Christmas Mobile & Tablet Strategies for AdWords

It’s that time of year again when people start to panic about Christmas shopping. If like me you leave everything to last minute you may need to make a purchase from your Smartphone. Recent research has shown that 44% of searches for last minute holiday gifts will be from a mobile device. So how do you take advantage of the Smartphone Christmas traffic?

Create Mobile and Tablet Specific Campaigns

When you create an AdWords campaign it will be defaulted to all devices. You should split out mobile and tablet activity into separate campaigns.

Target Location Specific Terms

40% of queries on mobile devices have local intent so it is worth targeting location specific terms. For example ‘Skateboard Shop Brighton’.

Mobile Bidding

It is important to bid separately on mobile. When you display an ad on a mobile device you are competing with only five other spots (compared to the 11 offered on a desktop). You will need to bid more aggressively to display your ad in the top three positions on a Smartphone.

Ad Copy

Your approach to ad copy should be entirely different when targeting mobiles or tablets. As previously discussed many of the searches are local, which means you need a geographically-specific call to action. For example using terms like ‘local’ and ‘nearest’. i.e.  ‘local gym membership’. It would also be worth testing mobile specific offers.

Make Use of the Mobile and Tablet Ad Formats

Mobile devices have a range of different ad formats you can use to sell the click.

Click-to-call:  this is where the user can click to call your shop straightaway.

Site-Links:  this can help improve CTR and drive users further down the purchase panel.

Click-to-Download:  This enables the user to download immediately. If you are an app provider this is the perfect format.

Hyper Local:  You can link your physical business location via Google maps so the user can see how close they are to your shop.

Product Ads – If you have a Google Shopping feed you can also link this to your AdWords account and display pictures of your products.

Overall Strategy

As with any AdWords campaign it is important to have a strategy in place. Prepare early and be aware of the days most likely to generate the highest levels of interest in online shopping i.e. Cyber Monday (5^th December).

It is also extremely important to state your cut off dates for Christmas delivery.

Budget

You should make sure your bids are competitive and that your daily budget will not run out. It is also worth increasing bids on specific times. On Cyber Monday you may bid more than the rest of the week. Research has also shown that many Christmas online purchases are done at lunchtime. Increasing lunchtime bids between 12pm and 2pm will help you capitalise on this specific spike of traffic.

Conclusion

Paying more attention to your mobile and tablet campaigns will help you harbour traffic with instant buying behaviour. If you focus your budget and display your ads in the right format you be able to stream users who want to make an immediate purchase.

Image Source

Set of touchscreen smartphones via BigStock

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