Lightbomb

Archive for Mobile PPC

6 ‘Musts’ to Optimise for Mobile Conversions

March 28, 2012 Mobile PPC No comments

Almost 53% of the UK population now own smartphones which has resulted in the rise of touchscreen technology, 3G, and soaring tablet sales. This has sparked a surge in interest from big brand in all sectors looking for a solution to capitalise on the shift in users habits from desktop PCs and laptops to mobile devices.

Developing a mobile website is an important first step in capitalising on the mobile opportunity, but simply launching a mobile website obviously isn’t enough. Most businesses want to be mobilised to drive conversions.

There are some basic principles that need to be considered when devising your mobile conversion strategy:

1. Search and browsing behavioural patterns on mobile vs. desktop will differ

Mobile users find route of least resistance when browsing the web whereas desktop users are more likely to engage in heavy research before purchasing. For example, PPC on a mobile device is very heavily focused towards 1 or 2 word keyphrases, on desktop the long-tail rules.

2. Users need a simplified, but not content-lite site

Usability on mobile devices is much more in the public consciousness than it ever was for desktop browsing. Just because you want a mobile site that’s easy to use, even when you’re it doesn’t mean you don’t want key information about the product listing.

3. Mobile relevant calls-to-action aid conversion

This applies for your outreach work, users are much more inclined to click on your ads from a mobile device if it’s made clear to them they’re going to get a mobile specific experience. “Book easily on your mobile” has worked a treat for us

4. Page load time - spare a thought for those poor old customers who want to buy on the go!

Source

Although this will become less important with the launch of 4G in late 2012/2013 it will be some time before a significant portion of the population will be 4G ready.

5. Device split landing page

Devil’s in the detail with this one. There are hundreds of different mobile screen sizes, each one with a customer behind them expecting you to have thought of them. We’ve got around this problem with our clients by building auto-resizing software which automatically fits the landing page or site to a users device, but this needs to be sure to be included in any site redesigns.

Don’t forget about tablets. Tablet users behave more like desktopers, mobiles very differently and show differences by operating system.

Paddy Power have done this well by moving away from their sports betting competitors, who all share the same platform, by building a proprietary cross-device platform specifically for their users:

Paddy Power Case Study (PDF)

6. A/B Split testing

If it’s good enough for your desktop activity it’s good enough for mobile. There’s no reason why multivariate testing shouldn’t be applied to a mobile website. In most cases given the fact that even the most minor details can have a dramatic effect on conversions in a mobile environment.

6 Proven Strategies to Optimise Mobile PPC

March 9, 2012 Mobile PPC No comments

A perfectly setup, structured and executed desktop PPC strategy will never work for mobile PPC.

A common mistake for PPC agencies and companies is to fail to recognise the differences between these two channels. This is great for us when we’re discussing proposals with potential clients as we can very quickly highlight deficiencies in their mobile PPC strategy when desktop principles have been applied.

Here are the six key differences between desktop PPC and mobile PPC:

1. Bid position

Top 2 is king on mobile devices. Our data shows 95% of all PPC clicks come from the top positions. This really bumps up the price of the top positions for the highest volume keywords, which makes point 4 on this list even more important. The better your conversion % the more you can pay for a click.

2. Ad Copy

Ad Copy needs to cover the basic best practices guides of desktop PPC (use of TM, Title Case, strong CTAs), but additionally you need to emphasise how simple it’s going to be for the user to transact through your site on their mobile.

Phrases such as the below will encourage traffic through your add (just make sure it’s true to avoid wasted spend):

“Mobile Friendly’
‘Buy On Your Mobile’
‘Mobile Quick-Buy’

The other part of Ad Copy optimisation that needs your attention is the call to action you’re using, notably the additional option of click-to-call. This is a really great option for businesses with a call centre facility with a complex proposition. Typically call centres convert at a far higher percentage than online, so utilise this if you have the option.

We also use this service in a scheduled way. Our clients with a call centre like to throttle the volume of calls going through to the call centre depending on how busy they are. So we have specific ad scheduling in place to alter the displayed Ad Copy based on the typical call centre flows. This also give the agency a great name across the wider business – all in the name of ‘business synergies’ (or some other terrible cliche)

3. Target Keywords

A small, awkward keyboard is always going to result in one thing – lazy searching. It’s all about the short-tail, the 80-20 rule is more like 95-5 (95% of your conversions come from 5% of your keywords). People are far less likely to search for phrases with more than two words.

