Google AdWords™ For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Exploiting Mobile Search

You have every reason to expect local mobile search to explode within the next couple of years. If it's big for your local business now, it's certain to get bigger. According to Google, fully one-third of all mobile searches were local in intent: finding a restaurant, a shop, an event, and so on.

As of this writing, Google announced a bid to purchase Motorola Mobility. This kind of investment shows how serious Google is about competing in the mobile search space.

Creating a local mobile campaign

We separate mobile from other forms of search for two main reasons. First, you need to be much more aggressive in your bidding in a mobile campaign. Unlike desktop search, where as many as 11 advertisers share a single page, mobile search requires that your listing be one of the first two or three on the page — after all, mobile screens are so small. Ideally, you want the number one position for mobile search.

Second, because you want to send mobile traffic to a mobile–friendly web page, it's crucial to separate visitors with mobile devices so you can show them different destination URLs.

If you enabled the Click to Call and Call metrics ad extensions in your local search campaign (see Chapter 8), you can simply clone that campaign as the basis for your mobile campaign. If these extensions weren't activated, skip the following Steps 1 and 2 and create the mobile campaign from scratch.

In a mobile campaign, Click to Call means that your prospect can simply tap ...