Mobile Search Query Growth

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.

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.