Adwords - Mobile Checkbox

[Prime85]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to optimize my adwords campaigns and have been pondering how to handle the checkbox for "Mobile" on the standard Text Ads. (My ecommerce website is fully responsive.)

If i want to create 1 Ad for each ad group and have that ad displayed on desktops as well as mobile devices, should i be checking the "Mobile" checkbox?

Is it best practice to create 2 ads per ad group that are identical except have 1 with Mobile checked and 1 without?

Please let me know how you guys typically set this up.

Thanks

[LynnPatchett]

Hi,

If you want to have one ad that displays on both desktop and mobile do NOT check the mobile box. This check box is used to indicate that the ad is to be 'preferred' for mobile devices in relation to other ads of the same type (ie text ads) in the same ad group. Google does not recommend having ad groups with only mobile optimized ads in them saying they may show up on desktop and tablet searches anyway.

So if you want to create text ads that show across all devices simply create them as normal and do not check the mobile box. If you want to have a text ad that has different wording for mobile users (lots of reasons why you might want to do this) then best practice is to create at least two text ads, one for desktop/tablet and one for mobile (with the mobile box checked). You can see what devices each ad has been shown on by selecting the 'Device' option from the Segment drop down in the ads tab to get exact numbers of impressions, clicks, CTR etc for each ad.

[Prime85]

Thanks Lynn - I just did a live chat with a google adwords specialist and they said that i should check "Mobile" for every ad if it is meant to be displayed on all devices...

Are you sticking with your answer even though Google disagrees?

Thanks for your help

[LynnPatchett]

Really?? Well their documentation in the link above says the opposite and all text ads I have ever set up without the mobile box checked have shown just fine across all devices. I am going to stick with my answer anyway, but what can I say if a google rep says otherwise!

[Prime85]

i happen to agree with you!

[Alick300]

Hi,

I'm completely agreed with what Google adwords specialist suggest you. I'm using the same technique for my campaign and it works perfectly fine.

If you don't have mobile specific url like m.example.com and your site is mobile responsive as you mentioned I would suggest you to do the same . I also have mobile responsive ecommerce site and following the same.

Thanks

[LynnPatchett]

Hi,

An update on this since it came up in a recent conversation. Google reps seem to be saying now that for best performance it is wise to have two text ads in each group one with the mobile checkbox enabled and one without (assuming a single campaign / ad group aimed at all devices). They can be identical in all other aspects, although they do not have to be.

The reasoning being that the adwords system will give a kind of 'bonus' to mobile specific text ads for searches done on mobile devices which may result in better position, reduced cpc etc for mobile searches. If you do not set up ad groups like this then your non mobile ads will continue to show on all devices but it is worth testing to see if the above setup brings better results for mobile queries!