Whether you chose to define 2010 as the Year of Mobile or not, it is obvious that mobile advertising is on the cusp of great change. Every mobile statistic, whether depicting advertising spend, market penetration, or search volume, shows the trend line going up, way up. As an advertiser, it is thrilling be in such a young and prosperous space but, as with any hip trend, difficult to feel your way through the exponentially changing landscape. Beginning a journey into mobile advertising land may seem like a daunting task, but there is an easy and extremely low risk strategy to kick start your way: a mobile search engine or pay-per-click campaign. Below, I’ll discuss key points for a mobile-only search program, highlighting the similarities and differences from a traditional or desktop campaign.
Targeting
Identical to traditional search campaigns, mobile campaigns are structured using keywords and ad groups. Keywords are selected based on various factors including brand relevancy, campaign objectives and product promotion; keywords are then micro-segmented based on actual word relevancy versus word meaning (for example, we would want to group “Michael Jackson” & “Michael Jackson dance moves”, rather than “Michael Jackson” & “King of Pop”, together).
Geography targeting based on a user’s IP address is another integral (and identical) component of mobile-only search campaigns – targeting parameters are applied at the campaign level (rather than keyword or ad group) based on desired audience targeting and perhaps physical brand or client location.
Ad Format
First generation mobile search ads were a condensed version of traditional text ads, which further limited already short character lengths; however, with the recent penetration of smart phones, restrictions on shortened text ads are no longer necessary. Text ads can now be identical to their desktop counterparts.
Sitelinks, a wonderful Google-only ad extension, was released this past October 2010 to their mobile SERP (search engine results page). Although transparency for individual hyperlink performance is muddled (and a hurdle that Google claims will be worked out in the future), this release now allows the same enhanced value of a desktop Sitelink ad on a mobile device. Although only two Sitelinks are displayed on a mobile SERP (versus the usual four on a desktop SERP), essentially the no cost added value that benefits both user and advertiser is a strongly recommended component for most mobile programs.
User Experience
A mobile or mobile-optimized landing page is the main difference between a traditional desktop and mobile-only program. Unfortunately, this difference is also the most difficult to generically execute as it relies completely on campaign objectives (which obviously vary greatly from program to program). Generally, best practices include emphasis on over-simplicity, fast loading time, and omitting the need for any navigation (especially horizontal scrolling).
Action
A mobile device is, after all, used for mobile communication. Including a click-to-call feature in either the ad (available as an extension in Google), or living on the landing is a nice complement. Although Google offers some tracking transparency for its click-to-call ad variations (including number of calls and average call time), defining a conversion can be challenging unless a highly sophisticated call center exists.
Generally the same conversions from a desktop campaign can be translated into a mobile campaign with minor tweaks (for example, shortening a form fill). Placing conversion scripts on thank you pages will track the performance of the campaign down to the keyword.
Strategy
Although mobile search behaves similarly to traditional search, there are a few differences that result in slight strategy and management variations. Most importantly, the layout of the sponsored ads is different on a mobile SERP than a desktop SERP. Generally, only two ads are placed above organic traffic (and no ads are placed to the right) in a mobile SERP which results in a greater need for top two ad positions and keyword quality.
All in all, mobile search is a basic set-up with slight variations from a traditional search campaign in regards to its everyday management and user experience. But, no matter the program or objective, I have seen nothing but success with this channel. The volume is strong, the audience is targeted and users convert at higher than expected rates – it’s an easy win.
