If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably noticed that we frequently advise our advertisers to create mobile specific AdWords campaigns. This is because separating out your mobile and desktop campaigns is a powerful method of driving performance on mobile.  In fact, advertisers have experienced an 11.5% average increase in mobile clickthrough rates when they’ve ran and optimized a mobile only campaign.

So today we are happy to share a new resource that will help guide you in setting up a mobile specific campaign. Watch the video below and learn how to create a mobile-only campaign directly in your AdWords account or by using the AdWords Editor tool.

After you’ve set up your mobile-only campaign, follow these optimization tips to gain competitive advantage and maximize your performance on mobile.

• Exercise more control and flexibility:  By using a separate mobile-only campaign you’ll gain better visibility into your mobile specific performance. Use this information to  optimize your bids, keyword lists and creatives without impacting your desktop campaign.
• Budget and bid separately for mobile: Since less ads show on mobile devices, bid aggressively to ensure your ads are competitive and appear in the top spots.  
• Tailor your ad creatives for mobile:  Create mobile specific ad copy and calls to action such as “Receive a quote on your phone” which could attract more attention from mobile consumers.  
• Make the most of mobile:  You can take better advantage of powerful mobile-specific ad features such as Click-to-call and location-based ads which offer more relevance and convenience to users on the go.

We hope that you’ll enjoy this new resource and find it useful in optimizing your mobile marketing campaigns.

Posted by Anna Khesed, Product Marketing Manager

Cross-posted on the Inside AdWords blog
 
Many advertisers use location extensions to automatically show the most relevant addresses and business information in the ads they run on Google both on desktops and mobile devices. Along with address and phone numbers, these ads also show directions to the business location. A click to access directions enables customers to map the quickest route from where they are located to a business that they want to visit.

We’ve also observed that location extensions with “directions” are beneficial to users and lead to more interactions with the ad. And, in January, we launched a report in AdWords to help you measure these useful interactions.

And, over the next few weeks, you’ll see performance metrics for “directions” alongside those for clicks and phone calls. We’ll also begin to charge for “directions” clicks in the same manner as a click on your ad’s headline and/or phone number. If your campaign has a high number of “directions” clicks, this indicates that your customers are interacting with your ads to get directions to your business.

(click for full-size image)

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Below are some answers to a few questions that you may have as a result of this change:

Where will I see the performance metrics for “directions” clicks?
You can see the number of directions clicks in the same place as your other click metrics (select Segment, thenClick type from your summary tables). You can review the performance of “direction” clicks to determine if they are helping you meet your marketing goals.

How will “directions” appear in ads on desktop and mobile devices?
For AdWords campaigns with location extensions enabled, a “directions” link will be eligible to appear in the ad and on sponsored map bubbles in Google Map on desktops.

On mobile search ads, a “Get directions in Google Maps?” pop-up will appear when the user clicks on the expandable map. Clicking on “OK” in the pop-up allows users to access directions and will be charged.

Where can I see past performance of “directions” clicks?
For a report, select the Free clicks view within the Dimensions tab of your AdWords account. If you don't see theDimensions tab in your account, click the arrow button next to the existing tabs above your performance table, and select Free clicks in the dropdown menu.

I do not want to pay for “directions” clicks. How can I opt out?
You can do this by removing location extensions associated with your campaign. However, location extensions provide valuable information to your customers about your local business, so we encourage you to carefully analyze your campaign performance before doing so.

To learn more about location extensions and directions in ads, please see the location extensions overview section of the Help Center.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew

Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog

As we approach the first anniversary of AdMob’s arrival at Google this Friday, it’s amazing to look at how much the mobile industry has grown since last year: an estimated 300 million smartphones were shipped, average smartphone data-usage doubled and hundreds of thousands of new mobile apps have been created.

Many thousands of mobile publishers and developers use ads to support their businesses, so we’re excited to see rapid growth in mobile advertising, too.  For example, in the last year, traffic on the AdMob network has grown more than three and a half times, and we now get more than 2.7 billion ad requests every day. We have thousands of advertisers both large and small getting great results every day on AdMob’s network of more than 80,000 mobile apps and sites.  To celebrate AdMob’s first year at Google, today we’re introducing a set of new products and features for mobile advertisers and publishers.

