Portent: where all mobiles are welcome

If this still doesn’t convince you, remember that mobile traffic is likely already exceeding desktop traffic and that mobile visitors typically convert at a higher rate than desktop visitors. Mobile isn’t the way of the future or even the “next big thing.” Mobile is here and it’s been here for years.

Because of this, I grabbed a bunch of sites and ran them through Google’s own Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool that lets you know whether or not Google views your site as optimized for smaller screens.

Here are the 5 most common things that cause a seemingly mobile-optimized site to fail Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

1. Blocking CSS or JS Resources

This was one of the most common mistakes, and by far the most heartbreaking. You’ve spent all this time making a beautiful, responsive site. But what you don’t realize is that when Google crawls it, it’s just seeing this:

Noooooooooo

Google has already specifically stated that blocking Image, CSS, and JavaScript resources from their bots is against their webmaster guidelines and can negatively affect your indexation and ranking. But what’s worse, those are the elements that search engines need in order to render your mobile site. That means all of those painstaking hours you’ve spent making break points, image resizing instructions, and minimized design elements go completely unnoticed to the search engines.

The solution here is simple: don’t do it. Get rid of those meta robots instructions. Check your robots.txt files; especially if your resources are delivered via a CDN. Show off all those beautiful images and stylesheets to the search engines!

2. Using Too Small a Font Size

This one may seem obvious but it’s an easy thing to miss. Your text has to be big enough to read on tiny screens or else mobile visitors are going to give themselves headaches trying to read your new Top 5 Beyoncé Themed Holiday Dishes blog post.

Does that say 2 cups of glitter or 3?

This is a super easy one for search engines to check and, because of that, it’s a super easy rule to follow.

Google recommends using a base font size of at least 16 CSS pixels, then resizing based on the font’s properties. For detailed instructions, follow their actual guidelines here.

3. Placing Buttons Too Close Together

Another thing that Google looks at is how close your links are. Fingers are much clumsier than mouse pointers (especially if you’re me) and, because of this, Google uses the size and proximity of links as a mobile-friendliness factor.

To make sure your site passes the tap-test, be sure that important buttons have a height and width of at least 7mm (or 48 CSS pixels). You can make less important links smaller, but you need to be sure that there are no other links within 5mm (32 CSS pixels) of them. Again, Google has more detailed instructions on their own developer’s site.

4. Not Making All Pages Mobile-Friendly

This was the other common mistake I saw. Google’s “mobile-friendly” badge is awarded on a page-by-page basis. That means if your homepage is a shining example of responsive cross-device beauty but your product page still is full of tiny text, tiny images and tiny buttons, it’s all for nothing.

So, when you’re doing your next mobile-makeover, be sure to hit every page on your site. If you don’t, those internal pages are going to start losing out on all that precious, high-converting mobile traffic.

5. Content Is Wider Than the Screen

This last one, admittedly,  happened primarily with sites that didn’t seem to be going for mobile-friendly designs in the first place, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. Making sure you don’t have to scroll sideways to view your page may seem like a no-brainer but it was one of the most common flags that the Mobile Tester threw out.

Typically, your best solution for managing widths is proper use of the viewport meta tag. This allows you to instruct browsers  to display a page’s dimensions based on screen size. Out of everything described in this post, this is the most difficult to fix since this happens when you have an element that is larger the defined veiwport width. Fortunately, there are a few guidelines out there on configuring a viewport, including this one from Google.

Do you have any tips that weren’t mentioned here? Post your questions and advice in the comments below!

The post 5 Ways Your Site Might Fail Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test appeared first on Portent.

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:

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.

The post Getting Started with Mobile Bid Modifiers appeared first on Portent.

Let’s start with a look at a June 2014 Inc. article about Lolly Wolly Doodle (LWD), a children’s clothing company. In 2010, CEO Brandi Temple tested new children’s wear designs on the LWD Facebook page and gauged fans response. If the sample tested well they would manufacture the clothing designs to meet those orders and ship to their customers. In the brand’s early days, the CEO interacted with her customers via Facebook and responded to customer wishes for colors and style variations. She grew the company slowly and her audience helped by also posting images of their children in the cute outfits from LWD. It all grew word of mouth by moms posting on Facebook. Now the company has over $10 million in sales and 946,462 likes on their Facebook page. Lolly Wolly Doodle has no brick and mortar store or online presence other than the Facebook page and the website.

