Mobile Marketing Words To Know

With U.S. consumers spending 2.8 hours per day on smartphones and the number of mobile-only internet users now exceeding desktop-only users, it’s worth considering how connecting with customers on mobile could benefit your business.

Whether you just started to get the hang of email marketing, or you became a pro back in the 90’s, you’ll notice mobile marketing is not dramatically different from email marketing. It’s like learning Spanish and then realizing you can also understand quite a bit of Italian. Speaking of language, we pulled together this list of the most important mobile marketing words to know. For a complete list, check out the glossary provided by the Mobile Marketing Association.

Acquisition Rate: Percentage of respondents who opted in to participate in a mobile initiative/campaign. To calculate acquisition rate, take the total number of participants and divide by total audience.

Alerts: Notifications, typically in the form of a text or multimedia message, containing time-sensitive information (event details, weather, news, services updates) that are pushed to a mobile subscriber who has opted-in to receive this information. Note: If the mobile subscriber has not opted in to receive said information, the notification would be considered SPAM.

Application: Software solutions that power the business logic for mobile marketing initiative(s).

Bandwidth: A measurement of how much data can be pushed through a connection. The measurement is based on the number of bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (kbps), or megabits per second (mbps).

Call to Action (CTA): A statement or instruction, typically promoted in print, web, TV, radio, on-portal, or other forms of media (often embedded in advertising), that explains to a mobile subscriber how to respond to an opt-in for a particular promotion or mobile initiative, which is typically followed by a notice.

Carrier: A company that provides wireless telecommunications services.

Click-through: The process that takes a mobile subscriber to a jump or landing page once the mobile subscriber has clicked on a link.

Click-through Rate (CTR): A way of measuring the success of an online or mobile advertising campaign. To calculate CTR, take the number of users who clicked on an ad on a Web page and divide by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions).

Common Short Code (CSC): Short numeric numbers (typically 4-6 digits) to which text messages can be sent from a mobile phone. Wireless subscribers send text messages to common short codes with relevant keywords to access a wide variety of mobile content.

Confirmed opt-in: The process used for verifying a mobile subscriber’s intention, and for gaining the subscriber’s explicit agreement to participate in a mobile program/initiative.

Cost per Thousand: This metric is used to apply costs to advertising banners for websites and other Internet-based advertisements. The fee is calculated based on the number of impressions that would occur when users view the ads.

Coupon: A ticket, message, and/or document that can be exchanged for a financial discount on a product or service.

Data collection: The process by which a marketer collects mobile subscribers’ personally identifiable information.

Direct to Consumer (D2C): The services or products delivered to an end consumer via a “provider.” The provider could be a third party, or direct from the company who is orchestrating the sale of the product or service.

Dedicated short code: The process of running only one service on a common short code at any given time.

Double opt-in: The process of confirming a mobile subscriber’s wish to participate in a mobile program by requesting the subscriber to opt-in twice, prior to engaging the subscriber. Double opt-in is a requirement for many types of mobile communications.

Email opt-in: Inviting a customer (via email) to opt in( in other words, request) to receive mobile messages from your organization.

End User: This is the person who actually uses the product or service that is provided. The end user is sometimes referred to as the consumer as well.

Free to End User (FTEU): An FTEU program is any program to which the subscriber opts-in, with the result that the subscriber receives Mobile Terminated (MT) SMS/MMS messages for which they do not incur any premium or standard messaging charges from their wireless carrier. The subscribers may interact with the service by sending SMS/MMS messages (including, but not limited to, messages for the purpose of opt-in, opt-out and requesting help). The wireless carrier may, at their discretion, charge the subscriber at standard messaging rates for Mobile Originated (MO) messages to the program.

Handset: Term used in reference to a mobile device, or mobile terminal.

Impressions: A business metric for counting the number of times mobile subscribers have viewed a particular page, mobile advertisement on a mobile internet site or embedded within a text message or similar mobile medium.

