Tips on Mobilizing Your PPC Campaigns

The power of the mobile web is undeniable. 56% of everyone in the world owns a smart phone, and that number is quickly on the rise. This means that more people access the mobile web than ever before. As Internet marketers, it is our responsibility to capitalize on these trends and utilize them to our advantage. If your ads aren’t optimized for mobile, you may be missing a huge opportunity to drive additional highly relevant traffic to your website. Here are 3 tips on how to mobilize your PPC campaigns today.

1. Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly

It seems like a basic notion to many, but we often see advertisers whose websites don’t render correctly on smart phones and tablets. This is a bit of a nuisance to the user who ends up on your website, either because they have to magnify and adjust their screens to read the text, or have a giant image they have to navigate around just to get to the content. Without a doubt, this will result in a bounce (someone who hits the back button as soon as they see the site).

Many websites use responsive design which will automatically optimize the site to the screen size of the device. However, it is important that you don’t just assume the website is mobile friendly. Run some tests on your phone/tablet and have your friends do the same. Ensure that your site renders the same on iPhone and Android devices. On the other hand, make sure your website isn’t over-optimized for mobile. If you have a mobile site that disables the zoom effect, can’t enlarge pictures or can’t switch to a desktop version. Personally, I’ve gone to sites where the type was too small to read and didn’t let me zoom. Needless to say I quickly left that site and moved on to the next.

2. Good Use of Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are paramount to a good PPC campaign – on both desktop and mobile devices. We honestly cannot stress this enough, and yet are baffled to see how many business and ad agencies alike do not employ them.

The most important ad extension for mobile devices, especially smart phones, are call extensions. These are available in both Google AdWords and Bing. They assign an 800 tracking number that is connected to the ad so you can track the date, time, area code, call duration and the type of call it was (manually dialed vs. click to call). This is a great way to track the effectiveness of your ad campaign and give users a quick/easy way to contact you.

Sitelinks are a great way to make your ad pop off of the page. They appear in tandem with your ad, providing additional links deeper into your website. You can specify which links appear alongside your mobile ads – so make sure that they make sense to the mobile user. For example, a link with directions and location information would be important, since most mobile internet users are out and about. Whereas a link to your blog would probably appeal more to desktop users, since they have more time and attention.

If you have a brick and mortar location that your service customers at, then you definitely need to be using location extensions. These typically appear below an ad and provide people with easy Google/Bing maps directions. If you have more than one location, it will give directions to the location nearest to the person that is searching which is a really neat feature.

3. Clear Call to Action in Your Ads

It is always important to make clear the action the user should make when they get to your site. Whether you want them to call or visit, you should always make that 100% apparent. This also filters out the people who aren’t serious about making an action on your website. With mobile ads, you should also try to create a sense of urgency. It really helps to give dates of specials and promo codes, so people make their decisions quickly. This is why Groupon is genius, people have 24 hours to make a decision on an awesome deal. As long as you are running a promotion that doesn’t break the bank, do it! It will work wonders. An example of a great mobile ad looks something like this:

In this example we are telling the users that we are local, offering a time sensitive promotion (now through Feb 28) as well as telling them what we want to do when they get to our website (order today). This ad would be beautifully complimented by the ad extensions that we discussed today.

With these 3 steps you are well on your way to creating a dynamic and successful mobile marketing campaign. As usual, make sure you test test test! Once you accrue more data, you can start making more educated and customized decision on what works best for your business. Good luck! And if you ever need any help getting mobile campaigns off the ground (as well as desktop campaigns) you know where to find us!