Over 7.1 million people in the UK access the internet from their mobile phones, and the number of mobile internet users is set to surpass that of desktop users within the next five years.
With this in mind, never has it been more important to make sure your site is optimised for mobile phones and other mobile devices such as IPads and related tablet devices.
Not only should you make sure your web build and design is optimised for mobile devices, you should be taking advantage of mobile marketing options.
It’s pointless having a mobile friendly site if your PPC doesn’t take this traffic into account.
Here we provide our top tips for creating a mobile PPC campaign.
First of all, pick your search engine. Google is by far the most dominant search engine across all devices; so you should start here.
Keep keywords simple and relevant
Unlike standard PPC campaigns, mobile users will tend to use short, generic terms to find what they are looking for. Your keywords and key phrases should therefore reflect this and be kept simple to reach your audience most effectively.
Choose keywords that relate closely to one another and to the ads in the ad group. Remember to limit how often your ads appear on content network pages with irrelevant themes through negative keywords.
Separate your keywords into themed ad groups of 5 to 20 keywords that relate closely to one another and to the ads in that ad group.
Use direct and compelling ad text
Mobile ads are shorter than standard ad text and are formatted to fit the small screens of a feature phone with a character limit of 18, as well as one description line instead of two.
Using direct and compelling ad text will maximize qualified clicks received. Include strong call-to-actions (“Call now” / “Click to register”) to set user expectation and define your intended goals and conversions.
Highlight special offers and features including product prices that will help you stand out from competitors.
Use promotional language and mobile-specific copy to appeal directly to the mobile user, for example, “book today from your android”.
Create new campaigns for your mobile ads
A new campaign should be set up for any mobile ads as mobile-specific campaigns have seen a 12% increase in average click-through rates and a 29% increase in clicks over hybrid campaigns.
Keep smartphone and WAP campaigns separate as they will require different settings.
Set up extensions on your ads
Give your customers the right information about your business, leading to a higher conversion rate.
Location extensions show your local business phone number, while phone extensions show your national number.
Both extensions are available to customers using a smartphone with full browser capabilities.
Optimise your landing pages
Optimise your landing pages for mobile to contribute to your Quality Score and furthermore keyword positions.
Landing pages need to:
- Be kept simple and concise.
- Be easy to navigate with buttons that are easily clickable.
- Avoid using flash.
- Contain the most important content at the top.
- Scroll down, not across.
- Make conversions easy and obvious.
- Minimize load time.
- Have short URLs / page titles.
Analyse keyword performance regularly
After your ad group has been allowed to run, you will start to gather valuable data that you can turn into action items.
You need to understand how your ads are doing in terms of:
- ad performance
- placement performance
- ad group performance
Monitor what specific keywords and ad text is performing the best, and where. Such insights will be valuable in the adding or removing of priority keywords / negative keywords and key phrases.
Combine this information with your analytics data to make informed decisions about the success of your campaigns.
Test, improve & refine
Understanding what works is essential to identifying key target areas for your campaigns and showcases what matters to you as an advertiser.
Measuring these results against your KPIs (number of unique visitors from each advert, no. of pages browsed, length of time on site) will establish what can be improved, optimised, changed or even removed.
Test your initial campaign and highlight patterns into what variables deliver the highest conversions in terms of users, timings, advertising and landing pages.
Measuring ‘post-click behaviour’ will give insight into real goals such as form completion, click to play and ROI.