This is a good story for the first suggestion:

1. Make sure you have a social presence. Expand your brand conversation online via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social platforms to connect your brand with your audience and listen and learn from their feedback. This takes time. Post some test messages targeted at one or more of your audience groups, learn from the response and adjust your posts. Also, use industry data to your advantage. For instance, we know that over 93% of the millennial generation have purchased a product after hearing about it from a family member or friend. And over 41% then talk about it online. So listen carefully to what is being said online – you want to have a conversation and be a resource for your customers. And make it easy for customers to do business with you by offering free shipping. Currently, 47% of online transactions use free-shipping to keep those customers coming back. ¹

2. Participate in the mobile conversation. Studies show having a strong social relationship with your customers online is important but it’s also important that you keep in mind that your target audience may be viewing their social and internet pages via a mobile device rather than their desktop. According to a speech given by Mary Meeker of KPCB at the recent Internet Trends 2014 Code Conference, 19% of internet page views in North America (global web usage is at 25%) are initiated by a mobile device. It is also predicted that 50% of all online sales will come from social and mobile by 2015.²

3. Build a website that is mobile friendly. Now that you have engaged with your customers online and understood that each day, more users will be looking at your site via a tablet or Smartphone your company should have a mobile or responsive website. If a website is difficult to navigate, those viewers will go elsewhere. That adds up to lost opportunity and lost revenue. A good user experience – via any device – is key to expanding your brand, retaining users on your website and ultimately, converting those users into customers.

20% of mobile users are viewing with a screen resolution as small as 320 x 480 pixels. A responsive or mobile web site is needed for these smaller screen sizes and allows the user to have a better experience when navigating with their finger instead of their mouse.

So remember….

Be social – Present your brand as contemporary and current. Study your social pages and respond to your customers online. If they are reaching out with questions or comments, build on that relationship.

Be mobile – Make adjustments to increase user interaction and keep them coming back to your site as a resource.

Be responsive -Analyze how users interact with your website. Review analytics to determine what types of devices are used to access your site and the pages they visit. If your audience is on-the-go and needs information quickly then it makes sense to make the move to a responsive or mobile site.

By staying on top of trends and listening to your customer your bottom line will respond.

1. Adweek, August 11, 2014 issue

2. Inc. June 2014 issue

The post Mobilize Your Brand, It Pays Off appeared first on Portent.

In an effort to become one of the cool kids, I have decided to test out some of the newest, most popular social mobile apps. While a couple of them can have some marketing potential for brands, others are just brainless fun. Let’s get started!

GroupMe

Do you hate group text messages? Then you’re going to HATE GroupMe! Okay, maybe not. I’m not a huge fan of the group text message, but I’ve become slightly addicted to GroupMe. I was recently introduced to this app by some friends who I was traveling with. Instead of texting each other, we created a group on GroupMe so that we could chat about travel plans.

Okay, so what is it? Quite simply, it’s a messaging app. You can create groups of people to chat with, or message people one-on-one. You can send messages, images (even gifs) and videos. You can also “heart” individual messages in the conversation (something you can’t do with regular text messaging). Once you create a profile with your desired image (whether it’s a selfie or some random photo), that profile can be connected to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Is this app pointless? Maybe. But, again, you can’t “heart” a message in a regular text. And obviously, I need to know how many people find my messages to be clever. I give this one my recommendation, if only for that feature.

Paper

Some of you may know about Paper already, but it’s something that I’ve been neglecting for the last couple of months. Owned by Facebook, it’s essentially just Facebook with a different layout. It was created in order for people to flip through news a lot easier than they can on the Facebook newsfeed. In Facebook’s words, “Stories appear fullscreen and distraction free.” Great, who cares?