Information on Demand (IOD): Content delivered in the form of an Alert. Subscriber receives updates of weather, traffic, horoscopes, jokes of the day, etc. via SMS text, at a predetermined time and frequency.

Keyword: A word or name used to distinguish a targeted message within a short code service.

Landing Page: A secondary page to which a user is directed when they click on an ad, where they are provided additional information and/or a mechanism to make a purchase. The user is often driven to a landing page via an ad banner, link or other offer-related communication.

Location Based Services (LBS): A range of services provided to mobile subscribers based on the geographical location of their handsets within their cellular network. Handsets must be equipped with a position-location technology such as GPS to enable the geographical-trigger. Location-based marketing messages could include subscribers receiving a targeted offer upon entering a certain geographic vicinity. 

Messaging: Collectively, SMS and MMS messages sent to mobile phones/devices. This definition does not include advertisements delivered on WAP sites or advertisements delivered into games on mobile devices.

Mobile app: A computer program designed to run on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.

Mobile native apps: A mobile application in contrast to software applications that run on desktop computers, and to web applications which run in mobile web browsers rather than directly on the mobile device.

Mobile originated message (MO, MOM): An SMS/MMS sent from a mobile device.

Mobile terminated message (MT, MTM): An SMS/MMS message received by a mobile device.

Mobile web: A channel for delivery of web content, which offers and formats content to users in awareness of the mobile context. The mobile context is characterized by the nature of personal user information needs (e.g., updating your blog, accessing travel information, receiving news update), constraints of mobile phones (e.g., screen size, keypad input), and special capabilities (e.g., location, connection type such as 3G or WLAN).

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS): Standard for telephony messaging systems that enable the sending of messages that include multimedia objects (images, audio, video, rich text).

Non-Personally Identifiable Information (NPII): Data that provides metrics and statistics, but does not provide specific information to contact or identify a specific end user.

Push message: A mobile app notification that delivers information directly to a mobile subscriber’s home screen, pushing them into the app when the message is clicked.

Opt-in: The process where a subscriber provides explicit consent, after receiving Notice from the Mobile Marketer.

Opt-out: The process through which Subscriber revokes consent after receiving Notice from the Mobile Marketer. An example of an Opt-out process includes, but is not limited to, a Subscriber replying to an SMS message with the phrase “stop.”

Page View: Unit of measure that tracks the number of times users load a particular web or WAP site/page.

Pull Messaging: Any content sent to the wireless subscriber upon request, shortly thereafter, on a one-time basis. For example, when a customer requests the local weather from a WAP-capable browser, the content of the response, including any related advertising, is Pull Messaging.

Push Messaging: Any content sent by or on behalf of advertisers and marketers to a wireless mobile divide at a time other than when the subscriber requests it. Push Messaging includes audio, short message service (SMS) messages, e-mail, multimedia messaging, cell broadcast, picture messages, surveys, or any other pushed advertising or content.

QR Code: A specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera telephones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded by be text, URL, or other data.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results – often referred to as “natural,” “organic,” or “earned” results.

SMS Message or Text Message: A message sent via a Short Message Service. 160 characters in length and most commonly referred to as a text (or txt).

Subscriber (mobile subscriber): A customer that enters into an agreement with a carrier. Once executed, the agreement requires the carrier to provide wireless telecommunication services to the customer.

Single Opt-in: When a mobile subscriber opts in to a program via a subscriber-initiated message to a service provider as prompted by the terms of the program. For example, when a subscriber texts JOIN HEALTH ALERTS to a short code, that subscriber is opting in to that service.

Smartphone: A handheld device that integrates mobile phone capabilities with the more common features of a handheld computer or PDA. Smartphones allow users to store information, e-mail, install programs, along with using a mobile phone in one device.

Targeting: Various criteria to make the delivery of a mobile advertisement more precise (age, gender, geographical, day parting, household income, etc.).

