Has Google jumped the gun on mobile?
Edit: Published in May 2015.
“Make your website mobile friendly or we’re not going to show it when someone uses a mobile phone to search the internet." - Google, April 2015.
More than half of all internet activity happens on mobile phones. But does the important half of internet activity happen on mobile phones?
You don’t wander into an architects office and see her looking up insulation specifications on her iPhone. The maintenance foreman doesn't order a new distribution board on his Samsung.
Our architect might use her phone to clear her inbox on the train home. The foreman might update his status on his phone at lunchtime but they're still using their computers for most of the day.
In my context the important half of the internet is people looking for stuff my clients sell. I wanted to know how much of that was happening on mobile phones?
I’m lucky enough to have access to loads of data. We’ve found more than 600 000 sales prospects across a wide range of industries. Almost every one of those 600 000 people started out searching Google for something they wanted to buy. We know what they looked for, what advert they clicked and what they did once they landed on the website.
Most of my clients get a constant flow of one or two new sales enquiries every day. That works out to a couple of hundred potential new customers every year. Enough for comfortable stable growth.
Here are the numbers from some typical AdWords campaigns we manage. These are for the 30 days ending mid May 2015.
Hospitality industry selling to businesses.
- 5761 people were searching Google using their computer when they saw one of our adverts. 87 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 2416 people were searching Google using their mobile when they saw one of our adverts. 32 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 70% of the searchers were on computer, 30% on mobile.
- 73% of the enquiries were made on computer, 27% on mobile.
- On computer one enquiry was made for every 66 searches, on mobile it was one enquiry for every 75 searches.
- 8705 people were searching Google using their computer when they saw one of our adverts. 34 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 1864 people were searching Google using their mobile when they saw one of our adverts. 8 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 82% of the searchers were on computer, 18% on mobile.
- 81% of the enquiries were made on computer, 19% on mobile.
- On computer one enquiry was made for every 256 searches, on mobile it was one enquiry for every 233 searches.
- 3735 people were searching Google using their computer when they saw one of our adverts. 90 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 463 people were searching Google using their mobile when they saw one of our adverts. 8 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 89% of the searchers were on computer, 11% on mobile.
- 92% of the enquiries were made on computer, 8% on mobile.
- On computer one enquiry was made for every 42 searches, on mobile it was one enquiry for every 58 searches.
- 3002 people were searching Google using their computer when they saw one of our adverts. 9 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 2535 people were searching Google using their mobile when they saw one of our adverts. 20 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 54% of the searchers were on computer, 46% on mobile.
- 31% of the enquiries were made on computer, 69% on mobile.
- On computer one enquiry was made for every 333 searches, on mobile it was one enquiry for every 127 searches.
- 5182 people were searching Google using their computer when they saw one of our adverts. 22 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 1471 people were searching Google using their mobile when they saw one of our adverts. 13 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 79% of the searchers were on computer, 21% on mobile.
- 63% of the enquiries were made on computer, 37% on mobile.
- On computer one enquiry was made for every 236 searches, on mobile it was one enquiry for every 113 searches.
- 1648 people were searching Google using their computer when they saw one of our adverts. 28 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 867 people were searching Google using their mobile when they saw one of our adverts. 5 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 65% of the searchers were on computer, 35% on mobile.
- 85% of the enquiries were made on computer, 15% on mobile.
- On computer one enquiry was made for every 59 searches, on mobile it was one enquiry for every 173 searches.
- 6404 people were searching Google using their computer when they saw one of our adverts. 59 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 6741 people were searching Google using their mobile when they saw one of our adverts. 69 of them made an enquiry via the website.
- 48% of the searchers were on computer, 52% on mobile.
- 46% of the enquiries were made on computer, 54% on mobile.
- On computer one enquiry was made for every 108 searches, on mobile it was one enquiry for every 98 searches.
Tourism campaigns are the exception because people travel with their phones.
Knowing which device is most popular helps us get the best possible value for their advertising budgets. We adjust the way we manage the campaign to favour the more important device. I won’t bore you with the details, most of it is common sense.
For instance if most people searching on mobile phones visit the site but don’t make an enquiry we aim more of the budget at people searching on their computers. But if more people are using mobile phones we make the website easier for them to use: shorter forms, click-to call phone numbers etc.
You can see the split between computers and mobiles in your own AdWords campaigns. Instructions are here.
I offer 1-to-1 mentoring and consulting. You’ll get help, advice, support and answers without having to commit to a long-term contract. Details here.
Related articles
Can you improve B2B lead quality by blocking free email addresses? Some say blocking free email addresses from B2B enquiry forms improves lead quality. Here's why I disagree.
Some ideas for improving B2B Google Ads. B2B Google Ads usually faces one of 2 problems: very little traffic, or lots of traffic - but most of it B2C. Here are some ideas to improve B2B Google Ads campaigns.
How I stop Spanish job-seeker leads from Google Ads Most Spanish job-seeker spam comes from click fraud. Here's how I stop it.
Data from launching a brand new campaign using Target CPA bidding. Normally you wouldn't launch a new campaign using a conversion-based bid strategy. I did, here's what happened.
