On the 24th of May this year, Google introduced new features that would give advertisers more control over device management and preference.
Till now advertisers have had to keep a base bid that was tied to the desktop and use a multiplier if we wanted to target mobile devices specifically. Not only was this awkward and cumbersome, it made targeting specific devices almost impossible.
Case in point – A client of ours wanted to target mobiles almost to the exclusion of desktops and tablets. We found doing this was not really possible because of the constriction of not being able to decrease desktop bids and the results we got were less than satisfactory.
Now, however, this would be extremely easy to do given that Google has updated the Adwords interface. Device bidding limit has also been increased to 900% per device.
The changes have not rolled out to everyone just yet – below are screen-shots for two of our clients (albeit in different continents) – one showing the old interface where only mobile devices could be bid on and the other showing the new interface where all devices can be bid on (the horizontal dots indicate bidding is possible – much like how blue, underlined text indicates a hyperlink)
What it means for advertisers and clients alike?
For one, advertisers can give clients more bang for their bucks, targeting devices most likely to be of value and decreasing the bids on devices that are not profitable.
Secondly, having such control over device bidding will make our lives easier, in that we can now at a very granular level, target one device over another.
How do you think this will change the advertising landscape? Let us know via the comments.