In 2011 mobile is where it’s at. Apple is almost the biggest company in the world. Google connect 300,000 android devices every day. Mobile web traffic is set to exceed PC traffic by 2013.

But how can your business take advantage of mobile?

How do you turn your mobile ideas into reality?

To answer these questions Google have put together a YouTube mobile ads channel, which features interviews, stories and advice from some of the most successful businesses in the mobile space.

This includes information on app design, app discovery, user retention and different mobile business models. The advice comes from lots of testing, where developers have been “gaining insights from user feedback and iterating to build better apps, learning invaluable lessons along the way.”

The first video is from the makers of gaming app Angry Birds, which has been downloaded over 30 million times.

Take a look at the Google Mobile Ads YouTube channel to be inspired about how to apply mobile ideas to your business.

We all know that mobile search volume is growing – but what are the daily patterns of that growth? Here’s an interesting graph from Google.

Morning is clearly the time for Desktop searching, but evening provides the peak for Mobile.

Anyone else seen this? Search on Google mobile for on your phone and under ‘Options’ you can choose to search ‘iPhone Apps’:

This is a big move from Google, and an interesting development for those trying to boost downloads for their App.

Search Engine Optimisation used be be all about pushing your website higher up Google, Yahoo and Bing. But SEO is also about boosting rank for your App in the AppStores and on Google mobile too.

Barracuda Digital has lots of experiencing in boosting App downloads, from mobile PPC campaigns to online buzz creation. For more details get in touch.

We’ve spoken quite a bit on this blog about using mobile search, including how to set up your first mobile search campaign, how to reach local people on mobile, and how to segment mobile traffic to your website.

Here we’re going to take a step back to discuss how to develop a mobile PPC search strategy. Within the next 3 years there are going to be more people accessing the Internet on their mobile than on a PC, so it makes sense to approach this fast growing areas in the right way.

What’s the different between mobile PPC and regular PPC?

Quite a bit actually:

*There’s less competition – although there are less ads on the SERPs too.

*People search with different intentions. Often users want to solve a problem or find an answer right now. For example ‘where is’ and ‘how much is’. They’re not going to be using their phones to carry out long term background product research

*Users respond to a more immediate call to action, such as a click-to-call button or a mobile map

*Search queries are shorter: it’s not as easy typing on a mobile, so searches are usually shorter

*You need to make your point faster: bear in mind a user is looking at your message whilst they’re out and on a small screen – so you need to be short and to the point.

So what should you include in your mobile search strategy?

1. Launch new campaigns for mobile

Don’t opt your regular campaigns into mobile. Mobile users respond to different messages and traffic needs to be set to different places than your regular campaigns. And mobile campaigns will require a different bidding strategy with a different ROI goals.

2. Make it more general

Since traffic volumes are lower, and search queries are shorter, you need to include more general and broad match keywords in your mobile PPC campaign.

3. Make sure you keep it local

Many mobile searches are location based: ‘where is’; ‘restaurant in’. Use our mobile location tips [link] to make it easy for mobile searches to find you. And don’t forget to geo-target your campaigns too

4. Use mobile search functionality

Make use of the mobile specific features that Google AdWords gives you. Include a click-to-call button on your creative. Link your ad to specific locations.

5. Take users to the right location

Make sure you deep link your creative to the most relevant page on your site. Mobile users will be even less inclined to browse that regular web surfers. For the best results direct users to your mobile website. And if appropriate be sure to link to where your mobile app can be downloaded.

6. Think about voice search

Voice search is currently in its infancy, but all the major search engines are taking quick steps towards voice. Try to think about how voice queries might be a useful source of traffic to your site.

That’s it

Mobile search is fast growing, and any business using PPC to drive traffic needs to consider how to adapt their site and campaign to the needs of mobile searchers. For more information on how Barracuda digital can help then get in touch.

We’ve written quite a bit recently about how to use Google AdWords to drive traffic from mobile devices.

We’ve shown how to use custom parameters to segment mobile traffic, so you can analyze how this distinct group interacts with your website. We’ve also shown how to target mobile users to drive footfall in-store.

We’re going to show how to target specific handsets and carriers from Google AdWords.

Why would you I want to target specific handsets & carriers?

There are a few reasons. You might have optimised your website for a specific device; you may have a billing relationship with specific carriers; but here’s the big one. This is where it becomes really easy to drive traffic to – and boost downloads of - your shiny new mobile app.

