Understanding the mobile audience

Research shows that over 60% of internet users actively use smartphones to search the internet, shop, socialise and even for work. Roughly speaking, people spend a huge amount of time on their smartphones, so the online behaviour patterns of mobile users are very different from those of PC users. In this regard, to launch an effective advertising campaign targeting the mobile audience, you need to take into account the following peculiarities of their behaviour:

• Frequent use on the move. Mobile users often access their devices while on the move. This affects their behavioural habits and their perception of advertising content;
• Instant access to information. Smartphones provide quick access to information, which requires adverts to be clear and concise, otherwise their attention may move on to other adverts;
• Localisation. Users are often looking for localised information. Adverts should take geographical location into account for more accurate targeting.

Setting up Google Ads campaigns for mobile devices

Google Ads does not have specific templates for mobile-friendly ad campaigns. But you can use certain ad formats that can be customised for mobile users:

• Search Ads. Ads that appear in Google search results when users enter queries related to a product or service;
• Contextual Media Network Ads. Ads that appear on websites and apps that are part of Google’s partner network;
• Video Ads. Adverts placed on YouTube and other video platforms that work with Google;
• Display Ads. Graphic ads that appear on various websites and mobile apps.

Creating effective adverts

The most important factor in optimising your ad campaign for mobile users is creating quality and effective ads. This step requires special attention, because if you create ads incorrectly, users will just click through them, even if you’ve set up your campaigns perfectly.

The first and most important aspect of creating an effective ad is proper headlines and descriptions. Mobile users are, let’s be honest, very lazy, and it’s not their style to read long headlines and descriptions, even if the product or service interests them. Try to write short and memorable headlines, and make descriptions as informative and clear as possible. This way you will allow mobile users to process information quickly, and as a result the advert will attract more attention.

The next step is to make your adverts adaptive. Google Ads has a special feature that allows you to automatically optimise the display of ads for smartphone screens. This will not only be more convenient for mobile users, but will also increase the visibility of such ads on the respective platforms.

The last step is the call to action. Using effective calls to action helps users perform targeted actions such as buying or registering. Examples of CTAs include ‘Buy now’, ‘Learn more’ or ‘Call us’.

Targeting settings

To get the best results from your mobile-focused ad campaign, you need to set up the right targeting settings and segment your adverts with mobile users in mind. Here’s how you can do it:

• Geographic targeting. Allows you to customise your adverts based on the user’s location. This is especially useful for localised businesses. In Google Ads, you can select a country, region, city and even a certain radius where your adverts will be shown;
• Behavioural targeting. Based on analysing user behaviour, such as their interests and previous interactions with the brand. So you can choose exactly your target audience, where your adverts will elicit the greatest response;
• Demographic targeting. Setting up adverts based on demographics such as age, gender and interests. This is also a very important targeting setting that allows you to find your target users. 

Optimisation of advertising campaigns

After launching an advertising campaign, it is impossible to do without its optimisation. This is a mandatory step, as you can miss important details during the setup phase of an ad campaign, and other important information that comes in handy in the post-launch setup may pop up. Here’s what you need to do to make optimising your ads for smartphones a snap.

• Performance Tracking. Using Google Ads tools to analyse key metrics such as CTR (clickability), CPC (cost per click), conversions and ROI (return on investment). This helps you determine which elements of your ad campaign are performing the best and which are performing the worst;
• A/B testing. Testing different versions of adverts helps identify the most effective elements. Includes testing of headlines, descriptions, images and CTAs;
• Data-driven optimization. Analysing results and making changes based on the data. This may include adjusting targeting, changing budgets or reworking creatives.

Mobile website and user experience

The site that your ads will lead to should also be optimised for mobile users. The design of the site should be such that it is easy to navigate by tapping on the screen, easy to interact with tabs and easy to familiarise yourself with its content if you are accessing it from a smartphone. The site should also load quickly and have easy, intuitive navigation.

Conclusion

In fact, creating optimized ads for smartphones in Google Ads is not that difficult. All you need to do is follow a certain approach and adjust your ads so that they take into account the needs and behavioural factors of smartphone users. If you’ve done everything right, you’ll get a lot of quality, targeted traffic, effectively promoting your offers and earning a lot of revenue from it.