A new Google Ads campaign needs deep data, not wide data. 100 clicks on 100 adverts tells you nothing. 100 clicks on 1 advert and a picture starts to emerge.
How I track WhatsApp conversations as conversions in Google Ads At the time of writing Google has no way of tracking WhatsApp leads as conversions. I've used a couple of work arounds to solve this.
Most Google Ads advice is wrong for small businesses A small account needs a different setup and different management. You see, something that improves a $50 000 a month account might tank a $500 a month account.
Modernising legacy Google Ads account structure A successful restructure leaves the account easier to understand, easier to optimise and better positioned for the future. Understanding why the account looks like it does is key to getting from sticky mess to well-oiled machine.
How I reduce wrong-business leads from Google Ads This is for you if you advertise on Google Ads and get leads who think they're contacting a different business. They call or fill in a form looking for someone else.
How I improve lead quality by telling Google which leads are good. By default Google Ads believes every lead is good. But that's not true. You can give Google feedback on lead quality and use that feedback to get better leads.
How's your Chinese? Google shows English adverts to people who searched in Chinese even though the campaign language is set to English. Here's how you can stop this and why you might want to.
Is it safe to use broad match keywords for lead generation campaigns? Google is pushing broad match hard and, some people are reporting good results. But, is it actually best practice now? Or are broad match keywords a waste of money?
Should I split a massive multi-country Google Ads account into separate accounts? At first glance it seems like splitting a big account into smaller accounts will make it easier to manage. But, there are downsides and, there are ways to make big accounts easier to manage.
Why did Google charge me $300 for a $20 click? Every now and again Google would charge an outrageous amount for one click. As much as 15 to 20 times what they normally paid. Here's how to prevent that.
Why I don't just delete fake leads from my inbox If the only thing you do with fake leads from Google Ads is delete the lead delivery email you risk getting swamped by fake leads. Here's why and what to do to improve lead quality.
Getting a lot of junk leads from Google Ads? You can spot conversion fraud because the leads have genuine email addresses and phone numbers but when you call them they don't remember filling in your form.
A love letter to statistics This is for you if you’re interested in making data-driven decisions about your Google Ads. Amy Hebdon, founder at Paid Search Magic, wrote a fantastic article she described a love letter disguised as a how to about PPC data interpretation.
Allocating budget How do you know the best way to split your ad budget between search and display, between Facebook and Google, between one keyword and another?
Does Google rip advertisers off? I'm not saying that everyone who's paid for Google ads has turned a profit. That's definitely not the case. But, when people lose money on Google ads its likely to be because Google Ads was a poor fit for their business, or because of the way they did Google Ads. I can't see Google risking their future to steal your advertising budget
Don’t believe every recommendation from Google. The optimisation score is Google’s newest way of telling you how to run your Google Ads account. Read on to see how following it blindly can hurt your business.
Don't believe my writing I'm not trying to bamboozle you, it's just that my - and everyone else's - writing isn't always right for your circumstances. Read on to find out more...
Google showed your ads to the wrong people today. Google showed your some of your adverts to the wrong people today. You (or someone you hire) must deal with this or your ads are going to start costing more and generating fewer leads. Here's how.
How do you get more leads from Google Ads when you’ve maxed out impression share? How do you get more leads from Google Ads when you’ve maxed out impression share? Here's how we solved this problem...
How to get fast traction on a brand new Google Ads campaign. I worked out a process for getting fast results from new AdWords campaigns so I didn't have to worry as much. You're welcome to copy (and improve) my process.
I’m getting too many B2C leads. I want only B2B. I’ve bumped into this problem with almost every client who sells to other businesses (B2B) not to consumers (B2C). Here are some options ..
I'm scared I'll break my campaign If you don't feel confident making changes to Google Ads campaigns this might help...
Improve conversion rates by adding extra calls to action. Need to improve your conversion rate? Here's a tested approach that takes only a few minutes.
Should you advertise on Search Partners? We check the campaigns we manage regularly to see how much it costs to generate an enquiry on Google search versus search partners. Most of the time it costs more or less the same. Sometimes the difference is huge.
Should you show ads to people on their phones? It is a fact that more people use the internet on their phones than they do on computers these days. But are these glued-to-their-phone types going to buy from you?
The hidden trade-offs of automated bidding I like automated bidding. But, there are some trade offs with automated bidding that are not well documented.
Using the Search Terms Report to find negative keywords. The Search Terms Report is a great place to find negative keywords to add to your AdWords campaign. It shows (some of) the actual words and phrases that triggered your ads.
You don't have enough data to be confident that you're making the right decisions. Here are 3 rules of thumb I use to to help me make more of the right decisions when data is scarce.
Putting a little science into AdWords In the past I relied on a combination of the change history in AdWords, some rough notes and my memory to keep track of my testing. It worked but it wasn't great. It became more difficult as my business grew. I started to feel like I was losing control. I couldn't answer questions about an account without having to root around in Google docs, AdWords and email. Read on to see how I fixed this.