All you need to do is to navigate to the settings page of your AdWords campaign and select the mobile device and carrier you want to target.

Marketing your App

Here at Barracuda Digital we’re frequently asked how to boost downloads for iPhone or Android Apps – and this is by far the most effective way. But don’t just opt in your regular campaigns to mobile devices. Mobile users search in a different way to PC users. You need specific campaign with specific keywords in order to target your mobile campaign most effectively.

The good thing is that ads that link to specific apps will only appear on handsets that offer those apps. And instead of getting the normal click-thru URL, the ad features a ‘Downloand app’ link.

All you need to do is include ‘itunes.apple.com/’ (for Iphone) or ‘market.android.com/’ (for andriod) followed by the name of the app in the visible URL. The ad will then automatically display ‘Download iPhone App’ or ‘Download Android App.’

Here’s what it looks like:

If you want Barracuda digital to help drive traffic to your mobile app then get in touch.

Whilst mobile still represents a small overall share of search volumes, its fast growing. Smartphone, iPhone, iPad and Android device use is on a steep upward curve, so this is a great time to start focusing your time and effort on building effective mobile search campaigns.

It’s not simply a case of adding in smartphone users from the setting page of your AdWords campaign: you need to answer a couple of questions first:

1. Are you using a mobile website?

Although smartphones make a good stab at browsing normal websites, they’re much more suited – as are all other phones – at mobile optimised sites. These tend to be simpler, with less content, bigger buttons and often a call to action such a click-to-call button.

Your campaign will almost always get a better result from a mobile site, but you need to decide how to deliver it. Are you going to automatically redirect smartphone users, or give them the option? If you do automatically redirect, then you need to make sure you’re tracking mobile devices correctly – more of that later.

2. How will you track phone calls?

As mentioned above, mobile sites often have prominent click-to-call buttons. The fact that the user has the phone in their hand – will mean your campaign is likely to generate a higher number of phone calls. Therefore you need a dedicated number or a dynamic numbering system – read our guide on how to track phone calls from AdWords campaigns.

How to set up a mobile campaign

Having answered the questions above now is the time to start setting up your mobile campaign.

Here’s our guide:

1. Set up a specific mobile campaign

The first and most important thing is to have a specific campaign for mobile. This is because the type of keywords that users search with – and their propensity to convert – are very different on mobile devices.

For example, a user searching for a good Italian restaurant in Waterloo from their desktop might use ‘Reviews for Italian Restaurant in Waterloo’. They’d then read the reviews, possibly share them, or maybe bookmark them for later. It might be worth bidding on this keyword but the user is not showing much immediacy to purchase, so you’d probably bid quite low.

By contrast, someone using a smartphone performing a local search because they want to eat lunch might simply use ‘Italian restaurant’. They might then use the click-to-call button to make a booking. This user is about to purchase – so it’s worth bidding up to get them on your site.

So build a new campaign with a new bid profile and be sure to include more general search terms.

You might find that many of your campaigns are already opted in for smartphone devices on Google and AdCenter: Take time to opt out of these settings and set up a specific mobile campaign.

2. Ad Copy

Whilst smartphone users can see normal AdWords ads, WAP devices can only see WAP mobile ads, so make sure you’ve got both.

We’ve previously discussed whether or not it’s a good idea to put a phone number in your AdWords ad, and a mobile campaign is one place to test that.

The other trick you might like to try is to make clear to searches that your website is mobile optimised by including an indicator in your visible URL, such as mobi.yourwebsite.com. In these cases, having a mobile optimised site not only boosts your conversion rates; it will help CTR too.

3. Tracking

Tracking and filtering clicks from mobile devices is an essential element of having a mobile search campaign. For all the reasons above, mobile users will interact differently with your website than normal users. Read our guide on how to track clicks from mobile devices.

That’s it

With the explosion of smartphone handset use, there’s never been a better time to set up mobile search campaigns. Follow these steps to make sure you do it right. If you want Barracuda Digital to help set up your mobile search campaign get in touch.

When in front of a PC, users often have time to sit back, relax and take time to research the right solution for them. But when a user searches from a mobile phone, they’re usually want to take action. They’re out and about, and want to find answers straight away, with the minimum of hassle or fuss.

This action is often finding your business, or getting your contact details. Mobile users often use maps to find a business and work out how to get there. Thanks to AdWords Location Extensions it’s now possible to put your phone number and location on an expandable map, which can appear either in apps or on Mobile websites on the Google Display Network (GDN).

