Click (tap?!)-to-call

In the world of mobile advertising, click-to-call ads from Google's AdWords is one of the simplest innovations.  By clicking on the phone number extension, the user is immediately given the option of calling your service without the need of copying anything down - one click and they are on the point of conversion.  Whereas a click through to website, on mobile or desktop, will then involve a minimum of one-step conversion process, a phone call practically is the conversion.  The advantage is that by committing to interaction with another human being, the consumer is more invested than when simply browsing a webpage.

Click-to-call is undoubtedly an effective weapon in an advertiser's arsenal but there are more specific benefits when considering the format solely in relation to the mobile user.  Google likes to emphasize the effectiveness of reminding the user that the advertiser understands mobile search, and what is more integral to a mobile device than the call facility?  Another practical application is the ability to display a phone extension without the accompanying website link that a user would see on desktop.  This might be seen as limiting a user's experience, but can be very handy if you don't yet have a mobile website - why give the consumer the chance of clicking through to a bad user experience when a phone call will be a good one?  It is also effective in persuading the consumer to carry out an action that they might otherwise feel uncomfortable with on a mobile.  It might be tough to convince me that a website on my phone is secure, but somehow a call centre feels more familiar.

We decided to implement the click-to-call function on a set of new mobile campaigns for one of our legal clients.  The campaigns were simply duplicates of desktop campaigns but with the added phone call extensions.  In this instance we did not disable the webpage link, though we do not have a mobile website.  In 10 weeks from the creation of the campaign we have had 128 phone calls compared to 12 web conversions (impressive considering the user needs to fill out an 8-field form on a desktop website!), at an average CPA of just £0.65 compared to £71.86 for the web conversions.

So all's peachy, right? Well, not quite.  The elephant in the room is tracking, which is currently non-existent for UK advertisers on AdWords.  What’s more, the US beta relies on Google Voice, a product unavailable across the pond, so any European version will need reworking with new technology and is unlikely to be accessible anytime soon.  The assumption has been throughout this article that a phone call equates to a conversion; this might be likely but it is by no means certain and a tracking product is what provides the clarity of your advertising.  There are private, and often more comprehensive, tracking solutions around.  Even without a good tracking system, however, all is not lost.  There are simple, common sense ways of sectioning your traffic.  A separate phone number for paid search is a no brainer, but you could try different phone numbers combined with different targeting options if things like location or demographic are important to you.  A good call centre with practices in place to record conversions will help to get an idea of conversion rates or revenue tracking.  The level of detail will never quite compare to a good tracking tool, but at £0.65 a pop, is that really a detriment to your campaigns?

Claudia Rowe

In the beginning there were thumbs.....

Since the beginning of search the thumbs that have been all so important to our evolution have been greatly underused, with index fingers around the world being used to do all out purchasing and information finding. Thumbs that have served us so well were overlooked as the mouse and keyboard took control, until now...

With about 1/6 of people on the planet using internet on their mobile phones (a scary thought), our thumbs have become more important than ever with the rise of mobile search! Searching on mobile is all about thumbs, and we use these them more than we may think. From checking the news on the train in the morning, to having a quick browse sat in front of the TV in the evening, and all this time we are of course right where AdWords wants us to be. Whether it be on Google, or YouTube, ads are always there to grab our attention, and these ads are somewhat different to the ones we see on desktop. AdWords has created a number of different features for AdWords on mobile, something that this blog will be looking to investigate, test and report on for the good of all things mobile!

Mobile search volumes are expected to overtake desktop by 2014 (or before), and AdWords has certainly started picking up its game in reaction to this increase in searchers. Over 1 billion mobile internet users around the globe (and counting) and over 85% of new mobile handsets having access to the internet (Google stats), it is no coincidence that AdWords has started to create a number of new and exciting features to get advertisers to spend their cash in an all new mobile world.

And they didn’t stop at creating new ad formats, as these would be useless without some number crunching mind boggling statistics (something PPC managers will be more than happy to hear!), a new world of targeting options and app interaction that are here to make this mobile journey all the more exciting. And as mobile handsets (and their features) become more advanced, it is inevitable that the tools Google invents will also follow suit, creating a never ending cycle of innovation that will no doubt leave advertisers spending more $!

Well we hope you enjoyed this very brief introduction, it’s here to give you a feel of things to come from this very blog. So please feel free to read up this blog (maybe using your thumbs to their full potential...on a mobile) and leave some lovely comments, as we hope to bring you along on our journey through the world of mobile PPC.

Roger Suggett