Google Mobile Ads Blog (via Mowser)

Mobile helps with Cupid’s last minute work

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 | 1:10 PM

Ahh, Valentine’s Day. The one day of the year when everyone tries to be a Casanova - carefully planning the details of a romantic evening - but most end up being passionate procrastinators.

Of course, you started off the week before Valentine’s Day with the best of intentions. You planned to pick up a bouquet of her favorite flowers, make a reservation at the hot new restaurant in town, get a box of chocolate covered strawberries. You took a midday break at work to do some online research. But then your day got in the way. So did the next one. And despite your best efforts, on the final days leading up to the 14th, you found yourself thanking your lucky stars for your smartphone. Fear not, you were in good company this Valentine’s Day.

Mobile makes up 62% of popular restaurant related searches on Valentine’s Day

For last-minute reservation makers, mobile was the device of choice. A whopping 62% of total US searches for popular national chain restaurants on Valentine’s Day occurred on high end mobile devices or tablets. If you weren’t advertising on mobile, you missed an opportunity to reach nearly two-thirds of consumers looking to find a restaurant.

Volume of Searches for Popular Chain Restaurants in the US

Searches for these restaurants grew 359% on mobile, 142% on desktop and 135% on tablets between February 7th and February 14th. These trends around restaurant related searches make sense when we think about the unique properties of our phones and how we use them in our daily lives - they are in our pockets and at our fingertips in that last minute frenzy; they are location aware, and they can, though we sometimes forget these days, make phone calls!

Clicks-to-call increase for last minute flower searches

Smartphones also helped save the day with last minute gift givers. Mobile searches for flower-related terms grew 227% from February 7th to February 14th in the US. On Valentine’s Day, the urgency to find flowers increased as more mobile searchers clicked on a phone number or on a link to “Get Directions” in an ad. Consumers were 560% more likely to click to make a call week over week. And mobile clicks to get directions increased 514% over the same period as people were scrambling to find a nearby florist.

Some of our passionate procrastinators went even further down to the wire, as can be seen in this chart which shows the hourly trend for clicks-to-call on flower queries in California on Valentine’s Day versus one week before. The lunch break was the last chance!

Volume of Mobile Clicks-to-Call on Flower Related Searches in California

Snuggling up to Tablets

For singles still looking for a special someone, tablets made a nice companion. On the weekend before Valentine’s Day, we saw searches for popular online personals sites grow relatively more on tablets than on computers and smartphones in the US. Those looking to make a last minute love connection seem to have been curled up with their tablets in their laps.

US Search Trends on “match.com” and “eharmony”: Scaled by Feb 6th

In the end, it all seems to have worked out for our Casanova friends. They used the magic of mobile to make their last-minute Valentine's Day celebrations feel as memorable as if they'd been planned weeks in advance.

Posted by: Dai Pham & Samantha Podos Nowak, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

GoMo: Mobile site redesign drives immediate results for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 | 11:14 AM

Labels: case study, GoMo, mobile site

As part of Google’s Go Mobile (“GoMo”) initiative, we wanted to share the impressive results 1-800-Flowers saw from their revamped mobile site. An early mover in the mobile space, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM began their mobile program over six years ago, and has since flowered to include both an app and mobile website as well as significant mobile advertising presence. Based on their analysis however, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM noticed that their mobile website still had room for improvement. To address the problem, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM launched an initiative to revamp their mobile site. Amit Shah, Director of Mobile and Social Media at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, recognized that the best way to approach mobile was not to simply transport their desktop website onto mobile but prioritize specific features for the mobile user.

“Trying to bring all of your desktop site to mobile misses the picture. You need to bring the right things to mobile,” says Amit.

Before After

1-800-FLOWERS.COM prioritized features such as shopping cart saving but was careful to prune less used features such as order tracking, which they identified only a small percent of desktop users utilized. Next, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM identified key content that would improve the user experience specifically for their own customers. Finally, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM streamlined the mobile shopping experience as much as possible by significantly reducing the number of steps it takes to complete a purchase and ehancing features such as a calendar that allows users to easily choose the best delivery date based on shipping prices and personal delivery needs.

By thoughtfully analyzing user behavior on their mobile site, and building enhancements to make the browsing and purchase experience even more robust, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM saw heartfelt success in the performance of their mobile website.

Increase in conversion rate and 25% increase in average time spent on site, despite decrease in steps to complete a purchase 53% reduction in cart abandonment Increase in the average order value on mobile

Get the full study here to learn more on how to optimize best for mobile or test how your site looks on mobile at http://www.howtogomo.com/en/#test-your-site and download a report with personalized recommendations for your mobile site.

