Today we're sharing some search insights around the Oscars on the Think with Google site. Mobile continues to play an increasingly larger role in consumer search behavior as confirmed by the 2012 Oscars. Please see Think Insights for full information on which stars and advertisers were the big search winners in this year’s Oscar Awards, and how mobile impacted the search landscape. Mobile insights are excerpted below. 

While desktop searches still capture the lion’s share of searching during the Oscars, a closer look at Sunday’s ad-inspired searches show the prevalence of consumers using their mobile devices and tablets. These devices are generally always within arm’s reach of the consumer and therefore important players in the quest for immediate information, particularly during large-scale live events.

On-air advertisers benefitted from cross-screen behavior, as well. Queries prompted by on-air advertisements were conducted on mobile devices and tablets an average of 30% of the time -- perhaps great news for advertisers that the smartphone or tablet is taking place of the refrigerator run during commercial breaks.

This cross-media consumption behavior represents a tremendous opportunity for marketers.
While concurrent TV-PC usage is well established, new data released from Our Mobile Planet: Global Smartphone Research reveals that  51% of Americans report using the Internet on their smartphones while watching TV. Particularly relevant for marketers is that smartphone users search on their devices in response to ads they see on TV, with 58% of users reporting this behavior.

ABC’s much hyped and highly promoted upcoming dramedy, “GCB,” illustrates this growing cross-media behavior  as consumers watched the big screen and searched on the small screen.  Searches clearly spiked the two times that ABC aired the the GCB promos during the Oscars and were more pronounced on mobile.  The ads with Broadway legend Kristin Chenoweth and Designing Women star Annie Potts had consumers reaching for their smartphones and tablets for more information. 53% of GCB searches came from mobile, with 42% from smartphones and 11% from tablet users. 


A look at the data also shows that tablets are becoming increasingly common couch companions. Searches for vacation rental specialist homeaway.com as a result of their on-air advertising show that mobile queries were split almost evenly between tablets and smartphones. The combination of a tablet’s connectivity and comfortable screen size makes it a popular choice for consumers and is an important trend to watch for savvy marketers developing cross-media strategies. 

Fame Drives Fortune

From bridesmaids to Muppets to Marilyn Monroe, the 2012 Oscars leveraged the passions of an adoring public and their thirst for more glamour, gossip, and goods. More searches through more channels by an increasingly digitally-connected audience will continue to provide new opportunities for advertisers to reach and energize consumers.
Posted by Christina Park, Product Marketing Manager, Think with Google

Yesterday we shared some topline insights into consumers’ love affair with their smartphones and why businesses must fall in love with mobile in 2012. Today we go deeper into key findings on mobile consumer behavior in six countries - USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Japan - from the new “Our Mobile Planet: Global Smartphone Users” research we conducted in January 2012 with Ipsos.  

Consumers love multi-tasking while using their mobile phones

• In general Americans are the biggest mobile multi-taskers, with 81% having used their smartphone while engaging with other media.
• 54% of UK smartphone users watched TV while engaging with their smartphone.
• 36% of Spaniards exhibit true multi-screen behavior as they use their smartphones while also using another internet connected device such as their computer.

This offline media consumption causes consumers to search on their smartphones

• Across most of these six markets, roughly 60% of smartphone users are searching because of an ad they’ve seen offline or in a store.
• Smartphone owners in Spain lead the way in searching as a result of seeing an offline ad. More than two-thirds (68%) search because of something they saw offline, with 62% searching as a result of something they saw on TV.
• Half of German smartphone users (49%) have searched because of something they’ve seen in a store, and one-third (34%) of French smartphone users have searched on their mobile due to an ad they’ve seen in a magazine.

More than 90% of global smartphone users are searching on mobile, making it a truly mainstream behavior

• 99% of smartphone users in Japan have used a search engine on mobile. This means that practically everyone who’s gone online on mobile has searched on their phone.
• Mobile search is a frequent activity. In most of these six countries more than 75% of smartphone Internet users search at least once a week.