What does it look like?

The ad looks like a banner text ad along with an icon representing a business. Users can click to expand, and a map shows up with a marker for your location, a click to call phone number and an option to get directions.

These ads are very powerful. As they’re based on where the user is, they will see the number and business address that’s nearest to them. This is a key way to boost visitors to your actual physical business location.

Another great feature is that you only get charged when someone clicks and visits your website, not when they expand your map or get directions. The click to call cost is the same as the CPC of a visit to the website.

How do I set it up?

1. To start with, on the settings tab make sure your campaign is opted into the Google Display Network.

2. Next, opt to display your campaign on iPhones and other smartphone devices with full Internet browsers.

3. Then, on the extensions tab from the overview page, set up location extensions and add your phone number and address.

4. Upload a business logo, or choose from the set of icons available.

The map and placemarker ad will now automatically be generated when users perform a local search from their mobile device.

That’s it

Do you carry out business and meet customers at a physical location? Do you have single or multiple retail outlets? Use location extensions to make it easy for local people to find your business. And then let us know about how you get on!

Google Analytics has just added a new feature that makes tracking clicks from mobile ads a whole lot easier.

If enabled, Google analytics can automatically tag all AdWords clicks with a unique URL the helps it identify that traffic source. However, in some cases it’s not possible to link an AdWords account with an Analytics account. And in other cases, you might want to track clicks from mobile ads on other networks.

So how do you go about identifying and segmenting mobile clicks?

The answer lies in a new tracking parameter called Mobile ValueTrack. This automatically ads a tag to the destination URL, allowing Google Analytics to identify it as a mobile click. To use the feature, just add the Mobile ValueTrack parameter: {ifmobile:NewTagName} into the “Destination URL” field  when you’re putting together your mobile text ad.

Redirecting traffic to a mobile optimised site

The first, huge benefit of the mobile ValueTrack parameter, is that it allows you to identify clicks from mobiles, and to redirect them to a mobile optimised version of your website.

Let’s say you wanted all clicks from mobile devices for your website www.travelingdog.net to be redirected to www.travelingdog,net/mobile. All you’d need to do is add the mobile ValueTrack parameter {ifmobile:mobile}.

Here’s what it would look like in AdWords:

Tracking using third party tags

If – like Barracuda Digital – you’re often using third party tracking tags, you can still use Mobile ValueTrack to track your mobile clicks. All you need to do is insert the tag into the destination URL.

In the example of travellingdog.net above, you just need to add the Mobile ValueTrack parameter into the landing page URL so it looks like this:

www.travelingdog.net?type={ifmobile:mobclick}

In this example, the tag “mobclick” gets inserted into the URL, which lets you identify those clicks from mobiles.

If you need help tacking clicks from mobile devices for your PPC or Mobile campaign, get in touch.

What is a geo located SEM campaign?

A local geo-targeted campaign is an essential part of any marketing strategy for small to medium sized businesses. In particular, to have in place a correct GEO located SEO and PPC campaign is a great way of driving quality traffic to local websites.

A geo-targeted search marketing campaign is based on optimizing location long tail keywords in order to increase local leads and conversion rate.

To take advantage of the recent growth of geo located social websites like Foursquare and Gowalla, any web-savvy local business owners should start getting into social media marketing by launching its own geo targeted social campaign.

There are some interesting tools out there that help you get started with geo targeted social marketing.

Geo-targeted campaign tool

For example, GEOtoko is a nice platform that allows you to create your own geo targeted campaigns in a minute.

You can create location-based contests and sweepstakes to reward customers for checking in using Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter, Yelp and so on. You can also post your updates directly in Facebook.

Once you have created your campaign, it is crucial to promote it on a daily basis through your social networking profiles as a constant reminder of the on-going contest to your potential customers.

Our first location based campaign

Here at Barracuda Digital we have recently launched our first location based campaign with GEOtoko, an interesting contest based on the tweets and checks-in that we receive daily.

For every tweet and check-in with Foursquare and Gowalla, from August 10 to August 17 we have been giving away a free website audit .

We think that geo-targeting marketing is a great addition to the overall SEM strategy of small to medium sized businesses, so keep your eyes on our blog for the latest tips on how to best strengthen your local popularity.

Start your own geo targeted campaign today for your chance to win more local leads!