Not Simon Says... Google Says.

Written by Claire Thursday, 22 September 2011 15:38

Finally! Were you tired of searching for something on your phone and getting results that lead you to pages that you probably wouldn't even want to view on a desktop, let alone your 3-inch mobile screen? Well, that should be changing... for ads at least.

(I borrowed this picture from here.)

Google announced yesterday that it's going to start factoring an advertiser's mobile presence into its Quality Score for mobile campaigns. This will be huge for advertisers and users alike – advertisers will be have a higher incentive to optimize their landing pages, and users will actually get results they want. As it is now, the majority of advertisers still don't have an optimized mobile presence, and I expect this will change rapidly as the new mobile Quality Score algorithm gets put into place.

By now we all know that regardless of what you're plan was initially, if Google decides it should be different, it will be different. Google is powerful, and too many businesses rely heavily on it for advertising needs. In this case, the decision to change the Quality Score algorithm is actually very good for advertisers. It rewards those that have already been understanding and adapting to the needs of their mobile customers, and it's helping everyone else keep up with the times. You might be frustrated that your ads are going to drop a bit and now you have to dish out some cash to optimize your offer for mobile, but your users will be happier, your mobile advertising will become more effective, and in the long run you'll still win. (Well... we all know Google always wins, but this can be one of those win-win situations).

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Read more about this, and some more mobile search stats on Search Engine Land