Consumers Take Action After Looking for Local Information

• 92% of Americans use their smartphones to look for information about local businesses or services.
• Local information seekers take action. 81% of French smartphone users who’ve looked for local information then acted on it with a quarter (26%) having called the business and 43% having visited the business.
• Globally, 1 out 5 smartphone users in all six countries made a purchase after looking for local information, whether in-store or online.

One quarter of global smartphone Internet users have made a purchase on their smartphone

• Japan leads the way in mobile commerce with 40% of smartphone Internet users having made a purchase on their phone.  One third of Americans (34%) and approximately a quarter of those in the European countries have made a purchase.
• Mobile shoppers are frequent purchasers. Across all markets, more than 50% of those who’ve made a mobile purchase do so at least on a monthly basis. In Spain, 64% of mobile shoppers make a purchase at least monthly, with 15% purchasing on a weekly basis.

Smartphones Influence Consumer Purchase Decisions & Channels

• Nearly one in four (26%) French smartphone owners say they intentionally have their mobile with them to compare prices and get product information. And the French say they have changed their mind about purchasing something in-store (19%) or online (17%) as a result of information they gathered on their smartphone.
• Smartphone research also leads to purchases online and offline.  37% of UK smartphones Internet users have bought something online and 26% of German smartphone users have made a purchase offline in-store or over the phone after having researched something via their smartphone.

These insights into mobile consumer behavior have clear implications for businesses. The companies that make mobile central to their marketing strategies will have an advantage in engaging with the mobile consumer. Savvy advertisers should adopt integrated marketing campaigns to take advantage of consumers’ natural multi-tasking media behavior. Businesses should also develop cross-channel strategies that make use of mobile as a bridge between the online and offline world as consumers shop and look for local information.

Download the “Our Mobile Planet: Global Smartphone Users” report to learn more about mobile consumer behavior and smartphone usage in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Japan.

Posted by: Dai Pham, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Last November, we launched our Go Mobile (“GoMo”) initiative to help business build mobile friendly websites.  By popular demand, today we’re launching a new suite of tools on howtogomo.com designed specifically for the needs of web content publishers.

4 out of 5 online publishers don’t have a mobile-optimized website, and they risk losing their fastest-growing audience.  Online publisher Baby Gaga is one of the 20% who have made the leap to mobile.  Two weeks after launching their mobile-friendly website they saw a 64% increase in mobile visits. This leading destination for educational materials and social support for pregnant women also saw an 82% increase in mobile page views and a 50% increase in revenue from mobile (full case study).  

Today Baby Gaga’s mobile users don’t need to squint and they view more pages per visit.

Visit howtogomo.com today to:

1. See how you rate. Use the GoMoMeter to analyze your site’s mobile user experience.
2. Start planning.  Download the GoMo Publisher Guide for mobile best practices.
3. Find a partner.  Learn about vendors who can help with implementation.

As mobile continues to take off, we believe it's important for publishers to develop a strong mobile strategy now and make the most of this new opportunity. Baby Gaga’s decision to go mobile allowed them to improve the user experience for their mobile visitors and also to make more money. We want to help you do the same.

Posted by Chris LaSala, Director, Strategic Partner Development, Mobile

Consumers are having a love affair with their smartphones. They have become the first thing we reach for in the morning and the last thing we put down at night. How do we know? We asked them. In January, we completed our new “Our Mobile Planet: Global Smartphone Users” research, conducted with Ipsos, to drive a deeper understanding of how consumers use their smartphones.

Smartphone ownership has jumped globally - increasing 11% to 44% of the total population in Spain and by 7% to 38% of the total population in the US.  Smartphone owners are always using their device - in France, 90% use their mobile devices to access the web every day.  Smartphone owners are using their device everywhere - in Germany, 67% of smartphone owners use their mobile device while on public transport. Smartphone owners are not just browsing, they are taking action - in the UK, 84% of smartphone owners look for local information on their mobile and 78% take action afterwards such as calling or visiting the business.