Tracking: The ability to assess the performance of a mobile campaign.

Unsubscribe: The process of opting out of a mobile subscription service/application.

If there are any words, phrases or acronyms that I have left out please let me know in the comments below.

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How Mobile Marketing Can Change Your Business

Any marketer that’s been paying attention knows that things change rapidly. And that what was considered niche, unattractive or downright impossible today can become the multi-million $ business of tomorrow.

Now, we are on the cusp of another major medium shift and smartphones are the culprits. They truly are game-changers.  Of course, internet users now prefer mobile phones, tablets and other mobile devices to access the web. Why wouldn’t they? It’s simple and convenient. But since mobile phones have become such an important part of our day-to-day lives, it’s only logical that business owners learn to harness the potential of mobile marketing.

Just What is Mobile Marketing?

Well, if you want an academic definition, the most referenced one is that of Andreas Kaplan, a marketing expert (especially on viral marketing and social media) and a Professor of Marketing at ESCP Europe.

He describes mobile marketing as being “any marketing activity conducted through a ubiquitous network to which consumers are constantly connected using a personal mobile device”.

In other words, whenever you market something by means of a mobile phone, smartphone, tablet, smartwatch or any other mobile device, you are mobile marketing.

The only question is how to choose among the multiple mobile marketing methods at your disposal? SMS, MMS, push notifications, app-based marketing, in-game mobile marketing, mobile tailored websites ads and images, QR codes, and location-based marketing- these are all viable options, but your success depends on your ability to figure out which one works best with your target audience.

Why Mobile Marketing?

I mentioned at the beginning of the article that mobile marketing will be a game-changer akin to other major shifts in marketing in the past decades.

But you might wonder why. Let’s look at some statistics.

In 2013, according to reports by comScore and Nielsen, users were spending 40% of their internet time on mobile devices. And at the end of 2009, Morgan Stanley made a prediction that in five years, internet users would prefer mobile devices to desktops to access the web. Unsurprisingly, these predictions turned out to be correct. And it seems that things are looking ever-brighter for those hoping to use mobile marketing. Comprehensive reports show that the trend is ever increasing, so much so that in 2015 alone, mobile phone internet traffic increased by 39%. And in January 2015, web-pages served to mobile phones comprised a third of all served pages. This means that mobile advertising must have grown also. And it has.

To put things into perspective, in 2009, internet advertising grew by 9%, while more traditional forms like newspapers, radio and TV went down 18.7%, 11.7% and 10.1% respectively. Billions of dollars go into mobile advertising every year and by 2017, experts foresee that mobile ad spending will reach just shy of $60 billion worldwide.

The Lingering Importance of SMS Mobile Marketing

Despite the fact that there are many unique mobile phone users out there, and in countries like India mobile is actually the main way people connect, not all of them are Smartphone users. It’s as simple as that. Yes, mobile is what you should focus on and hence the need to develop a coherent in-depth mobile marketing strategy.

But that strategy wouldn’t be complete or have maximum efficiency if you didn’t take into account the potential customers that you can reach only by SMS. And there’s loads of them.

Among multiple mobile marketing ideas, SMS marketing is a win-win. Of course you can choose a combined mobile marketing strategy: like SMS, in-game ads and QR codes, or whatever you think would work for you, based on the customers you’re aiming for. It’s important, however, that small business owners learn to track and monitor their effectiveness, Brit Tammeorg from TextMagic says.

But SMS should be an integral part of that strategy. Because apart from the data mentioned so far, there is other data consolidating this potential diversification of your mobile marketing strategy to include SMS, into a solid decision.

This has to do with the open rates of SMS messages, these rates being the frequency with which users open this type of messages. A report published by Singlepoint in 2010, called Conversational Advertising found that 99% of all text messages are read by the recipient and, what’s more, 90% of them are read within 3 minutes of being received.
This article from 2014 on business2community highlighted some important points, most importantly the fact that, as opposed to email open rates (which are close to 22%), text messages have a whopping 98% open rate.

