Mobile queries in AdWords

[shorebreak]

I've been following the growth of mobile Internet usage and search usage on smartphones, and while it seems as those mobile search usage is skyrocketing, I don't believe I've yet heard anyone on this forum talk about mobile search queries within their AdWords campaigns.

Are you aware if/when you're getting mobile click-thru's from AdWords?
Is the traffic converting at a lower or higher rate than the rest?
What % of your overall AdWords spend is mobile click-thru's?
Any idea what your AdWords mobile CTR's are?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

-Shorebreak

[buckworks]

I avoid letting my ads show to phone searchers.

[LucidSW]

I did a test with a client to see if using mobile could be beneficial. They sell children's clothes and my test was bidding on variations of "back to school clothes". A similar campaign was created but only for desktop users.

Very few people used those terms from their mobiles, 26 times less in fact than the desktop users. The CTR was lower by a full percent. No conversions as there were only four clicks and the desktop campaign got only one conversion. A short-term and not very accurate test, but a test nevertheless which answered some of my questions.

Unless I feel there's a good reason to have a mobile campaign, and this was the very first time, I will not use it. Not many I can think of which I would use. The idea with my client was that people might search while in a store and do comparison shopping as well as branding. But the volume is not there.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

A very interesting thread - I hope it remains active for a while!

AWA

[ClickGroup]

We have clients that sell more adult natured products and mobile does wonderfully for us. I think it depends what the product is. Fewer people shop for kids clothes by cell phone than browse adult websites.

[eWhisper]

For services where someone needs them while out of the house (locksmiths, towing companies, etc) the volume is low; the conversion rate is better than standard PPC.

For stores with physical locations, I find that if the company switches their website from ecommerce to driving directions for just mobile users, the site usage / driving direction conversions increase.

Essentially, ask yourself: "Why would someone look for me on their phone instead of a desktop?" Often the searcher intent is different, and if you engage the mobile users based upon their needs, conversions increase.

However, total volume is still not that high.