This consumer love affair with their mobile devices is transforming how consumers connect and live their lives. It is also transforming industries, creating new opportunities and changing how businesses engage with their customers. I believe we will see significant advances in mobile this year and the companies who fall in love with mobile will be best positioned to capitalize on them. Here are my 12 predictions for the major developments we will see in mobile in 2012:

1. More than 1 billion people will use mobile devices as their primary internet access point.
2. There will be 10 days where >50% of trending search terms will be on mobile
3. Mobile’s role in driving people into stores will be proven and it will blow us away
4. “Mobile driven spend” will emerge as a big category
5. Smartphones will prove exceptional at driving a new consumer behavior
6. Tablets will take their place as the 4th screen
7. New industry standards will make mobile display easy to run
8. 5 new, mobile first companies will reach the Angry Birds level of success
9. The ROI on mobile and tablet advertising will increase as a result of the unmatched relevance of proximity
10. The intersection of mobile and social will spark a dramatic new form of engaging consumers
11. 80% of the largest 2,000 websites globally will have an HTML5 site
12. One million small businesses globally will build a mobile website

Businesses are no longer asking why do I need to go mobile. Now they are asking how do I go mobile. How can my brand find success in the mobile space? How can I maximize the relationship with my customers on mobile? The answer is to truly operationalize mobile. This year we are challenging businesses to fall in love with mobile, align their organization for mobile success, and create a mobile website.  The companies who choose to ignore their mobile customers will miss an incredible opportunity and risk getting left behind.  So get going.

Download the “Our Mobile Planet: Global Smartphone Users” report to learn more about smartphone usage and mobile consumer behavior in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France,  Spain and Japan.

Posted by Jason Spero, Head of Global Mobile

Are you looking for a way to bring your business site to new heights?  Have you considered how users see your site on their mobile devices?  As we approach the end of the first quarter, we teamed up with DudaMobile’s Chief Marketing Officer, Dennis Mink, to learn more about the why and how of optimizing your site for mobile devices.  DudaMobile is a mobile website creation platform that makes it easy to turn existing websites into mobile-friendly sites.  Read the interview below and download the full whitepaper here.     

Google: First things first.  What exactly does optimizing your site for mobile devices mean?

Dennis: Take a look at your desktop and smartphone screens next to one another.  The desktop is a whole lot bigger than the smartphone, right?  Optimizing your site means that you’re simplifying it, keeping it clean and making sure it is clear what action you want visitors to take when they visit.  A mobile-friendly site is focused on speed, because the on-the-go user wants your site to load as quickly as possible.  To improve speed, you remove content like images, sticking to one or two images per page, and any other data-heavy or flash content.  You also add mobile-specific features like clickable call and map buttons.

Google: We’ve probably all stumbled across bad sites while on our smartphones.  The pinching and zooming can be infuriating!  Just how much of a business threat is having a poor quality mobile site?

Dennis: If you take a look at the research that Compuware released, 19% of mobile users will form a negative overall perception of a company if they are dissatisfied with the mobile experience.  In fact, nearly 2 in 3 users are unlikely to return to a mobile site with which they had trouble and 40% of consumers said they’d visit a competitor’s mobile site instead. Optimizing your site for mobile devices is an absolute must.

Google: And on the flipside, how much of a benefit is it for business owners to invest in optimizing their sites for mobile?

Dennis: Brand Anywhere and Luth released that 51% of consumers are more likely to purchase from retailers that have a mobile-friendly website.  Also, to give some context as to how significant this issue is, Compuware released that 74% of mobile phone users will wait 5 seconds or less for a page to load and 77% of top companies’ mobile sites take more than 5 seconds to load.  Right now we’re watching business owners catch up to user expectations.

Google: What are the most effective mobile-specific features to update your site with when optimizing for mobile?

Dennis: Click-to-call and click-to-map. These are powerful features that allow users to call a business or view a business’ location on a map with one tap of a finger.

Google: What sort of businesses will benefit the most from these features?  

