6 Tips for Mobile Success with Google PPC Campaigns

There is no denying the growing importance of the role mobile technology plays in the future of businesses, and your Google PPC campaigns are no exception. With mobile shopping and the click-to-call feature increasing at exponential rates, businesses need to create the most effective mobile-optimized PPC campaigns to stay competitive and relevant.

According to Search Engine Land, marketers spent $4 billion on click-to-call advertising in 2014. Call analytics platform Marchex released a report that argues mobile call extensions were a roughly $4 billion revenue driver for Google (and Bing) in 2014.

Let’s ponder for a second why mobile advertising spend continues to increase and is becoming such an effective marketing tool. According to CNN Money, in February of 2014, Americans used smartphone and tablet apps more than PCs to access the Internet – the first time that ever happened. Clearly, there is a demand for mobile.

Just because something is popular doesn’t mean that it is necessarily effective. If you optimize your mobile campaign properly, it has the potential to result in more conversions for your business.

Case Study, Adjusting Mobile PPC

An example I like to use of an effective mobile strategy is from an interpretation and translation company, Access 2 Interpreters. Even though the content on their website is very informative and they have high conversion rates for desktop users, the conversion rate on a mobile is not as high, because their clients are less likely to fill out a contact form on mobile.

Instead of settling for a below average conversion rate on mobile, they adjusted their strategy so their mobile conversion rate would exceed desktop.

When users search for “Legal Translation Document,” a very specified search query on their mobile device, they ultimately want to speak with a representative to get a free quote on their project. The mobile click-to-call advertisement helped the user get their question answered, which in turn resulted in a conversion rate percentage over 10% from mobile click-to-call.

Access 2 Interpreters now has a solid strategy in place on both desktop and mobile. If you want to start generating new leads from a Google PPC campaign on both desktop and mobile similarly, it is crucial to set-up a strategy for both campaigns.

Below are 6 tips to make sure your Google PPC campaigns are reaching mobile users and helping your business grow.

1. Strong Titles

We like to say that the attention span of someone searching on a mobile device is equivalent to a squirrel. You won’t have their attention for long. This is the exact reason why it is very important to make your title tags extremely compelling. It will be the first thing that people see and it needs to lure the user into taking action from your mobile advertisement.

2. Make your ad copy mobile-specific

The best ads are generated when you have an understanding of the searcher´s intent and the reason why they are searching. Mobile specific copy that appeals to these insights is more likely to positively influence those customers into taking the desired action. When you are using mobile click-to-call, “Call Now” at the end of your advertising copy is a good route if you are prompting a phone call.

3. Make sure your ads reach the intended destination

Mobile users typically expect immediate responses to their search queries. Beat those notoriously short attention spans to the punch by creating great browsing experiences. If you are an e-commerce company that has sales representatives, it might make more sense to send the user to a landing page for a product that prompts a call to a customer service representative instead of going through numerous steps to make a purchase (which can be hard to do on a mobile device). Strategize what the ultimate goal should be, and this starts by figuring out the intended destination of the consumer.

4. Use scheduled mobile ad extensions

Ad extensions help create more reasons to click your ads. They improve the ad´s visibility by boosting quality score and can be scheduled so they only show when your business is open. If you are a dermatologist, there can be an extension to get directions or learn more about new patient information. This can increase your visibility and conversion rate percentage.

5. Call Tracking

You learn that you received 10 phone calls last week from your mobile click-to-call advertisement. Even if you had a solid click through rate on the advertisement and a high quality score, this doesn’t necessarily mean the advertisement is effective because those calls may not be legitimate. Within Google’s PPC platform, you have the option to use a Google forwarding phone number so you can gain insight into call reporting. If you see that the 10 phone calls averaged more than 2-minutes per call, this can be deemed a success. Make sure to set-up parameters as to what classifies a conversion from mobile click-to-call.

6. Show Just The Phone Number

The case study included above only received high conversion rates on mobile when the click-to-call feature was added. When you add a phone number to your Google PPC campaign, you have the option to only show the phone number instead of showing your website and the phone number. This can drastically increase the conversion rate if you know that your landing page will not have a high mobile conversion rate. Make sure when you set the preference to only display your phone number that your device preference is set to mobile.

These tips can help you gain more traffic and take advantage of the increasing population of mobile users to help grow your business.
Make sure to take the time to put together a PPC strategy for both desktop and mobile. This will require landing page design and development, call tracking and clear goals and objectives. With mobile traffic continuing to increase, you won’t want to be left in the dark without a mobile strategy.