Best Practices to Optimize Your PPC Ads for Mobile Users

It seems that most people spend the majority of their time browsing the Internet using their smartphones. It should follow then that much of your potential audience can be reached through mobile channels.

This shift in the way people are using the Internet has major implications for businesses that rely on paid search ads to drive traffic to their websites.

PPC, or pay-per-click, advertising is a cost-effective way to reach mobile users who are searching for products and services on their phones. By optimizing your PPC ads for mobile users, you can ensure that your ad reaches them when they are most likely to convert.

If you want to make sure your ads are being seen by potential customers, you need to make sure they're optimized for mobile devices.

In this guide, we’ll explain how to adapt to the trend of mobile optimization. We’ll explain the key difference between creating PPC campaigns for mobile users vs desktop users. We will also mention some best practices to follow when creating PPC ads for a mobile audience.

What Is the Difference between Mobile and Desktop PPC?

Mobile marketing is all about reaching your target audience where they are, and these days that means on their smartphones. Mobile devices are different from desktop computers in several key ways. Similarly, mobile usage and desktop usage are two similar but distinct contexts that require a bit of understanding. Your business’s marketing strategy needs to consider these differences when creating online campaigns.

Here are a few things to consider when optimizing your PPC ads for mobile users.

First, mobile users are often on the go, which means they may not have the time or patience to wade through a long ad. Keep your mobile ads short and to the point.

Second, mobile users are more likely to use their smartphones for specific tasks rather than just browsing the web. Your ad should be relevant to what they are looking for.

Finally, mobile users often use their devices in different locations than desktop users. This means that your ad should be targeted to their specific location.

About 70% of mobile consumer searches focused on proximity. This means that mobile users may tend to click on ads that emphasize how quickly or how near a particular branch or store is. Similar studies show that mobile searches are typically used for buying within the day.

Since such differences exist, should you focus on creating separate strategies for mobile and desktop campaigns?

The answer to this may depend on a few factors.

First, you will have to look into the product or service you are selling. If you’re offering something people look up on the go, then it might make sense to target mobile users. Second, you may also need to check your ad platform if it supports segmenting by the device viewed upon. You can use this view to determine where most of your traffic is coming from.

For the rest of this guide, we will share our best tips to create a mobile-optimized PPC campaign that will likely increase conversions and bring in new customers to your business.

Use a Mobile-Specific Landing Page

Your business should have a landing page that is designed specifically for mobile users. Many web technologies nowadays make it easy for you to create responsive websites. A responsive website will be easy to navigate for both mobile and web users.

Your landing page should also load quickly. According to Huffington Post, more than half of mobile users will bounce away from your site if it takes more than three seconds to load. The attention span of the mobile user is much shorter than a desktop user, and you should keep that in mind when developing your landing page.

More people will like your brand if you offer a satisfying mobile experience. Since your landing page is often the first real in-depth look into your business, it’s important to avoid giving the impression that mobile users are simply an afterthought. A terrible mobile experience may also give the impression that your business is outdated and may cause the user to trust you less.

If you decide to include forms on your website, it’s best to require no more than four fields. Mobile users are usually deterred by long forms.

Use Mobile-Specific Keywords

You should make sure your ad is relevant to mobile users. This typically means using keywords that are relevant to mobile searches and targeting your ads to people who are searching for keywords related to your business on their mobile devices.

For example, if you are offering pet grooming services, you’ll want to use key phrases such as “pet groomer near me” or “where to groom pet in x location”.

This is because mobile users often have a different context from users who browse on their desktops. Mobile users tend to be more likely to make a decision sooner. This means that your keywords should capture potential searches that are looking for urgent or nearby products or services.

Use a Mobile-Specific Call to Action

You need to make sure your ad is actionable on a mobile device.  Your call to action should be written specifically for mobile users. This makes it easy to click on your ad from a small screen.

Calls to action, or CTAs, are used to engage and convert potential customers. The CTAs should align with your campaign’s main goal. For example, if you would like to drive growth to a newsletter campaign, you can use a CTA such as “Subscribe Now.” If you’re selling software, you can choose to display an eye-catching button in your ad that says “Download.”

You can also try to tailor your CTA to a mobile audience. For example, instead of having text that says “Apply Now,” you can instead use “Apply Now From Your Phone.”

Providing a personalized experience that fits the context of the ad will improve the chances of users clicking on your PPC ad.