Additionally, misspells (especially with searches through Google’s Voice Search app, which doesn’t like my Derby accent) and txt speak are more common on mobile devices for the same reasons mentioned above.

4. Mobile Landing Page & Conversion Path

Efficient PPC activity goes hand-in-hand with strong conversion %, if you’re sending a load of qualified traffic to the site that should convert you expect the site to be up to the task of turning that traffic into sales.

It’s imperative your site is able to work comfortably on a mobile device. We always see better conversions through a dedicated mobile device.

5. Smart Scheduling

Browsing times are far different on mobile Vs desktop. The trends are pretty stark (see below). This will vary from industry to industry so it’s important to find out how the market you’re in behaves.

Desktop – Peak Times (7am to 10pm)
Tablets – Peak Time (3pm to 10pm)
Mobile – Peak Time (11am to 10pm)

Mobile Vs Desktop Vs Tablet Search Behaviour

Needless to say you want to be focusing your efforts on the times that drive the biggest return for the business. A cross platform strategy is imperative to ensure you’re focused towards your customers from where ever they may be searching for you at whatever time of the day.

With that in mind, your ad scheduling settings will need to be different for mobile, desktop and tablets.

6. Location & Carriers Targeting

Really useful tool this that can deliver insights and results for certain companies. We’ve used this for gambling clients during the big races where we can target specific offers and messages to prospective punters who are at the say the Grand National.

The key to all of this is…

Run your mobile activity into a separate account from your desktop activity. Further to that, you should separate out the tablet activity into its own campaign within the mobile account, as the above variables apply differently again for customers browsing on an iPad or other tablet.

Amazing PR stunt for Hotels.com – Extreme Booking!! But there is a serious point to this.

March 8, 2012 Mobile PPC No comments

This great video “Extreme Booking” from hotels.com to seemingly promote the ease with which their hotel rooms can be booked via mobile. Have a watch

The underlying issue is a more significant set of findings recently highlighted by Jason Spero at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year.

In the US Priceline.com had identified that 50% of reservations on priceline’s touch points happened within 20 miles of the property where that person would be staying that night or the following night.

What’s more one third of these bookings happened within one mile of the hotel, and more than half happened within one day of the stay. The point in fact is that hotels.com have identified that there is quickly becoming a new kind of mobile behaviour which needs to be serviced for customers. Not only is Google focusing on “mobile first” but they are also now looking at ways to maximise the return on the local nature of the mobile customers intention to act when searching using their mobile device.

How does this translate to any other business or small business? Well, as our search behaviours change with the ever increasing uptake of smart phones, locality to a product or service accessed through a mobile device is ultimately going to be one of the key factors in driving sales. Small businesses especially, should ignore this at their peril, there will be rapidly increasing demand for niche location based services which small businesses will be able to capitalise on.

Customers are Mobile – Are you Mobilized?

February 19, 2012 Mobile PPC No comments

As smartphone ownership continues to grow, 2012 is looking more and more like the year of mobile for search marketers.

Nielsen reports the number of smartphone subscribers accessing the Internet on their phones has grown 45% since 2010 with the majority of 18 to 34 year-olds owning a smartphone. Similarly, Google recently found 79% use their devices to compare prices, research products or services, and locate retailers. Mobile devices, it seems, are a shopper’s best friend.

Going mobile and mobile optimisation are becoming a business necessity. The article below gives more insight into this. Let us know your thoughts.

We’ve long looked at the online-offline gap. This comes down to the challenge in connecting the dots between increasing levels of online research and the sheer volume of offline spending (95 percent of U.S. retail). This is ROBO: research online to buy offline.

Now we’re not only seeing things like retail inventory feeds (i.e., Milo), and mobile shopping and payments start to connect those dots, but they’re even starting to reverse the flow. In other words, flipping ROBO on its head: using offline research to facilitate online buying.

This is also known as “showrooming,” essentially using physical stores as showrooms for product research before buying from a more price-competitive online marketplace like Amazon. And of course smartphones, shopping apps, and cameras (read: barcode scanners) empower this.

Ironically the e-commerce players that were relegated to research tools under ROBO, are now getting their due in this new environment. The tables have turned on their offline counterparts, especially those who haven’t stepped up the challenge.