Tips for Optimizing Your Mobile-Only AdWords Campaigns

April Nelson - December 9, 2010

The mobile advertising market is growing at an enormous rate.  According to BIA/Kelsey’s US Mobile Advertising Report, search alone went from $59 million in 2009 to $163 million in 2010; and forecast to practically double in 2011! 

Advertisers who leveraged mobile-targeted campaigns in 2009 benefited by seeing higher click through rates on their ads at a lower cost per click (CPC) than campaigns targeting desktop / laptop users using the same keywords.  While this is still possible to achieve in today’s mobile advertising market, it is more challenging.  The influx of advertisers entering the space and high adoption rates of new mobile devices (i.e. Netbooks and ipads) can be leveraged to fine tune your campaign targeting and help generate more revenue.

Here are 3 tips for maximizing your mobile-targeted AdWords campaigns.

1. Be aggressive.

You will be competing to have your ad serve on 5 ad spots versus 10 ad spots with traditional search results on a laptop or desktop. As a guideline, try starting out with 2x your search bids for similar keywords. 
 
2. Use short keyword phrases versus long tail keyword phrases.

Use general keywords to help increase impression volume.  Mobile searchers tend to use shorter queries, so your longer tail keywords will not generate the same amount of impressions in mobile search.

3. Add negatives. 

Think about how the intent of a mobile searcher may be different than a searcher using a desktop / laptop computer.  For example, help weed out users who are looking for driving directions by adding negatives like “map”, “directions”, “locator”, etc.  Don’t forget to use the same negative keywords you have in place for other campaigns you are running.