Posted by: Kevin Otsuka, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Smartphones and tablets influence consumer purchasing decisions on mobile, online and in store

Monday, February 13, 2012 | 10:30 AM

Labels: consumers, research, tablets

We know consumers love their mobile and tablet devices, but we are just beginning to develop a strong understanding of how they engage with these devices as they make their purchase decisions. To gain greater insight into this key behavior, we partnered with Ipsos during the 2011 holiday shopping season to study online shoppers. We uncovered a number of interesting consumer behaviors across desktop computers, smartphones and tablets. The powerful data we uncovered can drive best practices for advertisers at every holiday and year round.

The first key mobile insight every advertiser should know is that consumers use their smartphones at many different points in their purchase path. 41% of those who used their mobile phones to help with shopping said they made a purchase directly on their smartphone. 46% said they researched an item on their smartphone then went to a store to make their purchase. 37% said they researched an item on their smartphone then made their purchase online.

Another key mobile insight that emerged is that consumers used all three devices throughout the research process, but some activities were more popular on specific devices. Consumers who owned tablets read product reviews and looked for product information more from their tablet devices than from their desktop computer or smartphone. This is likely due to the combination of the large screen and portability of the device that enables consumers to use it more often and in more places. Consumers are carrying tablets with them to the couch, while in the kitchen, and even to bed.

Not surprisingly, more consumers used their smartphones to contact a retailer. With the natural calling ability of phones and many click-to-call phone numbers on websites and in ads, smartphones make it easy to contact retailers, whether to see if the store has the product in stock, get directions or find store hours.

While the 2011 holiday season is now firmly behind us, it’s clear that smartphones and tablets are only going to become a bigger part of the consumer shopping experience. Among consumers that used their devices to shop last year, 80% of smartphone shoppers and 70% of tablet users said they used their device more frequently this year.

To stay ahead of this shift in consumer behavior, advertisers need to make sure they have a mobile optimized site, make it easy for customers to reach them with click-to-call and deliver a seamless experience between online and offline in-store. It’s the advertisers who engage with their customers across all three devices that will have a distinct advantage in 2012.

To learn more about consumer shopping behavior across the desktop computer, smartphone and tablet and view a full report on shopper insights, go to Post Holiday Learnings for 2012.

Posted by: Dai Pham, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Smile Designer enjoys big jump in new-patient calls with Google Mobile Ads

Friday, February 10, 2012 | 10:10 AM

Labels: advertisers, case study

Everyday consumers use their mobile phones to find local business information, to get directions, contact information or reviews. Research shows that 95% of smartphone consumers have looked for local information on their phones and 61% call or visit a business afterwards. Mobile advertising can provide a huge competitive advantage to local businesses to be discovered and preferred.

Ask Dr. Rania Saleh, who founded Smile Designer in Arlington, Virginia, in 2010. The success of her dentist practice in metropolitan DC, shows how running Google Mobile Ads can help a small business grow by driving more calls and attracting new customers.

Dr. Saleh is a general and cosmetic dentist. She was joined in the dental practice by an orthodontist and a periodontist. These three specialists take pride in creating a first-class experience for patients. The trio aims to attract patients who value good dentistry and want the best treatment they can get.

Once the fledgling practice had created an attractive website, which included links to starred reviews on Google and elsewhere, Smile Designer immediately launched an AdWords campaign. Although largely inexperienced in digital advertising, Dr. Saleh and her husband found AdWords easy to use. They added keywords and tested ad copy they wrote themselves. Google AdWords today constitutes about 95 percent of the practice’s advertising.

Following up its initial success with Google AdWords desktop campaigns, Dr. Saleh created a mobile-specific AdWords campaign. The ads were specific to the various practice areas and included keywords chosen especially for mobile users, mobile-specific calls to action, and text that included phone numbers.

“Mobile lets us reach people whenever and wherever they are,” Dr. Saleh says. “Patients with emergencies see our ad and use the click-to-call feature to call us right away. Others might discover our mobile ad when looking for a local dentist, then call us later from home after reading about our services and seeing the positive reviews on Google Places. Mobile helps us create a seamless experience.”

The AdWords campaigns raised Smile Designer’s competitive profile. The practice can now determine the number of people coming in through AdWords and other sources, and track clicks for keywords such as “orthodontist,” “dental implants,” “teeth whitening,” etc. The number of hits on the website jumped, as did the number of phone calls. In addition, the click-through rate (CTR) on mobile devices increased 74 percent, while the cost-per-click (CPC) dropped 34 percent.

All of this gave the dental professionals at Smile Designer something more to smile about.

To download the full Smile Designer case study, click here.

Posted by: Nabil Haschemie, Product Marketing Manager

AdMob auction enhancements

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 | 10:00 AM

Labels: AdMob, advertisers, mobile ads

To ensure that we deliver the most effective mobile ads marketplace to our customers we are changing the AdMob auction for all cost-per-click (CPC) ads.

