Why you’d better optimize your ads for mobile … again. [How many times do we have to tell you?!?]

Cats and kittens,

Did you know we have a magical man named Jon Riley on our media team who goes by the nickname “Jon-Claude Van Riley” because his campaigns possess the power of a 90s action movie roundhouse kick?

Now you do. Act accordingly.

For this week’s post, JCVR shares some a**-kicking tips for optimizing your mobile experience.

But first, here’s what we’re reading, watching, following and listening to:

• Why Every Brand Is Making Merchandise Right Now. Hint: TikTok
• Zoom is rolling out post-session ads for basic users as they look to drive up some additional value after they saw a large boost during the pandemic lockdown.
• Microsoft Advertising has identified four key personas, including “Digital Nomads” and “Empowered Activists,” that are changing how marketers relate to customers.

When I began my digital marketing career nearly seven years ago I often heard the phrase “This year is the year of mobile.” According to digital marketing experts, 2015 was the year of mobile. So was 2016, 2017 and every year leading up to 2021. As it currently stands, it will never not be the year of mobile and that’s something that is crucial to keep in mind for your digital campaigns.

Whether you’re just beginning a campaign or in the middle of one, you need to ask yourself: “Are my campaigns optimized for mobile devices?”

Just last year, 68% of ad impressions came from mobile devices globally. Particularly on social media networks, users are far more likely to see your ad on a mobile device rather than on a desktop device, so you’ll need to ensure you’re giving them an optimal ad experience. Consider the verticality of your ad – with the way screen size of phones has grown over the course of the last several years. A taller ad format (i.e 600 x 750 pixels) will fit snugly on any modern phone and take up more real estate to grab the attention of users by making your ad the main attraction on the screen. When more horizontal formats are used for social media ads, other posts may still show above and below your ad which may grab a user’s attention instead.

If you’re advertising on Google Ads, it’s always a smart idea to keep an eye on your device performance which can be found by clicking on your campaign and scrolling down to “Device” in the sub-menu that pops up. More often than not, I’ve found that I’ve received far more clicks and higher engagement on my ads from people on mobile devices in comparison to desktop, and Google Ads gives you the power to show your ads more aggressively on specific devices via bid adjustments. So, if I’m bidding $1.00 baseline to show my ads to people searching for “ice cream” I could set a 25% bid adjustment towards people on mobile devices, effectively turning my $1.00 bid up to $1.25 for mobile users specifically.

One additional note, although not specific to the campaigns themselves but just as important, is making sure your landing page is optimized for mobile. You could have perfectly formatted ads and have the greatest mobile ad experience possible, but that would all fall short if the page you’re sending them to after they click your ad isn’t very user-friendly. One important aspect of a mobile-optimized page is making sure your call-to-action button is present as soon as the user loads onto the page. This way, users don’t need to scroll down to find your CTA and you can entice an action right off the bat. Try to keep copy and imagery to a minimum as well – mobile devices can only show so much on-screen at once in comparison to desktop devices, so avoiding a cluttered page will help keep a user’s attention focused on what’s important and make it that much easier for them to interact with your page.

These three examples are just a few things you can do to optimize your ad presence toward mobile users but could be key things to consider for your next campaign. After all, we all know that 2022 will be the year of mobile.