Mobile Day at Google’s SEAL Conference

 

Being a Google Premier Partner allows SM360 and CA access to a virtually endless list of resources and support from our media supplier, Google. It also allows our agency to expand its knowledge deepen and leadership in the digital space by attending seminars such as today’s SEAL about mobile at the Google Chicago office.

Leave it to Google to get everybody on the same page right away!

 

They started the day with an ice-breaking exercise consisting of a 15-second personal introduction by each of the 50 attendees. Then they asked the audience a question: what is nomophobia? Nomophobia is defined as the fear of being without any mobile device and the power source for said device. In this age of technology, nomophobia has become a ‘real’ disease. We live online and we are hyper connected; therefore there’s a possibility of a potential ailment linked to this reality of ours.

Growing with Google and Mobile :

Our presenter Jessie Hocchaler was quick to point out that the Mobile First strategy wasn’t imposed by Google or by any advertising platform. It was triggered by the consumers.

In 2015, over 1.5 billion devices globally were being used and 87% of people said the device never left their side. Google now estimates that the next 5 billion connected consumers will roam the Internet using a mobile device.

Google proposes a garden-themed four-prong approach to growing your marketing activities with mobile:

 

1. Prep the soil

2. Plant the seed

3. Prune and trim

4. Commit to growth

 

1. Prep the Soil:

To create a proper marketing campaign, we must understand that the consumer’s journey has changed. The immediacy of an action combined with the expectations of today’s consumer means that we must focus on answering a need. That loyalty will go toward a solution (product/service) which answers that need instead of going toward a specific, well-established brand.

The journey also means that we no longer need to rely on the same sources that we did just a few years ago to answer said needs.

U.S. consumers now spend more time with a connected device than ever before. In fact, it’s now more than 5 hours per day (3.5 hours on a mobile device) compared to less than 1 hour with print media and 4 hours with television! Why TV advertising investments still surpass digital advertising is a mystery.

 

2. Plant the Seed:

The key to success is to have a mobile optimized site. If yours isn’t, expect users to leave it in less than 2 seconds. A mobile optimized site is built for mobile devices. It loads faster, ideally in less than 3 seconds or your abandon rate will hit the roof, meaning even as high as 40%!

Whether you are looking to sell products or services, you’re aiming for product views, shopping basket filling-up, leads and completed purchases. Mobile optimized sites will convert twice as much as non-optimized sites: 3.4% vs 1.6%.

source: Criteo

 

3. Prune and Trim:

Your objective is to get users to your mobile site. Here are a few items to consider when building your strategy:
Think local. Searches ‘near me’ or with location intent added in Google queries have skyrocketed 34x over since 2011.

Ref: google.com/trends

 

Your action plan should therefore include:

1. Creating a local campaigns with ‘near me’ terms
2. Use of competitive mobile bid modifier in AdWords
3. Use ad extensions: ads not using them will rank lower in SERPs
4. Use of mobile extensions:
   
   • Call extensions
   • Location extensions
   • Site links
   • Call-out extensions
   • Structured snippets
   • Table extensions
5. Use of App extensions when running mobile App campaigns

With the recent changes done in SERPs, where right-hand columns ads have disappeared, make sure to use mobile preferred ads and check the mobile preference in your AdWords set-up. They will perform better, rank better (the top 2 ads get the majority of paid clicks) and they will provide a better ROI on goals and for improving your branding.

Google is also rolling out Expanded Text Ads for its Google premium partner agencies, which includes SM360 and CA.

These will enable clients to have longer headlines, longer descriptions, a more precise URL displayed and a better overall control of the advertising message and creativity

 

Beta tests have produced a 20% uplift in CTR!

Mobile Creative Best Practices:

1. Create your ad text
2. Keep description lines short and sweet
3. Consider mobile preferred ads

 

4. Commit to Growth

 The most common attribution model is the last click and it’s often quite unfair. Here’s why: 40% of mobile searches will result in a purchase being done on a PC. Furthermore, 38% of mobile searches will trigger an in-store purchase. In simpler terms, 90% of consumers start a transaction on one device and conclude on another.

Many reasons can explain the relatively low conversion rate on mobile. Poor user experience (UI-UX) and forms that are too long and too complicated are usually at the top of the list.

Rather than using the first or last click models, the book-ends approach seems to be a lot more representative of consumer habits. It factors in time decay, paid search, display and multi-touch phenomenon.

So, as you’re planning and executing your next campaign, start with the user’s intent in mind. No matter how you plan to reach the user by desktop, mobile or video keep the user’s intent at the forefront and trickle-down your strategy with the device of choice: mobile.

 

 

(*) Sales Enablement Acknowledge Series

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