According to the recently published Mobile Audience Insights Report, 54% of consumers "shopped on a mobile device over a laptop before making a purchase" and 34% "preferred to use a smartphone over a tablet or laptop" in 2014.

The report also showed that in-store visits increased by 80% compared to average store visits within 24 hours of mobile advertising exposure and remained above average for the next six days.

To take advantage of the impact of mobile advertising, here are three tactics you should implement:

1. Launch AdWords Display Campaigns

   AdWords display campaigns let you show banner ads on mobile devices (mobile apps and websites), tablets, and desktops.
   
   You can optimize your mobile ads by increasing their bids. For example, you can increase the bid your mobile ads by 10%. This means that if you’ve initially set the bid for your ad group to $1, the bid of your mobile ads will be $1.10. Doing so will increase the frequency of mobile ads appearing.  
   
   (Note: you can’t minimize the bid cost for desktop and tablet ads because AdWords doesn’t allow it.)
   
   To increase your mobile ad bid, go to a campaign, click on Settings, and then click on Devices. 

   

   Once you have done so, click on the empty cell under Bid adj. by Mobile devices with full browsers. Then, a box will pop up and you can enter the amount (in percentage) you want to increase your mobile bids by! 

   

2. Launch Facebook advertising campaigns

   With 84% of its daily users accessing the social network via a mobile phone, Facebook has emerged as a vital platform for reaching mobile users. Facebook offers several features that let you reach qualified mobile users at the right place at the right time. Here are two of our favorites:
   
   • Reach people near your business
   This feature lets you target Facebook users within a specified geographic distance around your business location.
   
   

   

   For example, you can choose to show ads to users who are within a 1 mile, 20 mile, or 50 mile-radius of your business.

   

   To refine your ad targeting even more, you can also specify age and gender for your audience. 
   
   These features help you spread the word about a promotion or an event to nearby shoppers. This means if you’re a retailer of women’s fashions targeting generation Y, you can show ads to 20 to 35 year-old shoppers within 3 miles of your store location.

   • Boost your posts
   This feature lets you extend the reach of your Facebook posts.
   
   For example, you can use this feature to promote your Facebook posts to all users in Burnaby + 50 miles radius or to friends of your current fans. If the post is about an upcoming event or sales promotion, Boost your posts can generate significant positive results by optimizing the online exposure of the event or promotion and attract shoppers to participate.   
     
   

   
    

3. Develop a responsive website

   A responsive website is a site that resizes its web content and adapts the page layout to the viewing environment (screen size) by using proportion-based grids, flexible images, fluid, and CSS3 media queries. Responsive websites deliver optimized content for mobile devices of different screen sizes so users can navigate the website and consume the content more easily.
   
   For example, Smartt’s website is responsive; its content and page layout adjusts on mobile devices so it’s easier for users to scroll down the website, read the content, and flip through different pages.

    

   
   (Desktop version)

   
   (Mobile version)
   
   Companies such as State Farm and Baines & Ernest saw an increase in mobile conversion by over 50% with the adoption of responsive web design. eConsultancy attributes this lift in conversion to improvements in user-experience and navigation.
   
   Mobile advertising and responsive web design are becoming increasingly important in business as consumers get attached to their smartphone like never before; this attachment gives businesses a perfect opportunity to reach a large number of mobile users.
   
   By launching mobile advertising campaigns through AdWords or Facebook and designing a responsive website, you can attract more qualified prospects at the time place at the right time and converting them into paying customers.
   
   If you have questions about responsive websites, contact us. Smartt has extensive experience in developing responsive websites for B.C. organizations such as Columbia College and Sea-licious. If you have any questions about responsive web design, or AdWords or Facebook management, feel free to arrange a complimentary meeting with one of our consultants!