Right now, 80% of internet users own a smartphone and as of 2016, they are spending an average of almost three hours a day on their phone browsing the internet.

Micro-moments are the perfect example of mobile transformation – the quick “I want to know” instances where customers feel the instinct to look something up on the internet. What do your customers usually reach for when they have a random thought or question? Yeah, that’s right. Their mobile device.

Now, let’s apply that to the implementation of advertising. 90% of people consult their phone while they’re in a store and need to decide what to buy. Imagine your ad being the one they see first, encouraging them to buy your product. That’s where Google AdWords comes in.

Device Bidding

Google’s first adjustment to accommodate for mobile use with AdWords was in 2013 with their enhanced campaigns. These campaigns allowed an advertiser to set up a single ad campaign on multiple devices but didn’t allow for individual bidding on each.

It was a step in the right direction but Google quickly found that each device needed its own system. Thankfully, over the next couple months, Google will be rolling out a revised bidding system called Device Bidding, allowing advertisers to set mobile use as the baseline for the campaign and to adjust targeting for smartphones, tablets, and desktop use.

Implications

Tablet and mobile bidding will be huge for advertisers. Think about the at- home user; many of them browse and search on a tablet or mobile phone while sitting comfortably on their couch. It’s important to consider what they’re browsing and searching on as well as keenly targeting the relevant search terms they are entering.

If a company doesn’t have a campaign focused towards those particular keywords on that particular device, then the company may have less of a chance of its website showing up in its customer’s search results, therefore lowering the company’s chance of gaining a new customer.

Utilizing separate campaigns means an advertiser can create more intentional and impactful moments for each device, attracting different users. This means more control over budgets and spending and more efficient targeting, with the biggest benefit being the integration between multiple devices and platforms.

The data will become more precise and this means more of the marketing budget can be applied to the most useful campaigns, as these campaigns are meant to increase ROI through website conversions.

This is much more detailed and strategic way of using AdWords, rather than just throwing it all in and seeing what sticks, which we never recommend.

What Does It Mean For Your Business?

Okay, so now you know about device bidding, but what is this going to do for your business? It’s going to work magic by allowing you to run a single campaign while targeting and optimizing for all the device varieties of your audience. This means you’ll be able to use each device to its ultimate potential to get your message across to your audience.

If the majority of your users come through a mobile app, it’s important that the base of your campaign is focused towards them. This means specifying your ads and keywords in their direction, creating more pointed and intentional interactions with users, which can lead to higher conversion rates and better return on your investments.

Thanks to Google, you can even collect data on how much website traffic is coming from each device, and start optimizing your landing pages and website for mobile.

These changes are just beginning to roll out which means they will only get more detailed and more refined as time goes on. It’s important for businesses to make the switch to device bidding to start gathering more data on each device so the adjustments on each campaign will be more precise.

Sounds like a lot of tech jargon? Using technology to market your business doesn’t have to be that intimidating. Google makes it fairly straightforward with all of their help documents, so don’t be afraid to dive and take your company to where it needs to be!

What Is The Future?

We don’t know exactly what the future will hold with Google AdWords, but based on these changes in device bidding, we can expect a lot more possibilities for the mobile user.

As of now audience targeting is limited to one campaign and is done in bulk. Ideally, there will be an integration with device bidding and each bid will correlate to a targeted demographic that is particular to a device.

Google AdWords is a high-powered machine if done right, and the more specific and precise it gets, the more power it will have over a business’advertising abilities.

Contact JXT Group to learn about how it can help with your search engine marketing and Google AdWords campaigns.