In early 2015 Google AdWords started to boost mobile activity for advertisers. But, in October things really ramped up. Many account owners are now seeing 50 to 66% of their AdWords traffic be served to mobile devices.
Although traffic is strong in the mobile space, there is a clear disconnect between increase traffic on mobile and increased mobile conversion. In fact what I have found is that there is about a 20% gap in performance. There are fewer leads than sales.
So how do you adjust for this increase in activity but drop in overall conversions?
- Assure that your website and store are mobile friendly. If not, the differential you will see this year will continue to be a greater and greater gap.
- Review your mobile bid. Use the formula of mobile conversion rate percentage divided by the desktop conversion rate and then take that product and subtract one. Turn that into a percent and drop or increase your bid for mobile by that percentage.
- Don’t push too far down on mobile bidding. I’ve found that if you push down too far, your desktop conversion numbers will drop too.
- Monitor weekly and more frequently if you are able. Check to see if you are bleeding cash in mobile and stem the flow before you lose your month.
- Mobile is important for lead generation, but will not convert as the same numbers as the traffic that is generated for nearly all (but not every advertiser). Make sure you are evaluating each account and business uniquely.
Mobile advertising is big business for Google and buyers are flocking to mobile to shop and buy, but don’t lose your shirt by not watching your statistics carefully for mobile as well as your cost per click and aggregate ad spend in the mobile space.
If you need a savvy Google AdWords account manager who’s service level is ranked by Google as being in the top 6% of all firms, contact me, Nancy McCord, at McCord Web Services.