Use Mobile-Specific Ad Copy

Make sure that your ad copy is written specifically for mobile users. This means using short, concise copy that is easy to read on a small screen. Often, you’ll want to keep your messaging short enough to be readable even on smaller devices.

When targeting mobile users, you should also highlight immediacy. Speed and convenience are important factors mobile users consider when looking for services or products. Use words such as “Ships now”, “Call now”, or “24/7 customer support” to emphasize immediacy in your ad copy.

Optimize for Voice Search

More and more people are using voice-activated search engines like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa to find the information they need. Since this new trend seems unlikely to go away, small businesses need to start optimizing their websites for voice search.

How do you optimize your PPC ads for voice search?

First, businesses can analyze the existing search term data that their audience uses to find their business. Most voice search queries are in the form of a question and follow a conversational tone. For example, a user may ask, “What are the operating hours of this store?”

Filter the results to see if any search terms include queries conversational in nature. You may also filter for results that start with a keyword such as “OK Google.”

Use the common keywords in your filtered list on your next PPC campaign. You may also customize your ad copy to help answer search query questions. For example, if many people ask if your business ships internationally, you may want to add a direct answer to your content.

By following these tips, you can start to optimize your website for voice search. This will help you stay ahead of the trend and ensure that you’re getting found by potential customers.

Experiment with Call-Only Advertisements

One way to optimize your PPC ads for mobile users is to create call-only ads. These ads only include a phone number and a call button, so they're very easy to click on and call from a mobile device.

Call-only ads are a great way to improve the quality score of your PPC ad campaign since they're more likely to be clicked on by mobile users. And a higher quality score means lower costs per click and better ad placement.

Google Ads includes a call ads feature that allows businesses to place call ads in their search results. Call reporting uses Google forwarding numbers to measure the performance of your call ad. Users who click on the ad will instantly have the required phone number on their keypad. This allows customers to directly contact a business in as little as two clicks.

These types of ads are best for service businesses that rely on frequent calls from potential customers such as businesses that provide urgent services and local businesses. Businesses that perform most of their selling on the phone would also benefit from call-only ads. They bring out high-quality leads since people who want to call businesses are typically worth entertaining.

Many experts also agree that phone lines are the best sales channel for most businesses. Getting your customer to your phone will increase the chances of a sale or acquiring a new customer.

Optimize Your Mobile Ads Schedule

Mobile users have been discovered to have a spike in usage both in the morning and after work. This is likely because most of the workforce is on a PC during the day.

Businesses can take advantage of this schedule to cut costs. For example, if you know that most of your target mobile audience will use their phones outside of work hours, you should schedule your PPC budget around that.

If you reallocate your budget to get more visibility during peak hours, you may be able to drive more sales and conversions with your PPC ads.

Google Ads already comes with the option to both analyze what times are most effective and to set a recurring schedule of when to display your ads. You can also set bid adjustments to bid higher or lower on certain hours of the day or days of the week.

Segment Your Mobile and Desktop Campaigns

If you want to target both mobile and desktop users, you should separate these two into their own campaigns.

Working with different campaigns will allow you to use the tips above to further improve mobile engagement. Separating the campaigns will also let you tweak the campaigns separately. This approach is much better than simply creating a single campaign that may not be optimized for mobile users.

Conclusion

As mobile usage continues to skyrocket, it becomes more crucial than ever for businesses to optimize their PPC ads for users on these devices. To summarize, here are our main points:

First, remember that there is a difference between mobile and desktop marketing. Mobile users typically want to make a decision quickly, so your ad copy and keywords should reflect that. They’re also more likely to click on ads with a fitting call to action.

Second, focus on creating a responsive landing page for your PPC ad. This will ensure that mobile users have a good experience when they click on your ad.

Third, leverage voice search and call-only ads. Voice search is a growing trend that is popular among mobile users. Call-only ads can be very useful for local businesses. Mobile users are more likely to call a business if they see an ad that’s specifically designed for that purpose.

By following these tips, you can make sure that your PPC ads are optimized for mobile users and that you’re getting the most out of your marketing budget.

PPC does not need to be expensive to be effective for mobile users. By optimizing your campaigns for mobile users, you can reach your target audience without going over your limited budget. With a little creativity and some careful planning, you can create a mobile-friendly PPC campaign that will reach your customers at the most opportune time to bring about the best results.

‍