Mobile Search Advertising is the new Gold mine for Local Business !

There is no doubt that Smartphone’s are changing the way we consume information and navigate through our lives. In an independent study by IPSOS OTX in 2011, 82% of Smartphone users notice mobile ads and 71% searched because of that advertising. The big news is that 9 out of 10 of the people that searched took some type of action as a result of that search.

Mobil advertising trends indicate that 2012 will continue to set new standards. Mobile marketers agree that the time is now to optimize your mobile website presence for both Proximity Marketing & Hyper Local Advertising

If you are trying to drive traffic into your local retail store, restaurant or entertainment venue, nothing works better than the hyper local search ads. Most Smartphone’s integrate the geo IP technology of the device (iPads and tablets included) with the search feature.

The advertising for mobile in Adwords also uses this information to display ads. Therefore your mobile ads are only served to users that are in a close proximity to your business if you have set up your mobile campaign properly.

 

Google’s new initiative to Mobilize your site!

Google has launched a new site - http://www.howtogomo.com/en/ . The purpose of the site is to act as a mobile website training and testing ground. Webmasters can key in their sites to see how mobile friendly their sites are, and see their sites exactly as users see them on their Smartphone’s.

Webmasters can key in their sites to see how mobile friendly their sites are, and see their sites exactly as users see them on their Smartphone’s.

There is a feature on the GoMo site called the GoMoMeter that analyzes your website, and provides a downloadable report of customized recommendations for mobile optimization. The site also gives the site owners the option to find mobile site developers, and see for themselves some recommendations of mobile friendly sites.

This site is an effort to encourage site owners to create mobile-friendly websites. Google has stated in their blog post that webmasters lose potential business when their sites are not optimized for mobiles.

Google's New Mobile Ad Features !

 

In a recent blog post, Google took the opportunity to both recap their existing mobile ad features and unveil a few new tricks.

Google’s new mobile ad opportunities include:

• Mobile-friendly ad "circulars” that let users send special offers and ad details from their desktop to their mobile device.
• The option for advertisers to send users to deep links inside an installed app.
• Additionally, the store's proximity to the user's current position (communicated via Location Extensions) will now be a ranking factor in the display of ads.

 "Ad Circulars" for Desktop/Mobile Interplay

Google is now experimenting with "Ad Circulars" that show users a mobile-optimized set of deals, offers, or featured products. Users will see this ad whether they're on mobile or desktop devices; those who access these "circulars" via desktop will be able to quickly send the promotion to their Smartphone.

Best Buy and Macy’s have been testing this format. It's anticipated that Google Ad Circulars will be available to the public by the holiday shopping season.

 Proximity as a Ranking Factor

When mobile searchers share their physical location, ads from the closest stores will now surface. This happens through a new ranking factor: physical proximity. The closer your store, the more likely you are to rank higher – meaning that searchers will see the closest options while stores will be efficiently targeting the users most likely to actually show up.

Advertisers will need to use Location Extensions to communicate their physical location to Google.

There are plenty of new mobile tools for advertisers of every ilk. The current and evolving mobile platform is smart, rich, exciting, and certainly opens up new opportunities.

'Our Mobile Planet' – New Free Smartphone Data Analysis Tool from Google!

Mobile user’s data can now be analyzed in a much better and accurate manner. Google has rolled out a new data and analysis tool – Our Mobile Planet, that will provide access to anyone to the data and research on smartphone usage.

This site has an interactive tool that lets people create custom data analysis charts from Google’s “Global Mobile Research: The Smartphone User & The Mobile Marketer” report, that came out early in 2011. This new tool lets webmasters do extensive research on consumer behavior with regard to search, video, social and more.

The tool will let you sample data based on-

• Penetration of consumer adaption of smartphones (The reach)
• The reason for which people are using these devices (The Why?)
• In what way are consumers are using these devices (The How?)
• What activities are people taking up on their smartphones. (The Activities)
• What is the purchasing patterns on smartphones (The Commerce)
• How are people responding to promotions (The Advertising)

You can get highly specific on any research, as every data set has subsets.

AdWords now have the ability to report calls placed from mobile pages!

Google AdWords will now let you track calls made from mobile devices to your business after users have tapped the phone number on your website.

As Google said, “Today, we are introducing a new conversion tracking metric to help advertisers and agencies do just that: all AdWords accounts will now have the ability to report calls placed from mobile pages.”

Most businesses don't want to pay for marketing they can't measure. With this feature, you'll be able to track clicks on your phone number by AdWords campaign, ad group, or keyword, which puts you in charge of some valuable data. This is essentially the Holy Grail of marketing metrics: figuring out the ads that made customers calls you.

Google launched a paid version of Google Analytics- Google Analytics Premium.

In an attempt to provide webmaster with more insights and support, recently Google launched a paid version of Google Analytics- Google Analytics Premium. For a flat rate annual fee, the new analytics will process higher volumes of page views and also will provide additional support.

In Google Analytics Premium, the features and the user experience are the same as in general Google Analytics. It has more capabilities, than that of the regular analytics. And it will benefit the organizations that want dedicated services and support. Also the sites who desire to process data more frequently (without sampling too!) As the Premium package says for itself- “Now you can share more valuable information than ever throughout your enterprise – from the back room to the boardroom-for better decision making.”

The main categories of the services of the Premium Analytics are:

• Extra processing power - increased data collection, more custom variables and downloadable, unsampled reports
• Advanced analysis - attribution modeling tools that allow you to test different models for assigning credit to conversions
• Service and support - experts to guide customized installation, and dedicated account management on call - all backed by 24/7 support
• Guarantees - service level agreements for data collection, processing and reporting

As of now, the Google Analytics Premium is available to US, UK and Canada based companies. Their sites may be located globally. The search engine giant hopes to expand soon.

Good mobile optimization with better AdWords performance!

The best consumer experiences on mobile devices happen on websites that are designed for mobile.

Recently Google has announced a shift in policy to reward sites with good mobile optimization with better AdWords performance. If you promote your site with Google AdWords, your ads will drive traffic at a lower cost if they link to your mobile-optimized site.

The blog post cites a recent study that found that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a website that offered a bad mobile Web experience. This adjustment to AdWords is an incentive for site administrators to improve mobile experiences.

The blog said, “We encourage you to visit the website for your business on a mobile phone, and experience your site as your customers do.”

Google Started Verifying Google+ Accounts!

Google has started adding small verification badges to certain Google+ accounts.

The badges initially appear as a small, gray, circular checkbox to the right of the account name, and then expand on mouseover to say “verified name.”

Google’s Wen-Ai Yu made the announcement Friday evening in a Google+ post and accompanying video. She explains that verification right now is focused on

• public figures
• celebrities
• people who have been “added to a large number of circles”

Google does promise that they’re planning to expand the verification program.