There was a timein the not-so-distant past when mobile digital ads were anafterthought for many businesses and desktop computers garnered thelion share of all web traffic. In 2014, however, smartphone andtablet sales grossly outnumbered PC sales, and that gap has onlycontinued to widen. What savvy marketers now realize is that thevast majority of transactions do not occur after only one websitevisit.

In fact, Google reports that 90% of consumer transactions arestarted on one device and finished on another, which furthercorroborates the idea that reaching today's consumers requires amultifaceted digital marketing strategy that recognizes mobile adsbeing just as important as ads viewed on desktops.

What Companies Tend to Overlook With Their MobileAds

Sitelink extensions are a primary culprit behind subpar mobilead performance. Sitelink extensions are the links that appearunderneath normal PPC ads, usually appearing at the top of the pagewhere you can specify your text and destination URLs.

These extensions enable advertisers to deep-link users straightthrough to deeper pages within their websites, which leads tohigher conversion rates, plus it helps the ads stand out, whichsignificantly improves click-through rates.

What some companies fail to realize is that sitelink extensionsfollow the same mobile-preference rules that ads now follow in apost-enhanced campaign world. So, now you can get PC ads withmobile-preference properties. This is accomplished by selecting abox during the ad set up, which causes those ads to be shown onmobile devices only. If you have just standard ads in there, thenthe standard ads will get shown on mobile devices, making for amore cumbersome viewing experience.

What Marketers Need to Know About Mobile-PreferenceAds

It's important to keep in mind that mobile sitelinks follow thesame mobile-preference rules as the ads do. So, you can havemobile-preference sitelinks and non-mobile-preference sitelinks. Ifyou don't specify the mobile sitelink, then the desktop ones willshow — even if you have a site that has its own dedicated mobileURL and is designed specifically for mobile devices.

Additionally, Google requires up to six mobile-preference ads tobe live before desktops ads begin showing alongside them. If you'veonly specified three mobile sitelinks, it will back-fill with threedesktop links. Even if you've got a mobile-preference ad and somemobile-preference site links, you still might be sending trafficthrough to your desktop site, which could prove disastrous for yourmobile site's conversion rate.

Additional Tips: What Marketers Can Use to ReachTheir Highest Value Prospects Via Mobile Devices.

According to industry benchmarks, only 2-4% of site visitsresult in a transaction. Subsequently, a customer's online path topurchase can involve several related commercial searches and sitevisits. If a marketer knows which searchers represent higher valueprospects, the marketer could respond by bidding higher, showing onbroader keywords or presenting different ads to improve itsconversion results.

Last October, Google added a feature to Google AdWords calledremarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) that now makes this allpossible. RLSA works through search, allowing marketers to targetfirst party data and enabling marketers to know whether a personsearching keywords has ever visited their website. Previously,marketers were relegated to targeting a keyword and guessing theintent of the user.

Now, marketers can finally know who users are, they can trackthem and can even send messages based on a lot more informationthan just the proxy of what a keyword is. RLSA is a change thatallows marketers to use their existing remarketing lists to moreeffectively reach past site visitors, which ultimately yieldshigher conversion rates — and a higher ROI.

Richard Hartley is PPC director for Jellyfish OnlineMarketing. He can be reached at [email protected] or 443-720-0421.