Click through rates are also higher in the case of text messages, as an article from January 2015 shows. It was based on a survey performed by FunMobility and concluded that 36% of SMS recipients click on links they find in the message as opposed to just 3.2% of those that receive them in emails.

An American study performed by Shift Communications between the 26th and 29th of September 2015 got impressive results too. When they asked users if they read every SMS message they received, 82% of them replied “yes”! Unsurprisingly, women tend to read fewer text messages from unknown numbers as opposed to men.

SMS Mobile Marketing Tips

Luckily enough, planning an SMS marketing campaign is pretty straightforward. The key is to always remain a welcome presence as opposed to a nuisance for your customer.

In other words, would you like having a ton of messages dropped on you in a short span, making this your first interaction with a company? No. Then don’t do it as a company.
Would you like it if said messages came all of a sudden, without even asking you for permission? Of course not. Opt-ins are essential step.

And you definitely wouldn’t like it if the messages you got were completely un-personalized. Say offering you a bra if you’re a man, to give an extreme example. But keep in mind that even things that aren’t as blatantly faux pas as this can definitely irritate if they do not cater to the interests and needs of the individual. Being useful to your customers is what you need to strive for.

Here are a few ideas that are bound to ignite your marketing campaign:

• Deals, coupons, freebies: these are excellent incentives for your customers, so offer them to SMS campaign subscribers.
• Be useful: try to incorporate a sales pitch into a text that offers your customer relevant information (such as completion times for his/her requested service, updates on their delivery, information regarding items that were no longer on stock when they attempted to place an order).
• Engage in interactive contests: use website/social media links to help your customers better connect with your business.
• Urgency helps: creating a sense of urgency (for instance, having expiration dates for certain sales or offers) will encourage customers to respond faster.
• Offer exclusive services: customers who choose to take part in SMS campaigns should be treated as members of a VIP club so offer discounts that no other customers receive.
• Ask for referrals and promise freebies for top referrers via SMS.
• One-questioned-surveys are great: they make customers feel involved and help you better cater to their needs. Win-win.
• Use texts as follow-ups to other forms of communication.
• Never forget to personalize the text.

SMS marketing campaigns are an oasis of opportunity. It all depends on your creativity. Just remember to keep it short, sweet and useful.

Either way, it’s clear that a marketer who wants to turn his or her small business into a resounding success must think of alternative marketing strategies that can help gain traction and brand awareness. Mobile marketing does just that. It’s reliable and as long as the SMS is personalized, takes the user seriously and shows proper respect, you’re bound to have positive results.

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9 Of The Best Places To Leverage Mobile Video Advertising

With the world having more than two billion smartphone subscribers, it is no wonder that mobile video ads are also rapidly growing. According to data from eMarketer, mobile video ad spending in the United States jumped from $720 million in 2013 to $1.5 billion in 2014 – doubling in value in just a year.

But the growth does not stop there: By 2018, mobile video ad spending is set to quadruple to a whopping $6 billion.

Mobile video is booming because it works. In fact, Millennial Media found that mobile video ads were five times more engaging than traditional standard banners. What this means is that every mobile marketer should at least explore video advertising. This article could be a good place to start.

Mobile video advertising on social media

Mobile and social are a match made in heaven. Everyone seems to be on Facebook, Twitter, or some other kind of social media network these days – especially when they are using their mobile devices, as the following pie chart shows:

When it comes to advertising, a study conducted by Opera MediaWorks and comScore revealed that viewing mobile video ads on native environments (where ads look like the regular content in terms of content, format and style – like on social) improves performance metrics such as mobile ad recall, purchase intent, and favorability. This explains why many social platforms are upping their video ad offerings lately.

The following networks dominate the scene.