Dennis: In Q4 2011 we did a sampling of 500 different businesses and looked to see what percentage of users were calling the businesses or going to the business.  We analyzed how consumers responded to different categories of local business sites.  We found that 1 in 5 visits to a local business mobile site result in an immediate call to the business.  Looking more closely, 44% of the times users visited transportation companies’ sites, like taxi and car services, were through the company’s click to call feature.  Here’s how other local businesses compare:
DudaMobile Internal Data Q4 2011

So what does all this data mean?  Basically, more and more people are contacting companies through a site’s click-to-call feature.  More calls into businesses means more clients, and more sales.

Google: So let’s say I’m a small business owner with a very limited budget.  I want to optimize my site for mobile, but may not be able to afford the full-charged mobile update my developer is quoting.  What’s the most important advice for a small business owner considering building a mobile-friendly site?

Dennis: Think speed, size and buttons.  

First, with speed, put the most important content at the top, remove unnecessary text and compress images.  Make it easy to convert by guiding the user closer to purchasing with simplified forms and click-to-call options.  Make it local and include an address, map and option to search for nearby locations.  

Second, for size, say no to left-right scrolling and more than 7 links per page.  Say yes to menus, back/forward buttons and a clear search bar.  Compare the desktop and mobile versions of your site side-by-side.  A user can return to where they left off on a desktop and they’ll want to be able to do that on a mobile device too.  Tell your developer to include a redirect code on your mobile site so that a user is prompted to choose between the mobile or desktop versions.  

Third, with buttons, be thumb-friendly.  Make buttons and check-boxes large because thumbs come in all sizes.  

Finally, listen to your users.  Use data from user surveys and web analytics to improve your site performance over the long run.  

Google: What trends are you seeing for mobile sites in 2012?  

Dennis: When I think of this next year, I think, “hold on”.  We expect it to be a crazy year of growth.  From our side we are projecting to triple the number of sites optimized for mobile by DudaMobile (http://www.DudaMobile.com/) by the end of 2012.  

The writing is on the wall.  Small business owners, it’s time to take your site to new heights and make your site mobile-friendly.  

To read more, download the full whitepaper here.  To learn more about why mobile matters, test how your site looks on mobile and receive a free personalized report, visit GoMo.

Posted by: Suzanne Mumford, Google Mobile Ads Marketing and Jessica Sapick, Google Small Business Strategy

This week Barcelona lives up to its title as the Mobile World Capital with the launch of 26 new mobile websites for some of the city’s most famous attractions, restaurants, nightclubs and businesses.  Barcelona Go Mobile is a new initiative created in collaboration with Invest in Catalonia, the support of the Government of Catalonia, the City of Barcelona and Google that enables businesses to better engage with their mobile customers through new mobile websites.  

The City of Barcelona is leading the way by mobilizing their own site as part of this initiative and encouraging other businesses to take full advantage of the mobile opportunity. Other famous attractions and businesses participating in this initiative include FC Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló (Gaudí), Aquarium, Picasso Museum and Fundació Joan Miró.

Check out the next game with FC Barcelona or go shopping at La Boqueria market on your mobile

We know that given a poor experience with a website on their mobile phone, 61% of mobile users won't visit it again. In Spain, 44% of consumers have a smartphone1, but only 10% of large businesses have a mobile optimized site. In addition, giving users an easy-to-navigate mobile-optimized site is key to a good experience as one in four smartphone users in Spain2 make purchases on their mobile.

With the arrival of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, there is no better time for the city’s businesses to launch new mobile sites that give them the ability to connect with new customers and tourists who are among the most frequent users of smartphones. Every year the autonomous region of Catalonia receives more than 15 million tourists, making a mobile presence essential for businesses.

Experience the might of the Sagrada Family or plan your trip in the City of Barcelona on your mobile

If you live in Barcelona, are planning a visit or just want to see some of the best this world class city has to offer, pull out your mobile and visit these new sites today through barcelonagomobile.com to discover the best of Barcelona on your mobile.

