mobile now, you can begin to understand the mobile trends, and strengthen your campaign as the industry continues to grow and evolve.
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