If you’re a business owner who advertises on Google AdWords, you should check out the new bidding feature offered by the Mountain View company. Known as “call bid adjustments,” it’s designed to give advertisers greater control over search ads containing the click-to-call button.
AdWords introduced a call extension several years ago, which has been well received among advertisers. In addition to the standard information — ad title, description and URL — the call extension also displays the advertiser’s phone number for desktop users and a click-to-call button for mobile users. This means Google users on smartphones and tablets will see a button in the advertiser’s ad, which they can click to immediately begin dialing the advertised business. As you can expect, mobile search ads containing this button are highly beneficial to business owners, as it encourages customers and prospective customers to call their establishment.
If you want to big higher or lower for mobile ads containing the click-to-call button, now you can thanks to the new call bid adjustments feature offered by Google. As explained by Google in a recent blog post, this feature gives advertisers more control over the frequency of which their click-to-call ads are displayed. In essence, advertisers can raise the bids for their click-to-call ads to receive greater exposure, all without affecting the rest of their campaign’s bid prices.
“To help you generate more calls, we’re rolling out new call bid adjustments, which allow you to control how often the call option appears with your search ads. Use call bid adjustments to increase bids on campaigns that drive valuable phone calls,” wrote Google when announcing the new feature.
The call bid adjustments feature uses a 900% over and 90% under. In other words, you can bid 900% higher or 90% lower for click-to-call ads than the rest of your ads. This, of course, is a huge improvement that advertisers are sure to appreciate, especially those who rely on calls to their respective businesses.
So, is the call bid adjustments feature worth using? It really depends on your business and whether or not calls drive sales and/or revenue. However, Google has cited several success stories on its website. ExtraSpace Storage, for instance, experienced 37% more calls and 22% lower cost-per-calls after using the feature. Regardless, advertisers and business owners should at least consider the call bid adjustments feature.
Google is expecting to roll out call bid adjustments to all advertiser accounts this year. Currently, it’s limited to select advertisers using its new and improved interface.