Posted by: Frank Albert Coates, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile & Social ads EMEA


1TNS Infratest GmbH, Global CATI Enumeration Survey, 2012
2Ipsos GmbH Smartphone research, 2012

Starwood Hotels & Resorts prides itself on delighting its guests wherever they are, and mobile has provided a tremendous opportunity to further Starwood hotel’s efforts, especially as travelers become more technically savvy across multiple platforms. Working with digital marketing agency Razorfish, Starwood Hotels & Resorts began running Google mobile search ads with click-to-call (CTC) and location extensions in November 2009, using a launch and iterate approach to achieve the best results. Through using mobile ads, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Razorfish learned how guests are using ads to call as well as find directions to property locations.

“Implementing click-to-call and location extensions simultaneously boosted ROI and improved user experience,” says Amos Ductan, Senior Search Manager at Razorfish. “Mobile users are 20 times more likely to click on a map than desktop users and people who make a call are much more likely to convert. Ad extensions improved both conversions and customer experience.”

The combination of click-to-call and location ad extensions resulted in an increase in mobile paid search ROI, with CTC now driving a majority of Starwood hotel’s mobile search bookings. Additionally, Starwood hotel’s hyperlocal mobile search campaign resulted in:

• 20x increase in mobile paid search ROI
• Mobile booking growth of 20% month on month
• 200% increase in mobile traffic

To learn more about how Starwood maximized mobile, see here for the full case study.

Posted by Kevin Otsuka, Associate Product Marketing Manager

In September we announced that AdMob helps app developers build great app businesses, while AdSense helps publishers monetize their mobile web content. We have continued to invest in this vision by announcing today that our core AdSense product now supports mobile ad unit sizes, including the mobile banner ad unit for high-end mobile web pages.



Now publishers have a single AdSense product to manage their ad units across mobile and desktop, and they can accomplish powerful cross-platform tasks like unified revenue reporting broken out by desktop, tablet, and mobile.

Mobile web publishers need to update their tags to the new AdSense for content mobile ad units by May 1, 2012 when we will discontinue the AdMob mobile web product.  

To learn more about how this transition may impact you, please visit our AdSense Help Center.

Posted by Vishay Nihalani, Product Manager, Mobile Ads

Ahh, Valentine’s Day.  The one day of the year when everyone tries to be a Casanova - carefully planning the details of a romantic evening - but most end up being passionate procrastinators.

Of course, you started off the week before Valentine’s Day with the best of intentions.  You planned to pick up a bouquet of her favorite flowers, make a reservation at the hot new restaurant in town, get a box of chocolate covered strawberries.  You took a midday break at work to do some online research.  But then your day got in the way.  So did the next one.  And despite your best efforts, on the final days leading up to the 14th, you found yourself thanking your lucky stars for your smartphone.  Fear not, you were in good company this Valentine’s Day.

Mobile makes up 62% of popular restaurant related searches on Valentine’s Day

For last-minute reservation makers, mobile was the device of choice.  A whopping 62% of total US searches for popular national chain restaurants on Valentine’s Day occurred on high end mobile devices or tablets. If you weren’t advertising on mobile, you missed an opportunity to reach nearly two-thirds of consumers looking to find a restaurant.

Volume of Searches for Popular Chain Restaurants in the US

Searches for these restaurants grew 359% on mobile, 142% on desktop and 135% on tablets between February 7th and February 14th.  These trends around restaurant related searches make sense when we think about the unique properties of our phones and how we use them in our daily lives - they are in our pockets and at our fingertips in that last minute frenzy; they are location aware, and they can, though we sometimes forget these days, make phone calls!

Clicks-to-call increase for last minute flower searches

Smartphones also helped save the day with last minute gift givers.  Mobile searches for flower-related terms grew 227% from February 7th to February 14th in the US.  On Valentine’s Day, the urgency to find flowers increased as more mobile searchers clicked on a phone number or on a link to “Get Directions” in an ad.  Consumers were 560% more likely to click to make a call week over week.  And mobile clicks to get directions increased 514% over the same period as people were scrambling to find a nearby florist.

