Why it is still important today | Tech Reddy

Ever since device bidding became uniquely available (2005–2011), I’ve been a strong advocate of segmenting PPC campaigns by device. (Well, except for tablets, because nobody cares about them anymore.)

Why?

For starters, there’s a (at least) 50% chance you’re reading this article on your phone. You know that mobile platforms dominate internet and search consumption.

Case in point: Looking at an e-commerce brand that literally sells bacon online, I compared website traffic by device between September 2022 and September 2009:

• In 2009, mobile phones accounted for less than 1%, while desktops accounted for 99%.
• In 2022, mobile will account for 49% and desktop will account for 46% (total visitor growth of 504%).

Yes, mobile is a thing and should be treated as such.

Why it’s important to do PPC via device

As mobile internet usage has grown over the past 10+ years, so has the search market share perspective.

So most verticals (not brands, but the whole verticals) find that they command the majority of mobile traffic and spend when it comes to search. (Not you, B2B, you’ll still be fine with the old desktop.)

This is especially evident in consumer goods, brick-and-mortar locations, and brands with low prices and/or short purchase cycle windows.

By 2017, you could see CPCs up to 50% lower than on mobile due to less competition.

In some scenarios you will still see this. But the volume from mobile is so high that it would offset the cost savings on the CPC side.

These days (with the exception of PMax), mobile is less discounted, and the volume from mobile has far outpaced and outpaced desktop.

The Caribbean QSR brand we work with currently has a mobile CPC of around 32%. But mobile generates 17x more impressions and clicks than desktop, making mobile 11x more than desktop.

Next, we look at the environment of users looking at mobile devices. Consumer behavior is different from desktop.

Implements mobile communication immediately (ie, “Hurry up and get what you need.”).

A desktop, on the other hand, involves a sit-down experience where people spend time exploring and comparing. (I would like to point out that this mentality has completely changed in the last 10 years, mainly because of consumer wallets.)

Because of this, mobile’s contribution to e-commerce and direct response campaigns has grown exponentially.

Gone are the days when you don’t want to pull out your credit card and hit your phone in public.

As we approach a possible recession, the demand to grow any enforcement effort will skyrocket.

It’s clear that mobile needs to be separated from the desktop for two big reasons:

(Sorry tablet, but with your shrinking market share from 2019, I think you’ll join the desktop).

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Will search engines not allocate my costs and optimize for performance?

Technically speaking, they can optimize and distribute spending on the device.

But if you rely on the movers, you’re more likely to crash than any New York Jets quarterback since 2007.

Think of it this way:

As a rule, for best results, the engine will bid up or down by device while the bidding strategy is running.

It can also withhold budget from a tablet or computer to spend on a mobile phone. But it can happen do not be in your interest.

Let’s take a look at the active scenario I tested.

We believed strongly in site and creative, so we understood that optimizing for more traffic leads to more conversions than optimizing for more.

All devices combined:

• $10,000 total cost
  • A $3,000 desktop
  • $6,750 mobile
  • A $250 tablet
• 4150 total clicks ($2.41 CPC)
  • 1150 Desktop ($2.61 CPC)
  • 2,900 mobile ($2.32 CPC)
  • 100 tablets ($2.50 CPC)
• 850 leads ($11.64 CPL/20.5% Lead Rate)
  • 403 Desktop ($7.44 CPL/35% Leaderboard Rate)
  • 414 Mobile ($16.30 CPL/14% Leaderboard Rate)
  • 33 tablets ($7.57 CPL/33% Lead Rate)

Then we divided the devices into two groups:

• Desktop and tablet together.
• Mobile on its own.

We split the budget between 65% mobile and 35% desktop and tablet:

• $10,000 total cost
  • $3,750 desktop+tablet
  • $6,250 mobile
• 4,400 total clicks ($2.27 CPC)
  • 1426 Desktop+Tablet ($2.63 CPC)
  • 2,974 mobile ($2.10 CPC)
• 945 leads ($10.58 CPL/21.4% Lead Rate)
  • 499 desktop+tablet ($7.51 CPL/35% Lead Rate)
  • 446 Mobile ($14.01 CPL/15% Leaderboard Rate)

Both scenarios have a bidding strategy.

The consolidated version was the last four weeks of the campaign, while the split version was the last four weeks of the six-week trial. (We threw away the first two weeks to properly learn the bidding strategy.)

Both periods were not at their peak.

The reason why desktop+tablet budget is 37.5% instead of 32.5% (consolidated spending level) is theorized to be device cannibalization of the budget by mobile. So we decided to give him an extra $500 to test that belief.

The result proved a number of theories:

• Mobile actually cannibalized desktop, leading to fewer desktop clicks and therefore conversions.
• Mobile CPC may be skewed higher because the engines are split between desktop and tablet, giving it no real leverage.
• Not allowing devices to influence each other in the bidding strategy or budget allowed for a higher volume of clicks and therefore leads (the lead rate remained largely unchanged), but it lowered the cost per lead.

It also highlights the importance of human control and intervention in bidding strategies.

Although not used in this test, there are studies that show the benefits of linking to the mobile experience (ie, “Sign up from your phone”) in mobile creative to improve CTR and lower CPC.

How does it work on a low budget?

Herein lies the real solution for the advertiser. This method can be implemented if:

• Make sure you have a large budget so that no campaign is considered limited. (This depends on the account structure/number of campaigns and how much daily budget you have.)
• And you already have the concept of demand and spending with the device.

Who should not do this?

There are arguments against this approach, the most common being:

• Smaller budgets are, in fact, impossible unless it causes a campaign to be poorly budgeted.
• If you’re happy with your current performance in device consolidation, keep doing what you’re doing.
• Lack of resources to manage more campaigns.

It’s not for everyone, but never dismiss the concept of device segmentation until you look at the data.

Why is device segmentation more important than SKAG?

Single Keyword Ad Groups (or SKAGs) have been a common model in the search industry for years, often used for specific and specific phrase ad groups. You needed a strong negative game for that.

But the fact of the matter is that SKAGs have been grossly misrepresented over the last few years by “smoothing out the shrinking species”.

The amount of time and effort required to put together a solid SKAG ad group can be less profitable than building solid device segmentation.

Blame the engines for this.

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and are not necessarily those of Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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