It’s important to understand that all enhanced campaigns automatically target desktop and tablet devices, but there is also an option to set a mobile bid adjustment at the campaign or ad group-level when targeting mobile devices.

The mobile bid adjustment is a percentage from -100% to +300% that is applied to a keyword’s desktop/tablet bid and sets mobile bids accordingly. So, a mobile bid adjustment of 0% means you want mobile bids to be the same as for desktop/tablet ads and -100% means you do not want to bid for mobile ads 

We are seeing more than 80% of all Google ad spend now managed through enhanced campaigns. So, if you still haven’t migrated, here’s a checklist of key areas you should consider:

1.  Existing ‘all device’ campaigns will require least work to migrate

Campaigns requiring the fewest changes are those already running on all devices and those that have no mirrored campaigns requiring separate adjustments for targeting mobiles. 

Existing campaigns that do not run on mobile devices simply require you to set the mobile bid adjustment to -100%.

2. Create master campaigns which you can then enhance

Identify current campaigns that have mirrored elements or are duplicated for targeting mobiles. For these campaigns there may be elements (keywords, negative keywords and ads) which will need to be copied into one ‘master’ campaign that will then be enhanced.

It makes sense to use a desktop targeted campaign as the master campaign to enhance , so the keyword bids will already be set for desktops and you can add mobile phone bid modifiers. 

To be sure, after the master campaign is enhanced, the previous campaign versions should be paused or deleted. 

3. Adjust budgets to account for additional traffic

Adjust campaign budgets to reflect any additional device traffic that will be included once a campaign is enhanced.

If you previously had three campaigns split out for desktops, tablets and mobiles with budgets of £100 on each, you’d want a total budget of £300 for what is now this single enhanced campaign. 

And, of course, if you were just running a desktop campaign you’re likely to see more clicks and traffic because of the addition of tablets. 

4. Think about your mobile bid adjustment strategy

Create a strategy for setting mobile bid adjustments or use a bid policy to remove any guesswork. If you have not targeted mobiles before, will you look to bid at the same levels as desktop or will you bid higher or lower on mobile? 

It may well depend on the specific keyword or a number of other elements. To help out, we have just posted a handy mobile bid calculator which will help you work out your mobile bid adjustments.

5. Have a plan around directing traffic appropriately for each device

The easiest method is to use a server side redirect which will automatically detect the user’s device and send the searcher to the appropriate site (mobile or desktop). 

This is ideal because it does not require managing two sets of landing page URLs. If you do not have a server side redirect solution and are not using keyword level destination URLs, Google lets you mark ads as ‘mobile preferred’ ads  to be shown is a searcher is on a mobile device. 

If needed, look to duplicate your ‘all devices’ ads with ‘mobile preferred ads’ and set appropriate landing pages at the ad level.

Also, if you require keyword destination URLs and don’t have a server side redirect, use {ifmobile:}{ifnotmobile:} value track parameters from Google to enter the appropriate landing pages for each mobile and desktop/tablet devices. 

If you use this method along with additional tracking parameters through an automated URL builder, be sure to confirm all parameters are compatible.

6. Use the {device} ValueTrack parameter to report and optimise by device

Understanding performance by device will be key in optimizing enhanced campaigns. This will give you insight into how to set your bid adjustments.

One way to get this information is to use the {device} ValueTrack parameter which records the type of device that drives traffic and conversions. 

7.  QA your campaign settings after enhancing and then closely monitor performance

It goes without saying that this is a big change, so you need to check and then re-check your campaign settings after migration. 

Look to monitor campaign performance even more closely to see how you can optimise results.