Some of our passionate procrastinators went even further down to the wire, as can be seen in this chart which shows the hourly trend for clicks-to-call on flower queries in California on Valentine’s Day versus one week before. The lunch break was the last chance!

Volume of Mobile Clicks-to-Call on Flower Related Searches in California

Snuggling up to Tablets

For singles still looking for a special someone, tablets made a nice companion.  On the weekend before Valentine’s Day, we saw searches for popular online personals sites grow relatively more on tablets than on computers and smartphones in the US.  Those looking to make a last minute love connection seem to have been curled up with their tablets in their laps.

US Search Trends on “match.com” and “eharmony”: Scaled by Feb 6th

In the end, it all seems to have worked out for our Casanova friends.  They used the magic of mobile to make their last-minute Valentine's Day celebrations feel as memorable as if they'd been planned weeks in advance.

Posted by: Dai Pham & Samantha Podos Nowak, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

As part of Google’s Go Mobile (“GoMo”) initiative, we wanted to share the impressive results 1-800-Flowers saw from their revamped mobile site.  An early mover in the mobile space, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM began their mobile program over six years ago, and has since flowered to include both an app and mobile website as well as significant mobile advertising presence. Based on their analysis however, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM noticed that their mobile website still had room for improvement.  To address the problem, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM launched an initiative to revamp their mobile site. Amit Shah, Director of Mobile and Social Media at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, recognized that the best way to approach mobile was not to simply transport their desktop website onto mobile but prioritize specific features for the mobile user.

“Trying to bring all of your desktop site to mobile misses the picture. You need to bring the right things to mobile,” says Amit.

           Before    After

1-800-FLOWERS.COM prioritized features such as shopping cart saving but was careful to prune less used features such as order tracking, which they identified only a small percent of desktop users utilized. Next, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM identified key content that would improve the user experience specifically for their own customers. Finally, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM streamlined the mobile shopping experience as much as possible by significantly reducing the number of steps it takes to complete a purchase and ehancing features such as a calendar that allows users to easily choose the best delivery date based on shipping prices and personal delivery needs.



By thoughtfully analyzing user behavior on their mobile site, and building enhancements to make the browsing and purchase experience even more robust, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM saw heartfelt success in the performance of their mobile website.

• Increase in conversion rate and 25% increase in average time spent on site, despite decrease in steps to complete a purchase
• 53% reduction in cart abandonment
• Increase in the average order value on mobile

Get the full study here to learn more on how to optimize best for mobile or test how your site looks on mobile at http://www.howtogomo.com/en/#test-your-site and download a report with personalized recommendations for your mobile site.

Posted by: Kevin Otsuka, Associate Product Marketing Manager

We know consumers love their mobile and tablet devices, but we are just beginning to develop a strong understanding of how they engage with these devices as they make their purchase decisions. To gain greater insight into this key behavior, we partnered with Ipsos during the 2011 holiday shopping season to study online shoppers. We uncovered a number of interesting consumer behaviors across desktop computers, smartphones and tablets. The powerful data we uncovered can drive best practices for advertisers at every holiday and year round.

The first key mobile insight every advertiser should know is that consumers use their smartphones at many different points in their purchase path. 41% of those who used their mobile phones to help with shopping said they made a purchase directly on their smartphone. 46% said they researched an item on their smartphone then went to a store to make their purchase. 37% said they researched an item on their smartphone then made their purchase online.

Another key mobile insight that emerged is that consumers used all three devices throughout the research process, but some activities were more popular on specific devices. Consumers who owned tablets read product reviews and looked for product information more from their tablet devices than from their desktop computer or smartphone. This is likely due to the combination of the large screen and portability of the device that enables consumers to use it more often and in more places. Consumers are carrying tablets with them to the couch, while in the kitchen, and even to bed.

Not surprisingly, more consumers used their smartphones to contact a retailer. With the natural calling ability of phones and many click-to-call phone numbers on websites and in ads, smartphones make it easy to contact retailers, whether to see if the store has the product in stock, get directions or find store hours.

