Mobile PPC Strategy: Analyze and Maximize Mobile Campaigns

With a dramatic increase in mobile use and improvement in mobile site functionality, mobile devices have become a huge part of the customer buying experience. As such, it’s more important than ever to make sure the mobile portion of your paid search campaigns is performing well. Below we outline a simple process you can use to easily determine how your mobile campaigns are performing and what steps you can take to make improvements in your results.

About the Play

This one can be found on page 15 of our eCommerce Marketing Playbook, which outlines three tactics from SEO, PPC and Conversion Optimization for a total of nine eCommerce marketing “plays”. Mobilus Maximus is a simple five-step process that will help you quickly determine whether or not your mobile PPC strategy is effective and how to improve it.

Who’s It For?

Google Paid Search Account Managers

When to Use It:

In general, paid conversion rates should always be stronger than other traffic since you choose which searches you show up for. So if your mobile paid conversion rate is lower than the general mobile traffic conversion rate, you may have a targeting problem, and Mobilus Maximus can help you solve it.

How to Execute Mobilus Maximus

Step 1: Compare

To compare device performance, first navigate to Audience located in the left navigation bar. From there select Mobile, then Overview.

Step 2: Segment

Click on “Segment” located at the top right

Step 3: Search

Search for “Paid” and then select both Paid and Non-Paid.

Step 4: Remove

Remove the “All Users” segment by selecting the arrow in the top right corner and clicking “Remove”

Step 5: Compare Metrics

Once you’ve selected Paid and Non-Paid Traffic, the table will compare these two metrics. The rightmost column shows conversion rate.

If you are seeing a lower conversion rate for your Paid mobile traffic, it’s time to look at keywords and search queries. Here are a few techniques to explore:

Consider adding higher funnel keywords as negatives on mobile (if you have a mobile-only campaign).
Move away from broad keywords to modified broad or exact and phrase match keywords.
Consider removing keywords with high spend, low CTR and/or low conversions.
Analyze your search term report in AdWords and remove any irrelevant search queries that may be causing your campaigns low CTR and impacting Quality Score.