Effective February 15, 2012, AdMob will move to an AdWords-style auction, where the winning price is determined by the quality of the ad and the other bids on that impression; the price we charge will never exceed the advertiser’s bid. In addition, we’re removing minimum bids and targeting fees to allow AdMob CPC advertisers to compete for inventory under the natural forces of supply and demand.

Advertisers will benefit from more efficient pricing and could receive cheaper clicks depending on the inventory on which they bid. High quality ads will be rewarded with an improved chance at winning the auction.

This change will occur for all CPC auctions globally on Feb 15th. There are no changes to non-CPC campaigns at this time. Advertisers should monitor their bids to see the effect on their particular campaigns, and be prepared to adjust bids & budgets to ensure they are meeting their volume & ROI goals.

We look forward to bringing AdWords auction components that have been refined over the years to the AdMob platform to benefit advertisers, users, and publishers.

Please visit the Help Center for more details.

Posted by: Chrix Finne, Product Manager

Super Bowl MVP: The mobile device - 41% of searches for Super Bowl TV ads during the game came from mobile devices

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | 1:55 PM

Labels: mobile search, research, super bowl

What were you doing on Super Bowl Sunday? Like many of the 111 million people around the world who tuned into the game, you were probably lounging comfortably on your friend’s couch or sitting in a neighborhood bar with some buddies, holding a deliciously unhealthy snack in one hand... and your smartphone or tablet in the other.

Multi-tasking while watching TV isn’t new, but nowadays smartphones and tablets are also becoming popular couch companions. Mobile devices have driven increases in total searches because of their always on, always-with-you nature. During the Super Bowl, 41% of Google searches in the US related to Super Bowl TV ads came from mobile devices. By looking at a selection of specific Super Bowl related queries both during the game and one week before, we found that the number of searches on these terms increased at a significant rate across all devices and was particularly high for mobile. Super Bowl ad related searches in the US rose 200% on desktop, 970% on tablets and a whopping 2700% on smartphones.

For example, when Clint Eastwood talked about “Halftime in America” in the moving Chrysler spot, viewers were increasingly reaching for their mobile devices to learn more. Smartphone searches on his name jumped nearly 5500% during the game. Here is a look at what happened with some other popular terms on mobile devices:

Smartphone and Tablet Search Volume Increase During Super Bowl

It’s clear that multi-tasking on small screens while watching the big screen is quickly becoming the new norm. Nielsen reported in a recent study that about 40% of tablet and smartphone users in the U.S. used their devices daily while watching TV. They pick up their smartphones and tablets because they’re often the closest and most convenient internet-enabled devices.

For advertisers, these big spikes in mobile search volume in response to TV ads point to the increasing importance of having an integrated mobile strategy. Advertisers are beginning to see that mobile can deepen engagement with their brands and extend the value of their ad buy beyond the 30 seconds on air. For example, Toyota’s ads encourage users to ‘Shazam’ the TV ad for a chance to win a new Camry. And by integrating a mobile search ad campaign with their Super Bowl TV ad, Volkswagen ensured mobile users could find and continue watching their ad during and after the game.

So what can we expect for Super Bowl XLVII? Perhaps some party invites that specify BYOC* (*Bring your own charger).

Posted by: Dai Pham, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Comcast mobile search campaign leads to mobile accounting for over 10% of online sales

| 10:32 AM

Labels: case study, click-to-call, search

Comcast is one of the nation’s largest Internet, phone, and cable television service providers for residential and business customers. High-quality customer service and products are central to Comcast’s business. To this end, Comcast closely evaluates how users engage their online site and find ways to improve upon their experience. With the surging rise of mobile Internet users, Comcast wanted to take better advantage of the growing mobile platform for advertising. Partnering with Google, Comcast developed a mobile campaign strategy that utilized mobile AdWords and mobile search ad extensions driven by top keywords and created mobile-optimized sites for all of its products.

The search campaign engaged users searching for Comcast keywords and directed them to mobile-optimized sites with mobile-specific functions including streamlined ordering, checking service availability nearest their location, and clicking-to-call for assistance. Comcast also implemented a mobile ad extension that allowed users to call Comcast directly from the search results page on their phone.

By advertising on the right channel with an approach optimized for mobile, Comcast capitalized on the many consumers already searching for Comcast services on mobile but who previously could not access needed information as easily. Making completing a Comcast order with a mobile device simple and convenient, the campaign led to a surge in mobile sales with mobile now driving over 10% of all online sales.

Average of more than 1 million impressions on mobile per month More than 270% greater CTR than desktop for mobile search More than 100% greater CTR than desktop for mobile click-to-call Over 10% of all online sales driven from mobile

To learn more about how Comcast maximized mobile, see here for the full case study.

Posted by Kevin Otsuka, Associate Product Marketing Manager

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