While the 2011 holiday season is now firmly behind us, it’s clear that smartphones and tablets are only going to become a bigger part of the consumer shopping experience. Among consumers that used their devices to shop last year, 80% of smartphone shoppers and 70% of tablet users said they used their device more frequently this year.

To stay ahead of this shift in consumer behavior, advertisers need to make sure they have a mobile optimized site, make it easy for customers to reach them with click-to-call and deliver a seamless experience between online and offline in-store. It’s the advertisers who engage with their customers across all three devices that will have a distinct advantage in 2012.

To learn more about consumer shopping behavior across the desktop computer, smartphone and tablet and view a full report on shopper insights, go to Post Holiday Learnings for 2012.

Posted by: Dai Pham, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Everyday consumers use their mobile phones to find local business information, to get directions, contact information or reviews. Research shows that 95% of smartphone consumers have looked for local information on their phones and 61% call or visit a business afterwards. Mobile advertising can provide a huge competitive advantage to local businesses to be discovered and preferred. 

Ask Dr. Rania Saleh, who founded Smile Designer in Arlington, Virginia, in 2010. The success of her dentist practice in metropolitan DC, shows how running Google Mobile Ads can help a small business grow by driving more calls and attracting new customers.

Dr. Saleh is a general and cosmetic dentist. She was joined in the dental practice by an orthodontist and a periodontist. These three specialists take pride in creating a first-class experience for patients. The trio aims to attract patients who value good dentistry and want the best treatment they can get.

Once the fledgling practice had created an attractive website, which included links to starred reviews on Google and elsewhere, Smile Designer immediately launched an AdWords campaign. Although largely inexperienced in digital advertising, Dr. Saleh and her husband found AdWords easy to use. They added keywords and tested ad copy they wrote themselves. Google AdWords today constitutes about 95 percent of the practice’s advertising.

Following up its initial success with Google AdWords desktop campaigns, Dr. Saleh created a mobile-specific AdWords campaign. The ads were specific to the various practice areas and included keywords chosen especially for mobile users, mobile-specific calls to action, and text that included phone numbers.

“Mobile lets us reach people whenever and wherever they are,” Dr. Saleh says. “Patients with emergencies see our ad and use the click-to-call feature to call us right away. Others might discover our mobile ad when looking for a local dentist, then call us later from home after reading about our services and seeing the positive reviews on Google Places. Mobile helps us create a seamless experience.”

The AdWords campaigns raised Smile Designer’s competitive profile. The practice can now determine the number of people coming in through AdWords and other sources, and track clicks for keywords such as “orthodontist,” “dental implants,” “teeth whitening,” etc. The number of hits on the website jumped, as did the number of phone calls. In addition, the click-through rate (CTR) on mobile devices increased 74 percent, while the cost-per-click (CPC) dropped 34 percent. 

All of this gave the dental professionals at Smile Designer something more to smile about.

To download the full Smile Designer case study, click here.

Posted by: Nabil Haschemie, Product Marketing Manager

To ensure that we deliver the most effective mobile ads marketplace to our customers we are changing the AdMob auction for all cost-per-click (CPC) ads.

Effective February 15, 2012, AdMob will move to an AdWords-style auction, where the winning price is determined by the quality of the ad and the other bids on that impression; the price we charge will never exceed the advertiser’s bid. In addition, we’re removing minimum bids and targeting fees to allow AdMob CPC advertisers to compete for inventory under the natural forces of supply and demand.

Advertisers will benefit from more efficient pricing and could receive cheaper clicks depending on the inventory on which they bid.  High quality ads will be rewarded with an improved chance at winning the auction.

This change will occur for all CPC auctions globally on Feb 15th. There are no changes to non-CPC campaigns at this time. Advertisers should monitor their bids to see the effect on their particular campaigns, and be prepared to adjust bids & budgets to ensure they are meeting their volume & ROI goals.  

We look forward to bringing AdWords auction components that have been refined over the years to the AdMob platform to benefit advertisers, users, and publishers.

Please visit the Help Center for more details.

Posted by: Chrix Finne, Product Manager