While it may not seem essential (after all, the Facebook app is so familiar by now), it’s actually a cool app! Scrolling through stories on your newsfeed is extremely smooth, and you can also browse through pre-selected news sections that interest you. For instance, my other non-newsfeed categories include “Pop Life,” “LOL,” and “Flavor.” When you scroll to one of your categories, it displays the latest news for each.

Paper is connected to your personal Facebook account, so you can do everything that you can do on the regular Facebook mobile app (such as respond to friend requests, message your friends, and view your notifications). Additionally, if you’re an Admin of a Facebook business page, you can manage those pages from the Paper app.

So while it may not seem necessary, you may find that you enjoy the experience of Paper much more than that of the regular Facebook app. I say try it, and decide for yourself!

Secret

Secret is a newer social media mobile application (it launched in January of this year), and it has made quite the splash. The concept is simple: You create an account, it secretly follows your friends who are on the app (whether they’re from your phone contacts or from social media), and then you are able to anonymously post a brief secret and read other secrets.

Within the app there are two sections: “Friends” and “Explore.” “Friends” is a feed of anonymous secrets from your friends and their friends. “Explore” features some of the most popular secrets from around the world. How do your secrets become popular? You are able to “heart” and comment on each secret that is posted, making for a much more engaging experience than if you were only able to read secrets.

When you write a secret, you’re able to add colors, textures and even photos to the text that you post (i.e. you can make it pretty!). Many people have been concerned about Secret’s bullying or trolling potential, but the company has made it clear that they have a zero tolerance policy for bullying, and take action on posts that are viewed as emotionally damaging. They also make it very easy to report any secrets or comments that you find inappropriate.

This app is nothing more than a way to waste more time on social media, but I will admit that it’s kind of fun. Warning: some secrets can be quite explicit, so if you’re easily offended, I would suggest skipping this app.

We Heart It

This is a social media app that I’ve been actively avoiding, as I am not a teenage girl. However, I decided to download it to see what all of the hype was about. Think Pinterest, but with less recipes and more sassy sayings imposed on pictures of beaches.

With over 25 million users, We Heart It is a visual social media application where you “heart” images that you like or find to be inspiring. Those images are then added to your profile, and you are able to sort them by “collections.” Engagement on images is very high (think Instagram), and you can even add a link to an image (i.e. there is social referral potential).

When adding images yourself, you are able to add images from your own device or from around the web. In fact, there is even a We Heart It button that you can download in your browser, and it will make images on your website easier for users to share on this platform. So, if you’re a brand that sells your products online, it may be worth your while to include the We Heart It option on your website, as this app could potentially drive traffic to those product pages.

While this app may not be for me, I can see why it could be fun for a certain demographic: teenage girls. It’s easy to use, and scrolling through the many images could be something to help pass the time while you wait for Bobby to call you back (OMG, what is he even doing?).

With the hundreds of social media apps out there today, I found these to be the most popular or recently talked about. However, I would love to hear if there are any that I should be paying attention to specifically. Feel free to weigh in by leaving a comment below, or send us a tweet. Because if there’s one thing I need to do, it’s spend more time on social media.

The post Social Media Apps That You Don’t Need (or Want), But Should Try Anyway appeared first on Portent.

My daughter just turned 3. And aside from wondering where the devil the last few years of my life went, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make Christmas special for a girl whose birthday is in December.

Charlie loves technology. My iPad 2 was instantly hers the moment I brought it home a year ago. With it she made music, drew pictures, played games and watched educational shows on Netflix.

But she dropped it one too many times and now I need to replace the glass. (Curse you, Apple Care.^*)

Long story short, I’m in the market for a “kid friendly tablet” for Christmas.

The brilliant Toys”R”Us email campaign

I’d done very little research on the kid tablet when I got an email from toy giant Toys”R”Us. I graduated to their house list from Babies“R”Us, presumably, after buying infant supplies a few years ago. (Clearly, somebody knows what they’re doing over there.)

This beautiful thing awaited me:

Not being facetious, by the way. This is amazing.

Dream Lites. (Chuck loves Pillow Pets.) And a LeapPad2 Crayola Bundle?! Holy sh*t, it’s like you’re speaking my daughter’s language.

