Blog

By Devin Jones

While checking my Twitter feed last night, I saw that the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) released the industry’s most recent numbers on digital advertising spend. At first glance everything looks normal, with search and display holding most of the distribution. But something goes fairly unnoticed until you take a closer look. If it continues the trend, mobile advertising will be poised for spectacular growth in the next few years.

Advertising Format Share

As I continued to read the article released by the IAB, I saw that the increase in mobile advertising spend had increased 149% from 2010 to 2011, stealing about 5% of overall market share.

Flashback to Google’s Q1 earnings conference in April. They referenced a recent study that found 23% of all time spent on the internet was through mobile devices. Google is betting big on mobile, and they expect it to explode in the near future.

Google has expressed this interest not only in words, but by action. They acquired the leading mobile display advertising network AdMob in the summer of 2011.

It looks like all signs are pointing towards exceptional growth in mobile internet consumption. Which begs the question: Do you have a mobile Adwords campaign?

How To Get Started With Mobile Advertising

Device targeting in Adwords is automatically set to target all devices: desktops, tablets, and mobile devices. While this covers all bases, this is not the best way to set up your campaign for maximum control, relevancy to the user, and likelihood to generate a lead.

Internally, the PCG SEM team does a few things to account for this:

1. We break out mobile device targeting into a separate campaign. This helps you identify mobile clicks versus desktop clicks, as well as control the amount of spend per device.
2. We tailor your ad copy to fit the medium. An advertisement on a mobile device will have a different goal than a desktop advertisement.
3. We change the outcome of a click on the ad. Instead of delivering mobile traffic to a clunky desktop site, we can direct ‘clicks-to-call’. In this situation, the user’s phone would be auto-populated with your phone number. For clients with mobile optimized websites, we’ll direct the leads to a relevant mobile landing page.

All of these elements contribute to a more robust user experience – and bring the lead closer to the client.

Mobile is still in an early adopter phase, so dealers who take advantage of mobile advertising now will capture an enormous advantage over their competitors. For more insights on how to get started with mobile advertising, contact Devin Jones at devin.jones@pcgmailer.com today.

In February 2010 Google made a presentation to a select group of industry leaders about their foray into automotive lead generation.  I was not in attendance but I was briefed on the program at the show.  I never heard any more about the details until today’s post in Automotive News.

I am sure that Google has briefed the major automotive vendors that run Adwords campaign for thousands of dealers about this change. However the larger community needs to know about this major shift in new car lead generation strategies.

In my opinion, this is a major SHIFT for the Google Automotive team which has not gone into direct lead generation until now.  I look forward to interviewing and discussing this new program with the Google Automotive Team at the 2012 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference.

Lead Generation Is Not New For Google

Google has been running lead generation campaigns for other vertical markets, like mortgages.  If you look at the screen capture below, Google is running their own PPC ads to capture leads:

These ads are labeled “Comparison Ads” and these ads are competing with other PPC lead collectors.   When a consumer clicks on the PPC Comparison Ad for mortgages, a landing page for lead collection is displayed:

 Lead Generation For Dealers

According to the Automotive News article written by David Barkholz:

“Google will establish a Web page for vehicle shoppers. Dealers will bid, through a Google auction, to be one of about three dealers listed on the page when shoppers fill out a discounted price request for, say, a 2012 Toyota Camry with some specifications. The shoppers choose which of the listed dealers will receive the lead and provide the price…”

This will be a game changer for businesses that use PPC for lead generation.  Companies like Edmunds, Autotrader, and new comers like TrueCar that all use PPC as part of their lead generation strategy for new car buyers will be impacted.

Competition for new car leads just got more interesting, and for some, maybe more expensive.

This offering will need to be examined in greater detail when this official launches this in the Bay Area.  We will have more details on this new offering after we get a briefing from the automotive team at Google.

Google keeps me on my toes, with new changes each week.  I promise to keep you posted with the things that will impact you the most.  To get alerts sent to your mobile device when breaking new happens, please text “PCGTIPS” to 75674.

Brian

 

Brian Pasch, CEO
PCG Digital Marketing
Text PCGedu to 75674 get information on our upcoming conferences
Brian Pasch