Getting Started with Mobile Bid Modifiers
Ryan Moothart Sep 5 2014
Problem
Ever since Google AdWords introduced enhanced campaigns, targeting mobile traffic effectively using mobile bid modifiers has been an important strategy for all PPC managers. Some of you may have mobile bid modifiers set in your campaigns already, but aren’t seeing very good results from mobile traffic. Others may have your mobile bid modifiers set at -100% because mobile traffic has never been very reliable for you in the past.
We all know mobile traffic is becoming increasingly important; the percentage of mobile users on the web keeps growing. Having an ineffective or non-existent mobile targeting strategy in your PPC campaigns will not be a viable option for much longer. You need to figure out a way to target these users effectively so you can maintain profitability.
Solution
One simple way to figure out what your mobile bid modifier should be for any given campaign is to focus on the difference in average value per session or per user between computer/tablet traffic and mobile traffic. If you’re trying to answer the question of how much more or less you should bid for a mobile user, then it stands to reason to reference the average value of these users compared to other traffic.
For example, there’s a campaign in which the average value per session is $2.99 for a non-mobile user and $1.63 for a mobile user. This is a 45% difference:
Since mobile users are 45% less valuable on average than non-mobile users in this campaign, we want to bid down by 45% for mobile traffic. Hence, the mobile bid modifier should be set to -45%.
Results
We at Portent tried this strategy with one of our e-commerce clients, applying the appropriately calculated mobile bid modifier according to the example above to all campaigns. The before & after results are as follows:
| Metric | Time Period Prior to Change | Time Period After Change | Change |
| Mobile Clicks | 2,723 | 1,779 | -35% |
| Mobile Cost | $5,180 | $1,975 | -62% |
| % of Mobile Clicks to All Clicks | 25% | 16% | -36% |
| Mobile Transactions | 17 | 30 | +77% |
| Mobile Conversion Rate | 0.64% | 1.48% | +131% |
| Mobile Revenue | $2,712 | $5,410 | +99% |
| Mobile Profit | -$2,468 | $3,435 | ∞ |
As you can see, changing the mobile bid modifiers to coincide with the differences in values we were already seeing allowed us to make mobile targeting efficient and profitable.
Do you have any strategies for setting mobile bid modifiers? What results have you seen? Share your ideas below.
Ryan Moothart
Senior PPC Strategist
Ryan is a Senior PPC Strategist and has been with Portent, Inc. since 2010. He has over six years of hands-on PPC experience including large-scale e-commerce, international B2B lead gen, and everything in between. Graduating from Willamette University with a BA in Rhetoric and Media Studies, he became a published author in 2016 with the release of his book, Towards Cascadia, which is a non-fiction exploration of Pacific Northwest identity, bioregionalism, and nationhood. He and his husband, Paul, enjoy traveling and are avid followers of Sounders FC, Seattle’s Major League Soccer club. Read More