Think for a moment about how much you use your mobile phone or other mobile device. How often do you pull it out of your pocket to check e-mail, update your status on social networks, and use a browser to find information? The journal Personal and Ubiquitous Computing published a study that found people check their smartphones an average of 34 times per day, with each check lasting less than 30 seconds, and being performed about every 10 minutes.
Now multiply those numbers by the number of people who use smartphones and other mobile devices, and you’ll understand why if you’re not segmenting your online advertising by mobile device, you’re missing out on a lot of traffic and conversions.
AdWords Makes Mobile Segmentation Easy
The thought of having to segment your online ads not only for mobile in general, but by device type, may be overwhelming, until you see how easy AdWords makes it for you. The interface provides options for desktops and laptops, mobile devices, and tablets, allowing you to either be selective with your targeting, or cover all your bases in order to reach a wider audience. The selections get even more detailed with options for operating systems, carriers, and WiFi.
Click to Enlarge
The key is to use these options in tandem with your analytics. Are most of your site’s visitors arriving via mobile devices? Then mobile ads may bring you even more traffic. Conversely, if you’re not getting much mobile traffic, mobile ads may increase your reach, and your audience. Either way, by not segmenting your ads for mobile, you’re essentially ignoring a very large portion of the population, and missing out on all of those daily phone checks.
Targeting a Mobile Audience
Online ads written for mobile devices may differ a bit from ads you’d write for desktops. For example, if you own a restaurant, you may want your mobile ad to pop up when someone searches for the type of food your restaurant serves. If that’s the case, your ad should have a strong call to action for that person who’s looking for a place to eat right then and there.
This will be true for many service-focused businesses, especially those that have physical locations. People use their mobile devices more than ever to find things while they’re traveling, whether within their own cities, or while on vacation or business trips. In fact, comScore, a mobile research agency, found that about 111.2 million consumers use their mobile phones to surf the Web. Don’t miss out on those potential customers by neglecting mobile ad segmentation.
While AdWords makes mobile segmentation fairly easy for you, it’s also something that can be accomplished through PPC management. Talk with your account manager to find out how you’re targeting mobile so you can get in on the trend that will only continue to increase with time.