Here’s what they have to offer:

1.  Facebook

Mobile advertising accounted for around 76 percent of Facebook’s revenue during the second quarter of 2015. Facebook has already run successful brand campaigns for companies like Under Armour and Procter & Gamble.

When running a mobile video campaign on Facebook, you can choose between Facebook’s Standard Video Ads, which are targeted the same way as regular Facebook ads, and Premium Video Ads, which allow advertisers to drive branding objectives while reaching a large audience – in the hope of unlocking big advertiser spend from top brands.

Premium video starts playing without sound but when tapped, it expands into a full-screen view and sound will start. These ads are bought like spots on television as they are based on TRPs (Targeted Gross Rating Points) to reach a specific audience over a short period of time.

You can target people based on location, demographics, interests, behaviors, and connections. Just recently, Facebook announced its support of the auto-play video ad format, as well as multi-image carousel ads and dynamic product ads. Videos can go as long as 45 minutes.

Facebook follows a flexible payment scheme that suits your daily budget, starting at a minimum of $5 per day. Ultimately, average CPI (cost per install) figures vary greatly depending on gender, age, interests, OS, and country.

2. YouTube

YouTube is the undisputed king of video content, so it makes a lot of sense to advertise on the platform. It boasts one billion unique users per month on mobile, with the average YouTube viewing session lasting a stunning 40 minutes. Viewers are targeted using the same AdWords Interface being used by Google.

YouTube has several ad formats, which include Mobile Roadblock, InStream Video Ads, and Brand Channel. Roadblocks allow you to see how many people viewed your ad on YouTube mobile for one day. InStream ads run when users play a video from a premium inventory partner on the Android YouTube app.

Brand Channels are great in promoting brand engagement for both Android and iOS users. Video ad formats include skippable and non-skippable video ads.

Videos can run up to 45 minutes and performance can be measured using a built-in YouTube Analytics system. It has an average cost-per-view ranging from 10 to 30 cents.

3. Twitter

Since Twitter has always been a mobile-first platform, ad revenues from mobile advertising climbed as much as 88 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. With a total of 700 million monthly users, the company can target users based on geography, gender, language, keyword, interest and username. You can also modify targeting settings according to mobile plan carrier, OS, and users on WiFi.

Brands can upload and distribute their own video ads by using Twitter’s Promoted Video, which appear in a user’s Twitter timeline. Some video clips appear as pre-roll or mid-roll ads. They can also auto-play.  In July, the social network allowed advertisers to drive app installs directly from promoted videos.

When it comes to cost, Twitter uses a cost-per-view buying model, which means you will only get charged when a user plays your video.

4. Instagram

Instagram enjoyed huge success when it introduced its video program in mid-2013, and it is expected to pull in $2 billion in mobile ad revenue next year, thanks to its 200 million monthly users. It makes use of native video ads that pretty much look the same as user-posted videos, which can now be viewed as landscape for a more cinematic feel.

The only difference is that it contains a “Sponsored” tag on the upper right corner. With a new video length of 30 seconds, you can adjust targeting according to various demographics like age, country, and gender.

One of the brands that first used Instagram’s video ads is Fox, which used the Marquee ad type to promote its newest horror series, “Scream Queens.” Marquee pushes the promos in front of a large number of users, helping advertisers reach a huge number of users quickly.

Mobile video ads in Instagram are not yet widely available, though the platform is currently working towards an ads API and tying up with Facebook’s ad buying interfaces. Marketers who have already tried the video advertising program say that they’re paying as little as 2 to 3 cents per view.

Mobile Analytics for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube campaigns

There are only two ways to measure your mobile video campaigns – whether app install or re-engagement – on the above social networks: you can either go in-house as all offer built-in analytics tools, or work with official mobile measurement partners that are used mainly to get deeper attribution and marketing analytics, and to compare all marketing channels, ad networks and campaigns in a central dashboard.

