Advertising Online - Google boosts ads linking to mobile-optimised sites

Advertising Online - Google boosts ads linking to mobile-optimised sites

By Sarah Shearman, mediaweek.co.uk

Google is making changes to its mobile ad quality score that make ads that have mobile optimised landing pages perform better in AdWords, as the search giant claims the medium is "a priority".

Google: makes changes to its mobile ad quality score

Quality score determines how ads are treated in an auction and is influenced by factors including cost of the keyword, the quality of the webpage, and click-through rate.

In the next few weeks, mobile optimisation of a website will become a new factor in mobile ad quality for all AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile traffic.

Last year, Google began to limit ad serving on high-end mobile devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content.

David Nachum, Google associate production manager, said in a blog post today (22 September): "We believe that giving consumers the best possible experience on their mobile device is critically important. A poor mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of a brand or company and make it hard for them to engage or make a purchase."

Google claims that the move is intended to improve the experience for mobile users, saying mobile is a priority for both Google and the industry.

It has long promoted the necessity for businesses to optimise their sites for the mobile web as the first step in a mobile strategy, before building an expensive mobile app.

To this end Google recently announced a free tool which allows business and brands to optimise their website for the mobile web in a matter of minutes. It has also launched its Get Mobilized site, offering information on its mobile ad products in the UK.

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk