More and more people are relying on mobile devices for everyday internet access – over 50% of website traffic is on mobile devices! A majority of Google searches are now on mobile phones and tablets, too. With a growing number of people opting for mobile viewing over desktop, optimizing your websites and advertising for mobile is more an imperative than an option.
Mobile optimization is a plays a vital role in advertising with Google, but many people disregard it because it is not a problem staring them directly in the face. When creating an account with Google Ads, there are so many steps before launching your first ad that you are not prompted to consider mobile optimization. Yet, at least half of the time your ads are going to be viewed on a phone or tablet. Stopping shy of mobile optimization could mean missing out on valuable leads!
Today, you are going to learn how to optimize your Google Ads for mobile and get tips to make sure you’re taking advantage of every conversion method possible. Mobile optimization goes deeper than just configuring the settings, so I’m going to be covering website, landing page, and ad optimization, along with ways to target and test your Ad Campaigns for mobile users.
Optimize Your Website for Mobile Users
Making sure your website is mobile-friendly is important before optimizing your Google Ads. Your website should be built to make mobile viewing clear and simple, regardless of how the prospective customer reached your website. Ultimately, if navigating your website becomes too troublesome or frustrating, people will leave your site and your conversion-rate dreams will be dashed. It isn’t worth paying to run a Google Ad if your website isn’t going to seal the deal – leads need a soft *mobile-friendly* place to land.
Your website needs to be streamlined so that people immediately know what your business does and how to buy or reach out to your company. Identify what your main business goal is and build the entire mobile website around that goal. Make it easy for customers to understand your business, navigate the website, and take action. Otherwise, you will confuse and frustrate them and their impression of your brand will be tarnished.
Not only will optimizing your website for mobile views help improve your first impression, but it will also help your website to rank higher in search results! Google began indexing mobile-friendly sites and now gives them priority over sites that are not responsive. Take the extra time(and $$) to make your website mobile-friendly – this simple difference will help searchers to find you first so that you don’t lose leads to your competitors.
Optimize Your Google Ads for Mobile Users
Optimizing your ads is a little easier than optimizing your entire website, but both are key to effectively using Google Ads to your advantage. Keeping your ad copy consistent and using the tools that Google offers (such as ad extensions and campaign specifications) will allow you to target mobile users and keep potential customers from abandoning your website because of confusion.
Ensure Clear and Consistent Messages
All of your advertising copy has to be catchy and consistent. Ensure that all of your copy and calls-to-action matchup – starting with your Google Ads, then on your landing pages, and finally on your mobile website. You must make sure your customers are not getting confused along their conversion journey – making sure your advertising is clean, consistent, and concise, is the only way to eliminate confusion.
Use Ad Extensions:
Ad Extensions are great tools to include in your ads in general, and certain extensions will help your ads perform better on mobile devices. Also, some extensions have a higher click-through rate when implemented on mobile searches because of how convenient they are!
- Sitelink
The sitelink extension expands your ad to include links to specific pages, products, or services on your website. This feature is great because it allows you to make your ads more specific, offers more options that may appeal to specific users, and increases your click-through rate. This extension also makes your ad appear larger than other results, which draws more attention to your ad and piques the searcher’s curiosity about your business.
- Location
The location extension is designed for when your ad appears on mobile searches. If all of your business information is entered correctly, it can show the searcher the address of your business, important information (such as whether or not you are open at the time), how far away it is from their current location, a “call” button to reach your business directly, and even a “directions” button to immediately open your business location in their maps app. If you are trying to increase in-person sales, this extension is a must-have for your ads!
- Call
The call extension is perfect for mobile ads because it adds a “call” button directly to your ad and lists some important business information. It also links to your website, driving conversions by making you easily accessible.
Create Mobile-Targeted Campaigns:
Since mobile websites are indexed higher by Google and more people are searching with their phones, it can be helpful to create campaigns set up specifically for mobile users. You can modify your ads for a mobile experience and review their performance separately from your other advertisements. Keeping mobile ads separate will allow you to assess and adjust each campaign’s performance.
For search ads, targeting mobile users is not as simple as turning off a setting – instead, adjust your bidding options to only use your ad spend on mobile ads. This is another reason why it is important to keep mobile ads separate from desktop campaigns, though the copy can be identical in nature.
In order to optimize your ad for mobile devices only, follow these steps:
- From the Overview page, click on “Devices.”
- On the Level section, choose “Campaign.”
- Under the “Added to” column, find the campaign you’d like to set for mobile only.
- Find “Computer” under the Device column (the leftmost column) for the campaign you chose.
- In the Computer row, click on the pencil under the Bid Adj. column.
- Select “Decrease” from the drop-down menu and enter 100 in the percentage section.
- Click “Save” – your ad is now targeted to mobile and tablet users!
If you’d like to exclude tablet users from this campaign, repeat these steps and look for “Tablet” instead of “Computer.” Now that your ad spend for your selected campaign is designated for mobile users, I suggest creating an identical campaign just for desktop users. In this way, you can adjust the settings, extensions, and copy for each campaign with the platforms and user-types in mind.
Optimizing your website and ads for mobile users is essential for improving your ad’s performance. With so many people using their phones and tablets for browsing the internet and searching, you’ve got to make sure your marketing efforts meet the customers where they are. Mobile optimization isn’t overly complicated, and it’s a worthwhile step to creating successful Google Ads! Next time, learn how to evaluate the performance of your ads! Then, you can use the tools you’ve gained throughout the series to tweak your ads for optimal performance.
