Hidden in Plain Sight – Advanced Mobile Targeting in Display Campaigns

Paid Media / September 25, 2013

Anyone who manages AdWords campaigns regularly knows that Google rolled out a major update this past July called Enhanced Campaigns. You probably also know that you can no longer target mobile devices, tablets and desktop/laptop computers individually in separate campaigns. Nor can you target specific mobile and tablet operating systems, device models or specific mobile carriers.

Well that’s all true for search campaigns as now tablets and desktop computers are grouped together as a single device type and mobile targeting is limited to adjusting your bids as a percentage of your default bid that’s applied to tablets and computers. There is an exception though. Google kept some of these juicy, advanced targeting features for AdWords users to take advantage of in display campaigns.

If you look closely at the available settings for any type of display campaign (All-features, mobile apps or remarketing) you’ll notice that you’ve got some extra settings available to you to do some more advanced tablet and mobile targeting. Check out the image below to see where to find these:

After clicking on the “Edit” link and then on the “Advanced mobile and tablet options” link, you’ll see the following:

Here’s where the fun starts. You can target iOS users only if you wanted to reach mac users exclusively. Or you could target people using specific models of mobile and tablet devices. Another available option is to reach customers of a particular mobile carrier.

Here are some targeting scenarios you can run:

• desktop, tablet, mobile (all devices)
• tablet, mobile (select OS -> which opts you out of desktop)
• tablet only (select OS and -100% mobile bid adjustment)
• mobile only* (select specific models and use mobile-only banner sizes)

The only targeting scenario you can’t run is a desktop only display campaign since Google removed that ability for both search and display campaigns (desktops and tablets are now treated as one targeting option).

Also keep in mind that targeting specific devices only is recommended if you plan to keep updating your mobile device targeting since devices become and new ones are being added to the list all the time.

Oh and in case you’re wondering why Google left these advanced targeting features in, the reason is because some display creative types (rich media) require the ability to target specific devices due to screen size, touchability, movement/shake, etc.

So go out and experiment with these advanced mobile and tablet targeting options if you aren’t already!

And feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Also, go ahead and share your experience in the comments below, we along with our readers would love to learn how you’re making the most of these advanced settings.