For a lot of retailers/ecommerce brands, mobile is a struggle. As advertisers, intuition tells us that we should be spending there, but with much lower conversion rates and climbing CPCs, it’s hard to justify ad spend without using sophisticated attribution proving the worth of mobile.

What we do know about mobile is that searchers use it to window shop, often clicking through to the mobile site, spending some time browsing and shopping around, and then leaving the page to shop around some more, possibly converting on desktop down the road.

Personally, knowing this information I like to think less about conversions and more about getting people through the door. That’s why I look for any advantage that I can find to increase the click-through rate on my mobile ads (thus lowering CPC by increasing Quality Score).

I’ve found one trick in particular that seems to work regardless of the client or vertical: mentioning the word “phone” somewhere in the ad copy! With the advent of responsive web design and the importance of a good mobile experience, searchers like to know that they are about to be led to a good mobile experience. So tell them in the ad!

I recently tested this trick for an online retail brand with pretty amazing results. The only change I made to their ad was by changing description line two from “Buy {Product} Today and Save!” to “Buy {Product} from your Phone Today!” Results below:

Pretty great results and this isn’t the first client I’ve tested this on! What’s even better is how well the test inadvertently lifted my conversion rate:

Not a huge sample size, but pretty promising. Test this on your accounts today!