5. Snapchat

Boasting over 100 million monthly active users – the vast majority of whom are millennials – Snapchat uses the “disappearing model,” in which photos and videos uploaded by users vanish within a set limit of time.

Snapchat video ads appear in a user’s friends list under the Recent Updates section. Just like a normal Snapchat message, users need to tap the ad to play the video in full. This unique method of holding to play can help you know exactly at which point a user stops watching the ad.

Another way to run a video ad on Snapchat is through Discover, its news section. Ads automatically play as the user swipes to view the next piece of Discover content, although they can easily be swiped away if the user doesn’t want to watch the ad.

At present, targeting is limited to country, age and gender. It has a standard price of two cents for a 10-second video, but premium ads can run longer.

6. Pinterest

Instead of videos, photo sharing platform Pinterest uses Cinematic Pins, which are GIF-like animations that play backwards and forwards every time the user scrolls up and down. These are around 30 to 50 frames long – short enough to be played before the user scrolls past the ad.

At present, Cinematic Pins are not yet fully available for advertisers, although it is currently testing with select ad partners. It will be releasing a pricing model that allows marketers to pay for Promoted Pins based on engagement.

Pinterest also has its own analytics platform, but it has not yet been upgraded for Cinematic Pins.

Mobile video advertising on mobile ad networks

In order to maximize reach and diversify your advertising efforts, you should always try to find a mix of social and “standard” mobile ad networks to work with. There are many networks out there that include video ads in their offering.

Here a few leading ones:

7. Vungle

Dubbed as “the leader of in-app video advertising,” Vungle is the top choice for web developers like Zeptolab and Mobjo. It uses programmatic advertising technology that automates buying, placement, and optimization of media inventory.

Vungle Premium is the company’s latest offering when it comes to mobile video ads. It has two main features: Vungle Score, which acts as a quality indicator that allows you to identify popular apps for advertising opportunities; and Vungle Billboard, which helps you find desired target audiences.

8. AdColony

Owned by mobile ad company Opera, AdColony is a leading mobile video advertising and monetization platform. According to the company, its instant-play video ad technology means that unlike other networks, there’s virtually no load time regardless of connection strength or device type.

9. AppLovin

With video making up about 35 percent of its business, the ad network is embracing data and real time programmatic advertising. The company claims that its algorithm allows for better targeting, increased conversion and reaching about 70 percent of your customers within just a week.

To sum up, mobile video advertising is red hot. It’s where a lot of marketing attention is going to these days, with more and more news about its effectiveness – particularly on mobile – coming out. To remain competitive in a hyper-competitive environment, it appears video is a must-have weapon in today’s app marketer arsenal.

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Mobile Marketing 101: The Efficient Formula for Unleashing Your Full Potential

One of the biggest new trends in search advertising is the entry of mobile devices. Today, it’s indicated that over 50% of all searches on Google come from a mobile device. Google recently rolled out a modification to their algorithm that affected how well websites rank in the organic results depending on its mobile usability.

Google says following the announcement of the new ranking factor for mobile websites, they saw an increase of 4.7% in the amount of mobile friendly websites in March and April of 2015.

Obviously, mobile is a huge area of focus.

But what are you exactly supposed to do? We have all read the articles about how you should get “mobile friendly”, but what does it actually mean?

Today, I will cover some of the basics of matching your ads and landing pages with your visitors’ true motivation in order to execute “mobile friendly” Google AdWords strategies.

How to Think of Mobile Users Versus Desktop Users

Start by looking at mobile versus desktop intentions, and you find some interesting matches as well as differences.

Keep in mind the different situations users are likely to find themselves in when using either device. With desktops, you’re more likely to see people in a focused state, they can handle more information due to the bigger screen and will generally spend more time researching.

Desktop users are less forgiving of your website’s design and content. If you have a poorly designed website in 2015, you are very likely to force people to find another potential vendor. It’s simply too easy to click on the back button and find an array of other options.

