Enhanced campaigns

[dertyfern]

Anyone know what the official Google definition of "mobile" devices are for Enhanced campaign ads?

I'm seeing tablet traffic landing on our non-mobile pages but I'd like those to hit our mobile specific landing pages which accommodate both mobile and tablets.

[TheRealSaxman]

not much help from Google on this issue as I'm wondering about this as well... they are saying (google reps) that one of the reasons they switched to the Enhanced campaigns is because the line between mobile devices and tablets is becoming blurred with mobile device screen becoming much larger as of the past few years... "officically" they don't want to release this information as they don't want competitors to use their techniques, but they did mention that they use "device signals" to differentiate between them... after further discussion have I have come to the assumption that they are looking at a few key categories to determine this such as screen resolution, device type, and carrier... it seems to me though that device type should give a fairly accurate list of devices that would be easily distributed into either a mobile or tablet category...thoughts?

[highdelll]

Maybe I got this wrong, but I gathered that G will be lumping PCs and Tablets together as the 'default' platform for bids/targeting, and Mobile will only be able to be 'preferred' when targeting and bids will be done by a percentage of the 'default platform' (PC/Tablet)

If I am wrong, PLEASE, help a fellow out - because that's what I have been understanding from the webinars I have attended

[TheRealSaxman]

@highdell I think you have it right for the most part... they aren't "lumping" desktop and tablets together from a data standpoint...they just aren't allowing us to choose to remove tablets anymore.

..yes mobile will also be active unless you put in a -100% bid...so if you don't put in a negative percentage for your mobile bid then you are going to be seen on mobile devices.

...the "default" setting for Enhanced campaigns is going to be "All" devices...if you want to opt out of mobile simply go to your campaigns "settings" tab...then click on the "devices" tab...then change your "Mobile devices with full browsers" bid adjustment to -100%...

Hope this helps!...

[2kegx]

TheRealSaxman--Thanks. I tried that. I changed to Enhanced Campaign, and entered "-100" next to it in the "Mobile bid adjustment", but then it gave an ERROR (I have "computers" only selected):

"An enhanced campaign must target computers, mobile devices and tablets. Please target all three devices types, or disable the enhanced campaign setting."

So...I guess the new "enhanced" adwords REQUIRES you to go back in and CHECK OFF ALL 3 (Destkop and labtop, Mobile with full browers, and Tablets with Full browsers). Basically you have to choose the options to show your ads on ALL devices.

But...what I soon realized was that NO combination of checkboxes worked EXCEPT selecting everything (BASICALLY you have to select "All available devices" (to get the "OK" button to ungrey)...unless you want to choose all 3 checkboxes + "All mobile and tablet OS" which is the same thing.

This is just feedback for others (to add to TRS's above).

My QUESTION now seems obvious:

Now that I have been "forced" (?) to choose, basically, all available devices, albeit with a -100 for mobile, THE QUESTION ARISES AGAIN:

WHAT WILL GOOGLE CONSIDER "MOBILE"? ("mobile" or "tablet")? It's stupid because their own system in some places (Editor_then_Ads tab_then look at bottom right) ONLY gives you "All" devices or "Mobile". It does NOT give you the "tablet" option in the drop-down there (which it SHOULD obviously). It should ALSO give you that "tablets" option there because they're GIVING that option under "Campaigns" tab_then_Devices_then_EDIT. So, to me, it seems abundantly obvious that they're trying to obfuscate webmasters/adwords managers by not letting us DISTINGUISH between phones and tablets. In the case of the "-100" solution, while appreciated, isn't it really "throwing the baby out with thebathwater", as they say?...I mean, it's basically saying "if you don't want your ads to appear on phones, say "-100"...NOW you won't get tablets either---HMMMM...what's the SOLUTION?

So, given all this, and these apparent obvious attempts to obfuscate, MY BIG QUESTION, if you can help, seems obvious, but I have to ask:

"I know Google desperately :) wants all our ads on phones so they can compete with Facebook advertising (*my opinion*)....so, here it is:

HOW CAN WE GET ADWORDS ads on

everything BUT PHONES!

)...cuz our site isn't ready for small/larger phones yet, and there's likely to be a lot of click fraud on phones anyway.

