I manage many AdWords accounts across a diverse selection of verticals and wanted to share with you an insight that I am finding out appears to be true for many of our clients.
Mobile is a very important part of the lead generation equation; even if you are not seeing strong lead generation coming directly from mobile do not discount its importance.
Here’s one test I did recently…
I moved a client totally out of mobile using a -100% bid as their Google Analytics traffic stated that only 3.0% of their visitors were coming in from a mobile device. This client runs a Yahoo store and is using one of Yahoo’s generated mobile websites.
Immediately we saw a 12% drop in overall conversions, a 33.87% drop in cost, a 35.38% drop in clicks, and 27.17% increase in cost per conversion.
What I am finding out is that for many clients mobile activity, when stopped completely, causes a drop in even desktop conversions.
So although mobile is valuable for your overall lead generation strategy controlling the bid is very important.
Google recommends using this formula to assign the correct bid for mobile to achieve the best return on ad spend.
(Mobile conversion rate divided by the desktop conversion rate) – 1. This give you the percentage to be up or down in your bid.
I personally review all accounts every 30 days and when I am in the account on a weekly basis review the setting based on an upward or downward trend in mobile conversions to tweak the bid.
Mobile bidding is certainly not a set and forget setting. Your success or lack of success in this important segment will impact your overall program’s conversions.