Mobile is a different ballgame as the conversion rates and behavior from users is so different from industry to industry.

Where the conversion rates for e-commerce stores tend to be lower on mobile, and then we see astronomical conversion rates for local lead gen businesses. A study has shown that over 50% of mobile searches result in local visits in a store. That’s an impressive amount and  the opposite of what you see with e-commerce.

Finally, just thinking that users only stick to either device is not sufficient. Upon analyzing user behavior, you will see that they switch from device to device. A search might start on a smartphone, and then be taken to a desktop for finalizing the search, comparing with competitors and going more in-depth.

Our  data in White Shark Media® shows that mobile users are far more likely to call businesses than desktop users:

How to Structure an Efficient Mobile Ad

One of the first things you have to be aware of with mobile ads is that you have less space to work with. As opposed to a desktop ad, you will only be able to show above-the-fold if you’re in the top two position.

This puts even more weight on your ads to be efficient. But, it also means if your ads are successful then you have a huge opportunity to make a lot of money. 

1. Use Short Words for Mobile Ads

With both a shorter attention span and a smaller screen, capturing the attention of mobile users is a challenge. One of the longest standing best practices is to focus your ad writing on shorter words.

Ignore the urge to articulate yourself in extraordinary lengthy words extending the knowledge of your immense vocabulary. Be precise. Get your point across. Highlight your USPs in short terms.

This also holds true for regular description lines in AdWords ads but is even more important to remember for mobile AdWords ads.

2. Consider Environmental Changes from Desktop to Mobile

For some industries, the impact of changing from desktop to mobile isn’t one a big deal. However, there are important factors to take into account for others.

For a consumer researching the next desktop she is going to buy, you won’t need to change your ad copy much from desktop to mobile. You can test different messages of course (as always), but it’s not a fundamental change to the way you have to write your ads.

Now imagine a consumer searching for emergency plumber on her smartphone at 10 pm at night. Do you think the environment has changed? Does the situation now merit a completely different ad than if the user was searching on their desktop at 4 pm on a Saturday? Of course it does.

A great ad to present in such a case would be:

Emergency Plumber 24/7
Ready by the phone. Call now!
1-hour guaranteed response time.

Writing ads that are intended to fit exactly the situation your prospective customer finds herself in is marketing 101. Mobile devices combined with the keywords used give you an incredible opportunity to tailor your ads for specific audiences at a high success rate.

3. Write Mobile Ads That Highlight The “Mobility” Situation

One of the longest standing best practice for mobile ads is to write an ad that touches upon any of the following statements:

• Mobile-Friendly Website
• Call Us Now
• Call us from your mobile
• Display URL with “Mobile” in it

The idea here isn’t to just say the word mobile and then expect success. The idea is that the user should know that you have put thought into your mobile ad it is not just an afterthought.

4. Include Call and Sitelinks Extensions

Ad extensions should always be included in AdWords ads, but there are starting to be so many that you need to weigh each extension and how it applies to your needs.

For mobile ads, the two best extensions are Call extension and Sitelinks extension.

Call extension is a given if your main goal with AdWords is to generate calls.

Sitelinks extension ensures that you get the most ad space possible.

How to Structure an Efficient Landing Page for Mobile Users

First of all, it’s important that your website is responsive. In 2015, it doesn’t work if you haven’t designed landing pages customized for the smaller screens.

Some of the key features of a mobile landing page are these:

1. Format Your Content To Fit Smaller Screens

Your content should be written and formatted with the purpose of getting your core message across. Some websites think less is automatically more for mobile websites, but that is a misunderstanding of mobile user behavior. Mobile users are not interested in less content, they’re interesting in less clutter.

If you design a mobile website that users have to scroll endlessly to weed through the information, then you might lose them. But if you, on the other hand, create expandable elements (see below), then you can include as much information as you want. The mobile user will just expand the elements they are interested in.