Thanks to whoever has the easiest solution that does not involve "make a whole new campaign".

[TheRealSaxman]

@2kegx thanks for the props... to answer your question in regards to how G determines how to separate Tablets from Phones... I have contemplated this very same thing and I contacted our Google Rep and spoken in depth with the Google Tech staff as well on this topic. the answer isn't that glamorous really as they state that they simply refer to the screen resolution to determine this. Their answer for "lumping" all devices together and making us use a negative percentage to adjust mobile bidding is also simple as G states that with mobile devices getting larger screens and tablets also getting smaller screens it is getting harder to determine exactly what is a phone and what is a tablet.

I know that these answers aren't exactly what you might want to hear, but this is what info I have gotten directly from inside Google walls...however...there is some good news on the horizon as Google just released a article this past week saying that they are going to update the Adwords inteface again starting in the middle of May that will enable us to bid on mobile ads by ad group instead of at the campaign level... again, this may not be the answer that we are looking for, but I think we have all made enough noise that they are finally making some adjustments... we will have to wait until they release this update to find out more, but it seems that getting ready to make some more changes...

[2kegx]

If that was their answer to you, that shouldn't have been hunkey dorey with you. It should have been unacceptable, based on all the obvious stuff in my previous post.

"Their answer for "lumping" all devices together and making us use a negative percentage to adjust mobile bidding is also simple"

<<No, it just reinforces my argument that they're obviously intentionally pretending "it's so hard for us" (lol, right?) to differentiate a tablet and a phone...we just dunno, weally weally!" hehe. "The lines are getting so blurry we cannot tell a tablet from a phone. We got to lump you all together. If you want ads on tablets, you must include phones. Sowweeey!" Is anybody buying this cr*p? Are you even buying this cr*p?

Let's be honest, 99.99% of people place calls from their phones, not their tablet. If we know what a "tablet" is and can differentiate a tablet from a phone, then they know, duh, right? So they can't PLAY DUMB on this one just to force us to lose more money on ads we DONT want to place and ads we're specifically telling them "don't place".

Most websites don't have phone-ready versions of their websites (or even tablet-ready versions). What's worse, there's a ton of click fraud on phones. Bottom line: It is, in fact, "simple": If gazillions of webmasters/adwords managers don't want our ads appearing on iphones, then we SHOULD BE ABLE TO UNcheck it, and have that respected. Otherwise, it's like...well, it's not like DirecTV's Genie.

"I know that these answers aren't exactly what you might want to hear"

<< Well I wasn't really asking you. However, I have posed the question to Google directly. It's also not what "I" want to hear. I'm just one among MILLIONS. I also asked them and am awaiting their expected-to-be-lame/sham answer soon.

Will keep you posted.

In the meantime, I'd still like others to answer the simple question:

"I know Google desperately :) wants all our ads on phones so they can compete with Facebook advertising (*my opinion*)....so, here it is:

HOW CAN ALL OF US CONFIGURE OUR ADWORDS so that our PPC ads do not appear on PHONES? ie Appear everwhere BUT phones?

...cuz, like most of us, our site isn't ready for small/larger phones yet, and there's likely to be a lot of click fraud on phones anyway.
Not to mention an advertiser should NEVER have to pay for ads he specifically states he doesn't want to appear (oh yeah, that's right, they don't give us a way to NOT choose phones LOL)....NOW I get the "ENHANCED" part...enhanced for GOOGLE...you get scroogled. Hmmm.... Speak up!

[2kegx]

DERTYFERN--I finally go the answer for you (and us too):

Your original question here was:

"Anyone know what the official Google definition of "mobile" devices are for Enhanced campaign ads?

I'm seeing tablet traffic landing on our non-mobile pages but I'd like those to hit our mobile specific landing pages which accommodate both mobile and tablets."

<< ANSWER: We just got our answer back from Google. G explained that, while they are not lumping tablets with mobile, they are, in fact, now lumping desktop/labtops with TABLETS. So "mobile" will basically remain what we all know to be mobile, namely cellphones. That means they are not considering tablets as mobile. Rather, they're considering tablets as more like labtops since those lines are, understandably, getting more blurred. If you don't want your ads on phones, you enter "-100" for your mobile bid adjustment.

HTH