Google has launched a mobile ad calculator, designed to help advertisers predict the return on investment for their smartphone and tablet campaigns.
Despite the phenomenal growth of smartphone and tablet use, mobile ads have been a tough sell to advertisers, due to small screens and doubts over tracking.
This new initiative from Google aims to redress this balance by determining how much revenue, value per click, and return on investment marketers get from various kinds of mobile ad actions, such as clicks to call a business or even in-store visits.
As part of its “How to Go Mo” site, Google is launching “The Full Value of Mobile.” It offers videos, case studies and ROI calculators for different mobile and multiscreen scenarios.
The ROI calculator asks marketers to input data and values for questions such as:
• How many people clicked “Get Directions” from your mobile search ads between 2/24/2013and 3/26/2013?
• What percentage of users who clicked on “Get Directions” actually visited your store(s) as a result?
• What percentage of store visitors made a purchase?
• What is the average value of an in-store customer’s purchase?
Google provides calculators for offline purchases, calls, apps, cross-device transactions and mobile e-commerce. Marketers also get a comparison view of all the outcomes for each of the categories. The tool relies on marketers knowing certain types of information — the number of visitors who clicked “directions” and then showed up in stores, for example — which may not always be available or known.
In a statement, Google said: “The Full Value of Mobile Calculator provides simple equations and benchmarks to help you estimate of the value that mobile drives for your business through calls, apps, in-store, mobile site and cross-device. In about 30 minutes, you can follow the step-by-step wizard to upload data from AdWords and your mobile website, and make some key assumptions to create your Full Value of Mobile estimate.
“Through the exercise, you’ll see the total value, value per click, and ROI that mobile is driving for your business across all mobile customer paths, not just your mobile website. You’ll also see how cost-effective your mobile CPAs are.”
A recent study Google conducted with Nielsen showed that about a third of mobile searches prompted a visit to a store, a call to a business, or an online purchase.
The company also says it’s working on ways to track purchases, calls, and visits or other “conversions” across devices, but it’s not saying when.
Google claims that the set-up for using the new calculator takes only about 30 minutes, and other metrics that are revealed include total value, value per click, and ROI for a campaign.
Visit the mobile calculator here