Let’s do this. Where do I sign up to feed my money into your gaping maw of toy madness?

This is a campaign, no doubt, that’s built on my past purchase behavior. It’s beautifully laid out and click-worthy in every way. I need to find out more about this Exclusive LeapPad2 Crayola Bundle.

I clicked the ever-loving giraffe mascot out of that product link.

The Toys”R”Us mobile user experience horror story

This was the landing page from my click:

Uh, okay. Maybe I just need to find a store for their pricing engine to do its thing and spit me out at a product page with the right information. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, entered “Seattle” into the search box and hit submit.

It took me to a list of stores. I clicked the Bellevue store (6 miles away from me, the closest one):

Here’s where I started to realize I’d never reach the product I clicked on in the email.

I’m sure they get a lot of foot traffic from this exercise, but I live downtown. I don’t own a car. I do most of my shopping in little shops within walking distance or on Amazon. My intent was never to venture out of the city to a Toys”R”Us store. I want to get this thing dropped on my doorstep.

Just to humor them, though, I clicked on “Weekly Ad” to see if maybe it’d coincide with the email campaign I received.

Instead, I get prompted to enter my zip code (Are you f*cking with me right now, guys?):

After entering my zip code, alas, no LeapPad2:

Do mobile user experience right the first time, Toys”R”Us

Here’s the most depressing part about all of this.

A perfectly amazing mobile LeapPad2 page exists on their site.

It’s gorgeous. It’s got beautiful product shots, plenty of product information, their shipping information. Hell, I can even read reviews on it:

I’m sold now. But had I not been a marketer, morbidly curious as to why my experience was so bad, Toys”R”Us would’ve lost me right at the Store Locator.

I did a quick mobile Google search for LeapPad2. Target’s PPC ad showed up – above Toys”R”Us, I might add:

Target’s usually awful at PPC, by the way. Which makes this comparison even more frightening.

One click and I was to the product (cheaper than Toys”R”Us too):

10 mobile user experience tips

What’s the moral here? Don’t take your web users for granted. Don’t marginalize your mobile web users. The mobile segment is multiplying by the day.

Soon – and very soon – the amount of mobile web traffic will surpass that of desktop web traffic. It’s already happening in India, for instance:

Here are 10 tips to prepare for this mobile domination inevitability:

1. Never assume that mobile users are looking for your stores, even if your brick & mortar business is huge. Assume they aren’t, because they’re probably not these days.
2. Simplify your navigation. If I have to resort to using your mobile site search, your navigation is probably too confusing.
3. Show bigger product images, even if it pushes product information down the page. Touch scrolling is easier than desktop scrolling. I’d rather do more of that than squint to see your product image.
4. Don’t ask for any input from a user until they’re ready to check out. After I’ve been to 6 pages on your mobile site, the last thing I want to do is enter my zip code.
5. Make it a one-page cart. Shipping options, address entry and billing details should all be accessible without having to load another page on my slow 3G connection.
6. Apply discounts/coupon codes automatically with a touch for mobile users. Stopping to enter anything is clumsy when I’m in the mood to buy.
7. Bid aggressively on Mobile PPC. There are usually only 1-2 ad slots above the organic listings in mobile search. To get there, you’ll either need the best quality scores known to man, or a really sizable Max CPC bid.
8. Point all your mobile ads precisely to the product you’re advertising. Mobile browsers have gotten worlds better than they once were, but looking at 5 different pages to get what I want is still cumbersome.
9. Connecting with you socially on a mobile site should be stupid-easy. If I don’t purchase now, it’s probably because I’m checking my latest Facebook or Twitter push notification. I should be able to Like or Follow you with 1 touch.
10. Measure everything. At a bare minimum, you should have Google Analytics installed on your mobile site to see where folks are going and what their biggest pain points are.

Do even half these things well, and you won’t piss off folks like me who should be slam-dunk customers:

C’mon, @toysrus. Your mobile web experience is godawful. Click on a specific product in your email >>> store locator? twitter.com/mwiegand/statu…

— Michael Wiegand (@mwiegand) December 8, 2012

^*For those wondering, I didn’t get Apple Care. Sad times.

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