Desktop vs Mobile Ad Spend

Everyone is Talking About  Mobile

Should I have a mobile site?  Should I be running ads on mobile?  If my site isn’t mobile, should I advertise on mobile?  How does mobile SEO work?  Mobile clicks are less expensive, right?  Whew!  It can be overwhelming.

So what should you do?  You’ve got enough to worry about without trying to sort out the mobile landscape.  Lucky for you, you read this blog and can tap into the knowledge of us geeky digital marketers at Vovia!

First some sobering facts (courtesy of our buddies at Google):

• Mobile will surpass desktop online traffic in Canada by 2014  
• 2013 mobile ad spend increased by 88.6% over 2012 ad spend
• 90% of consumers move between screens to accomplish their goals online
• Only 6% of Top 100 Fortune 500 companies have sites that comply with Google’s mobile requirements

Ok, so mobile is important, but should you be allocating budget towards it?  eMarketer predicts desktop ad spending will peak in 2014 while mobile ad spend will surge from $7.65 billion in 2013 to $28 billion in 2017.  So, that’s a definite yes!

Are you already advertising on mobile and don’t know it?

Google upgraded all AdWords accounts to Enhanced in July and one part of that change was that all campaigns were now automatically on mobile unless you opted out.  Sneaky eh?  A corollary of this change is that it drove up the cost of mobile actions because with more campaigns in mobile, there’s more competition, and more competition means more cost.  So there goes the “mobile clicks are cheap” argument.

But, what if I don’t have a mobile/responsive site?

If you don’t have a mobile site and realize that driving traffic to your desktop site from a mobile search is a bad user experience, it doesn’t mean that you’re out of luck.  Google’s mobile ad products are incredibly diverse and offer many options.  If your business model involves talking to people on the phone, you can take advantage of “click to call” features.  If you want to drive foot-traffic to your location there are “offer extensions” that encourage people to bring your offer into your store.  Bottom line – there are many different ways to be present on mobile even if you don’t have a mobile site (yet).

What about mobile SEO?

My colleague and holder of the title Best Looking Man in the World, Joel wrote a great post on SEO for mobile and it’s definitely worth a read if you have a mobile/responsive site or are planning a redesign.

Hopefully the deluge of mobile posts on the blog of late has got you thinking more and more about how mobile can be part of your digital strategy.  If you’d like to discuss options for your business or are looking for helping navigating the constantly changing mobile landscape send me an email heather [at] vovia.com or let me know in the comments!