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Mobile Search Ads may be the single biggest marketing opportunity for your business today.
5/1/2011
Google's latest data shows that Mobile searches on Google grew 130% year over year, a rate which is fully expected to continue or even increase. Projections show that mobile search clicks could reach as much as 16% of all Google search clicks by the end of 2011. The proof behind these projections is that Google is banking on Mobile. Dennis Woodside, Google's vice president, Americas, recently stated "We believe mobile technology will create the largest technology market ever. Google's approach is mobile first. Eric [Schmidt, Google's Executive Chairman] felt passionately about this two or three years ago. Every product we create now has to be fully optimized for mobile environment." As Mobile Search takes off, here's how you can make sure you're along for the ride.
Insights
Understanding a few key Mobile Search Insights will help you determine how Mobile Ads should be used for your business.
First, search queries are different for mobile search than desktop search. 49% of mobile search queries consist of just one word - much higher than the rate for desktop searches. People searching on mobile devices just don't want to type in as many words in their query. The implication is that your keyword targets will be different, shorter, than your keyword targets for desktop search, and determining what your keyword targets for mobile should be is the first step towards mobile success.
Second, Mobile Searches are much more likely to have a Local focus. Accorging to a November 2010 Microsoft study, 53% of mobile searches on Bing have a local intent. People use their mobile devices to plan activities on the go, and if your business is location-based, it is essential for you to have a strong Mobile Search strategy.
Third, the Mobile Search audience has a few key differences from the desktop search audience. Mobile Search traffic peaks during evening hours, as people use mobile devices at home or on the go, while desktop searches peak during the afternoon while people use their computers at work. For the same reason, mobile searching is higher on the weekends, while desktop searching declines on the weekends. Demographically, Mobile searchers skew younger and more female than desktop searchers. These trends can be taken advantage of to get better performance from all of your search marketing campaigns.
Analytics
As with any search marketing campaign, Analytics is an important aspect of achieving optimal performance. Most analytics packages, including Google Analytics, make it easy to segment your traffic and performance data between Mobile and desktop searches. Monitoring specifically where your campaigns and your site achieve the best performance and adjusting your settings to maximize that performance is essential to successful Mobile Search advertising.
Optimization
The first step to optimizing Mobile Search campaigns is to make sure your campaign structure allows for fine-tuned optimization. Your paid search campaigns should be separated for Mobile and desktop targeting; your audience and expected performance are going to differ widely, and in order to maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks of each audience, budgets, bids, keyword selections and other settings need to be controlled separately. This doesn't necessarily require an increase in cost - your analytics will show you how much of your traffic already comes from Mobile searches, and you can use that as a starting point for your new Mobile campaign budget.
Mobile Search advertising is still a relatively new marketing technique, giving you an opportunity to enter a space with low and often poorly optimized competition. Understanding the benefits that Mobile Search ads can provide will help you take advantage of this growing segment and give your business a head start towards success.
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