Top Mobile Ad Targeting Best Practices

The Power of Mobile Advertising

As of 2024, mobile advertising continues to show remarkable growth. The spending on mobile advertising is projected to exceed $413 billion globally. This rapid expansion underscores the critical role of mobile platforms in the digital advertising landscape, with mobile ads now representing 60% of total digital advertising spend worldwide. The U.S. remains a significant market for mobile advertising, showcasing a notable 95% year-over-year growth in mobile ad placements. These statistics highlight the increasing importance and effectiveness of mobile advertising strategies for businesses aiming to stay competitive in the digital market​​.

Your online ads come in a variety of different formats:

• Social Media Sponsored Posts & Promoted Content
• Google Ads
• Google Display Network
• Adroll
• Other promotional and affiliate options.

So what makes some of these ads effective while others get ignored? Why do some brands have high success rates on mobile while other companies feel stuck marketing to desktop users?

Following are a few mobile ad-targeting best practices to increase your revenue and customer engagement.

Optimize Your Calls to Action for Mobile

If you’re targeting customers on mobile devices, you need to make your call-to-action and landing page experiences mobile-friendly.

Mobile and desktop devices show a notable difference in average bounce rates. In 2023, mobile bounce rates ranged between 58.45% and 60.19%, while desktop bounce rates varied between 48.38% and 50.33%. These statistics indicate a consistent trend where mobile bounce rates are higher than those for desktops by approximately 10 percentage points. This difference highlights the varying levels of user engagement across these platforms, with desktop users generally showing more in-depth engagement than those on mobile devices​​.

What does this mean for your mobile ad targeting? Customers expect a high-quality mobile experience when they engage with your ads and brands. You can’t create a mobile ad experience and expect customers to switch to their desktops to convert. Make sure your mobile ad experience is optimized so customers can complete their transactions with ease.

Add Click-to-Call Buttons and Map APIs

An easy example of setting up your mobile ad targeting with compelling calls to action is the addition of click-to-call buttons and map APIs in your mobile ads and on your website. Your customers expect to get the information they need with just one click and have no intention of manually typing in your address or phone number. Plus, highlighting these buttons convinces customers to click and set up an appointment or find your store.

Maintain Your ROI With Mobile Bid Adjustments

Wordstream reports that mobile bid levels have increased significantly over the past few years, with some bid costs rising more than 150%. Mobile keywords used to be affordable because there was less demand. Marketers saw better results from desktop users, which is where they pushed the majority of their budgets. However, mobile internet usage has continued to grow, and the user experience continues to improve. Now, mobile keywords are in demand as the user base relies more on their smartphone devices.

If you haven’t tested your mobile bid modifiers recently, now is the time to do so. Set device bid adjustments for ad groups or campaigns. To alter your bids when your ads appear on desktops, tablets and mobile devices, you can specify a desktop, tablet or mobile bid adjustment at the campaign level or at the ad group level. Consider pushing your mobile bids up or back to see what the traffic and conversion results are. You want to find the sweet spot where your audiences see and engage with your ads while you maintain a stable marketing ROI.

While you’re there, adjust other bid settings to get the most bang for your buck. If you don’t carefully hone your settings, you’re likely spending money on impressions and clicks that will never convert on your brand. A few diagnostics to review include:

• Geofencing to market to customers in your area.
• Date and time limits – if you want to drive calls or visits during business hours.
• Keyword type adjustments so you only reach people interested in your brand.
• Bid management strategies so you can outbid your competitors without wasting money.

These mobile ad targeting bid adjustments will likely become part of your routine ad profile health check, ensuring you stretch your marketing dollars while maximizing revenue.

Invest in Mobile Retargeting

Another way your brand can maintain or improve its digital marketing ROI on mobile is with retargeting. retargeting is the process of marketing your brand, products or promotions to people who have recently visited your website.

These customers are already in your sales funnel, and you can move them closer to the buying process with online ads.

As a whole, the results on average for retargeting ads are impressive compared to standard promotional content. Invesp created an infographic highlighting why ad retargeting works and what results some digital marketers are seeing. For example:

• Retargeted consumers are known to be three times more likely to click on an ad than people who’ve never interacted with your business.
• Roughly 26% of customers will return to a website through retargeting.
• Retail display ads used in retargeting campaigns were found to increase the likelihood of consumer conversions by 70%. No doubt this stat has the attention of marketers – 50% plan to increase their retargeting spend during the next six months.

You can test various retargeting strategies for your mobile ad targeting. An eCommerce brand will likely promote products their customers have already looked at, while other companies can promote brand insights, upcoming sales and unique opportunities for their customers to try. Test different options to see which ones work best for your business.

Where Mobile Ad Targeting Falls in the Sales Funnel

One of the primary reasons brands struggle with mobile ads is they don’t immediately see the sales that come with it. We mentioned earlier that retargeting ads often reach customers in your sales funnel, but even some of your most effective ads might drive more traffic and impressions than sales.

As you adjust your ad targeting strategies, track their performance in the big picture of the customer journey. Use attribution modeling to see whether your online ads drive sales or serve a different purpose in the buying process. Even though your mobile ads take time to drive revenue, they provide real value to you and your customers.

OuterBox Has the Solution for Boosting Your Online Sales

On your mobile platform and across the internet, OuterBox has the experience and expertise to move your business forward. Successful mobile ad targeting requires strategy, planning and analysis. Set up a free consultation today to review your digital marketing tactics, and we’ll help you create a plan.