Published On: April 13, 2012

Over the past few months, Google has made significant moves that show the company aims to become a dominant player in mobile advertising. Starting with the creation of Android and producing new smartphone devices, Google continues to expand by acquiring Motorola and releasing Google Wallet. While many online marketing professionals in the automotive industry have begun to discuss the ZMOT study, what isn’t often discussed is why Google chose to publish the study in the first place. What’s also interesting is that Google has continued to push its GoMo initiative to spread awareness about why businesses need mobile websites. All of these pieces reveal a larger trend: Google is preparing for higher search traffic from smartphone users.

Ever since the first iPhone came out in 2007, a consistent upward trend has been in growing mobile Internet use and apps. Google has now been working closely with AdWords pay-per-click management companies to help businesses advertise using Adwords for Mobile.

AdWords for Mobile is Google’s pay-per-click advertising service specially-designed to work on mobile devices. These ads look exactly like the normal Google AdWords text advertisements, but come with a few more powerful features such as Click to Call and Ads with Offers. The “Click to Call” function lets you include a phone number in your ad, so users can instantly call your business by clicking on the number. This feature makes every mobile ad an immediate point of connection between potential customers and your dealership. These clickable phone numbers have resulted in an average increase of 6 to 8% in click-through rate according to Google. AdWords for Mobile also lets you use “Ads with Offers” to include special in-store promotions and deals right below your text ad. This feature helps you present more enticing promotional information to users within the space of the ad without any additional cost.

To activate these features, it is best to create a separate campaign to target mobile users, and pair your mobile ads with mobile website landing pages. Based on Google’s research, “mobile-only campaigns help drive an 11.5% average increase in mobile click-through rates compared to campaigns that combine mobile and desktop ads”. When you create a mobile campaign in Adwords, remember to set it for display on only “mobile devices with full Internet browsers” and uncheck the boxes next to desktops and tablet computers. The more tailored your campaign is for mobile users, the better it will perform. If your dealership already has a mobile website, ask them to create mobile pay-per-click landing pages for your new mobile AdWords campaign.

Our Autofusion team has been creating and launching new mobile-only AdWords campaigns for our clients since Google first announced the GoMo initiative. So far, the results have shown incredible improvement in overall click-through rate and reduced cost-per-click. The slides below present a summary of these results. From what we've learned from our campaigns and meetings with Google representatives, the practice of separating AdWords campaigns between desktop and mobile display improves quality score, lowers cost-per-click, and increases click-through rates. The combined result is increased web traffic and more qualified leads. To learn more about how to optimize your Google AdWords pay-per-click advertising for mobile devices, feel free to get in touch with our SEM team.