Google adwords and the modern day cigarette

As so often is the case, the consumer does not have a choice. Whether you like it or not, your Google adwords campaigns are going to get upgraded. For the unwary, this can mean either a lot of annoyed customers or massive increase in their ad spend or both. For some, it may allow even better targeted advertising spend.

Until now you have been able to exclude mobiles from your adverts. Now by default all devices - desktops, tablets and smartphones with full browser - are included. You can however, setup bid adjustments for mobile devices to bid more or less money than your desktop base bid. By using negative multipliers you can effectively stop the adverts showing on a mobile. But if you don't adjust it, you will be paying whatever Google deems appropriate - and have no illusions - they are under pressure to gain more ad revenues.

But isn't it good to advertise on smartphones? Yes it is! Click through rates and conversions are higher on mobile than on desktop. Almost one third of website visits originate from a mobile device. Mobile browsing is the modern cigarette - something to fiddle with whilst on a train or waiting for someone - and thus avoiding looking lonely or exchanging glances with your fellow passengers. What a fertile ground for advertising.

But what happens if your pages are still designed for desktop size screens? Even the brightest young eyes may struggle to read it without zooming in, and even the tiniest fingers may have difficulty in selecting the desired date from a calendar. Or worse still, for sites that display other people's adverts, if the screen reloads as the train jerks forward, the finger clicks on an advert by accident - you have paid for the advert and lost the lead. Google wins.

Before your ad budget gets wasted, make sure your site is truly usable on smartphones.

Advanced content management solutions such as Intelligent WebCentre makes optimising your site for different devices a breeze.

Contact Eleanor on 01256 346454 to get your site mobile optimised.