New ad formats for tablets 
In the last six months alone, traffic from tablets on the AdMob network has increased by 300 percent.  To help advertisers better connect with tablet users, today we’re launching a variety of new, tablet-specific rich media ad formats.  These new HTML5-based ad formats are built specifically for tablets’ larger, high-definition screens, and make use of features like touch, tap and swipe. Together, these features will enable advertisers to develop rich, engaging campaigns and run them across multiple mobile platforms.

Enhanced tools for mobile app developers
To help app developers grow their app businesses, we’re releasing a significant upgrade to our AdMob “House Ads” product, which developers can use to promote their own products within their mobile apps. The new version includes improved campaign management, new ad formats and better ad targeting options.

In the coming months, we’ll also improve mobile app developers’ ability to use AdMob to deliver the most valuable ad by integrating a new “mediation” feature that selects the best ad from multiple, competing ad networks directly into the Google AdMob Ads SDK.

Deeper integration with Google advertising products

Many advertisers, agencies and publishers use DoubleClick’s ad serving and measurement tools to manage their digital ad campaigns. We envision a single platform that enables seamless management of ads across desktop, video, mobile and tablets. Our announcement earlier this week about the availability of DoubleClick Rich Media ads on the AdMob Network on the AdMob network is one example of this commitment. In a few weeks, we’ll also add support for mobile to our DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business ad serving product, which thousands of web publishers use today to manage ads that appear on their sites.

The last year has seen incredible growth, but it’s just the beginning. We believe that the products we’re announcing today will further accelerate the growth of mobile advertising, enable marketers and developers to rapidly grow their businesses and help to fund more great mobile content and apps for users.

Posted by: Clay Bavor, Product Management Director, Mobile Display Ads

Here’s the second post in our Mobile Insights series, featuring expert views from members of our mobile ads business. Welcome this week’s guest contributor, Anjali Vaidya, an Account Manager on the mobile ads team who shares her experiences on our Click-to-call (CTC) offering in mobile ads.

We’re continually making enhancements to the Click-to-call ad format. Launched in early 2010, CTC allows mobile consumers searching Google or visiting sites in the Google Display Network, to click on the phone number and speak to someone who can explain more about the product or service. 

One enhancement was our Call-only format to allow advertisers to receive only calls, instead of clicks, to their website. Starting this week, we’re making the Call-only format even better by including a phone icon and moving the phone number above the ad.

The convenience and immediacy of CTC for users has made it one of Google’s fastest-growing advertising solutions. Click-to-call is a great addition to the advertising mix. You can still drive searchers to your website, but it gives you other advantages:

• it’s a great option if you don’t yet have a mobile-optimized website; 
• it captures consumers who are ready to act; 
• it allows you to drive traffic to a strong call center, giving you a competitive edge over other online advertisers.

We’re generating millions of calls every month on mobile devices and the number of advertisers using phone extensions is growing quickly. The uptake for CTC is fast because advertisers are realizing great returns.

• Home security provider Defender Direct gets 75-80% of online advertising clicks using Click-to-call. Four out of their top 10 campaigns in terms of clicks are now mobile. And the calling customers  are ready to consult with an expert about the ins and outs of alarm systems. Once the company started targeting high-end smartphones, their returns from mobile ads and CTC skyrocketed. Results were soon double what they got from desktop search. Today, Google mobile ads constitute 24% of the company’s overall online budget.

• When auto insurance company Esurance started using mobile ads and CTC they found that they could acquire customers at 20-30% less cost compared with other channels. Esurance wanted to put interested people in touch with agents or claims representative in a few simple steps. Reaching the company is faster and easier for customers, and a less expensive way to acquire leads for Esurance. Calls coming from CTC mobile ads are more likely to result in sales.