The idea of creating scannable websites still apply to mobile devices – you just have to remember that the area a user can scan is much smaller on mobile devices, so your content formatting strategy should of course also be changed.

2. Don’t Try to Capture Your Prospects’ Entire Profile with Contact Forms

The contact form for your mobile landing page should only contain the  crucial elements. Don’t try to get users to fill out more than four fields. If you  want to see what you can get out of mobile landing pages I would even consider only asking for three things:

• Name
• Phone number
• Email

If you have a strong process for calling leads quickly, I would even consider removing the email. In any case, you should aim to reduce the amount of fields in your forms and only include the most important ones. Again, if you can, consider just asking for name and phone number. Only include email if you have trouble contacting leads immediately after they fill out your contact form.

You might also consider changing your contact forms to “click-to-call” buttons. Instead of having contact forms, then try to get the user to call you immediately. They have their mobile phone right in front of them, so getting them to dial the phone could be as easy as asking them to do it.

One big tip for getting your landing pages to convert better is to align your potential customers’ need for information before they decide to call you. Where a decision to choose a new marketing platform is not an on-the-fly decision, deciding on which airport taxi service to use is. If the website looks halfway decent, and they clicked an AdWords ad that listed a couple of your USPs, then you can easily have a click-to-call button immediately on your landing page.

Think of pop-ups. As the user, you typically dislike them, but they are one of the most efficient ways to increase the amount of email subscribers to your blog. The same applies here.

3. “Call Us Now” Buttons with Click-To-Call Functionality Spread Out Through Your Landing Page

Your landing page for mobile should have strategic call us now buttons placed throughout the landing page. Preferably, these should be very easy to identify as “pushable” and the purpose of the button should be clear. Avoid creating flat-design buttons as they can look like non-interactive elements instead of the clickable element it is.

4. Video can be Effective — Just Analyze Engagement Metrics

Avoid relying on a video to relay your most important information. Most people are using their mobile device in a location where switching on sound is less than ideal. It’s fine to include a video if it sells your service well, but be careful relying on it.

Wistia, YouTube, and Vimeo all have advanced video analytics that will tell you how often your video is played and for how long. Remember to take this into account when determining whether your landing page video is helping you convert more.

Final Advice: Custom Columns Allow You To Identify Patterns

Use custom columns in Google AdWords to truly see the impact of how your desktop vs mobile design is generating calls or contact form submissions.

Custom columns are one of those things that fix a lot of the problems from the past. Using several conversion types like hard conversions (lead form completion) while also including softer touch points like whitepaper downloads was impossible just a year ago. Today, it is possible to  differentiate your columns and segment your data.

You used to only have one column with all your conversion data aggregated. With the ability to segment the data, you can now include more conversion goals or segment the data that you’re already seeing – a natural area is segment calls and form fills:

Don’t Let Mobile be an Afterthought

For mobile truly to be effective it’s about time we start thinking of it as its own medium. Personally, I would have loved if Google had kept mobile more separate from the current form where mobile is a part of the regular desktop campaign. Although I can see the advantage of not having duplicate campaigns, I feel they overdid it with the current setup.

Here’s three takeaways that summarize my advice today:

1. Write ads that are short, call-focused and refer to the mobile environment
2. Design landing pages not with less clutter, but better organized content
3. Avoid copying the same functionality from desktop landing pages like contact forms

No matter what you do, you shouldn’t let mobile be an afterthought. The most common mistake I see in Google AdWords accounts is a failure to follow through on the huge mobile marketing opportunity out there.

Don’t think of mobile search marketing as just another way to create an AdWords ad, or change a bid. Even though this has been enough until very recently, more and more advertisers will soon see the benefits of targeting mobile users efficiently.

Image Credits

Featured Image: Illustration by White Shark Media. Used with permission.
Image #1: Illustration by White Shark Media. Used with permission.
Images #2 – #4: Screenshots via Andrew Lolk. Taken April 2015.

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