• The Carphone Warehouse has had great success with mobile ads CTC too. The UK mobile phone retailer created a mobile website where visitors can search for headset details and price plans. They used Mobile Ad Sitelinks to provide deep links into the site and incorporated CTC in ads to allow users to reach a call center agent to get advice or buy.

Our advice? Test Click-to-call, whether you’re a national or local business, to see how it can generate sales. Our customers have shown us that mobile searchers will research your products on their phones, and they appreciate the convenience of calling from that same device. Once they call, they are even closer to purchase. Your best leads are only a phone call away, try Click-to-call today!

Posted by Anjali Vaidya, Google Account Manager for Mobile Ads

AdMob is excited to announce that rich media ads can now be served from DoubleClick into the AdMob network. This feature is currently in beta and will also enable advertisers to create and measure rich media ads from DoubleClick Rich Media. 

To date, AdMob advertisers have relied on AdMob systems to serve their mobile rich media ads. Today, the beta will pave the way for advertisers in mobile to build, serve, manage and report on rich media ad units using the DoubleClick tools that they, and their agencies, are already familiar with. Creative agencies will be able to use DoubleClick Studio, a creative platform for producing rich media ads, to output rich, HTML5 mobile creatives for placement on AdMob apps. Media agencies will be able to use DoubleClick’s ad server, DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA), to serve and report on rich media ads in mobile.  

To date, advertisers on DoubleClick have enjoyed the ability to build an ad once and run it anywhere with online display and rich media ads. AdMob’s beta with DoubleClick gets us one step closer to making this possible for mobile display advertising too. 

Posted by Ben Chung, Product Marketing Manager

Cross-posted on Adsense blog

We’re excited to announce the launch of AdSense for mobile content in 15 new countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Philippines, Slovenia, Thailand, and Turkey.

AdSense for mobile content allows publishers to generate earnings from their mobile webpages using targeted Google ads. Just like AdSense for content, Google matches ads to the content of your site -- in this case, your mobile site. You'll earn money whenever visitors to your mobile site click on the ads they see.

For mobile websites, AdSense will automatically detect the type of phone viewing your site and deliver ads to match. For example, if someone views your site through an iPhone, we'll deliver ads specifically designed for high-end phones.

Please note that AdSense for mobile content ad units may be used in mobile websites only, not in mobile applications -- our policies don't permit placement of AdSense for mobile content ads in a mobile application. If you’re looking for an advertising solution for your mobile application, sign up for AdMob, Google’s leading mobile advertising display product.

Posted by Emanuele Brandi, Product Sales Lead

Cross-posted on the Official Google blog

The Guide to the App Galaxy, which we showed off last week at Google I/O, is designed to help mobile app developers—regardless of platform—navigate the complexities of launching an app and building a business on mobile. As you maneuver through the "galaxy” using the arrow keys on your keyboard, you’ll get the basics about app promotion, monetization and measurement—with tips from Google as well as successful developers.

There’s no exact blueprint for mobile app success and no developer’s journey is the same, which is why The Guide to the App Galaxy contains different advice and best practices from developers around the world. Here are some key insights from developers who have successfully built a business on mobile:

Rovio Mobile
Making money on mobile is not black and white—there's actually a lot of color. There are a number of business model options that aren't exclusive to any particular platforms.

Best, Cool & Fun Games
Offering your app for free lowers the barrier for users to download and try your app. The free version of Ant Smasher went viral because players could easily recommend the game to their friends through social media sites and word of mouth.

The Weather Channel
Don't forget to think beyond mobile. If you have a website or even a television channel, you can cross-promote your app with banner advertising or in-show mentions to drive downloads.

If you’re a developer who has successfully navigated the App Galaxy and launched your own app, you’ve probably picked up some tips of your own. Share your insights by creating your own journey and sharing it with your friends. We might even feature your story on The Guide to the App Galaxy.

The Guide to the App Galaxy is currently available in English, Japanese, Korean, French and German. We’re continuing to expand the guide to other developers around the world with new languages and new content like case study journeys. For more information about our solutions for mobile app developers, visit www.guidetotheappgalaxy.com/about.

Posted by Lauren Usui, Product Marketing Manager