Device bid adjustments can help increase your click-through rate and conversions, bringing you a better return on investment!

Let’s say your company sells shoes, and you want to target iPhone users. You can create specific bid increases called device bid adjustments that will only apply when someone is searching for “shoes” on an iPhone—or any other device for that matter. 

You can also set a bid for tablet users or those searching from a desktop. The possibilities are endless, but deciding on the proper device bid adjustments requires taking the data into account.

This article will dive into what device bid adjustments are, how to set up device bid adjustments, and provide you with three hacks to get your first device bid adjustments off the ground!

What is device bidding, and how does it work?

Device bid adjustments are a feature of Google Ads that allows you to adjust your bids to target people on specific devices. For example, you can tell Google what you want, and the system will increase or decrease your bids based on the specified percentage!

If you’re looking to get more clicks on your most effective ads, this is one way to make sure you spend your ad budget wisely.

There are three options: mobile, desktop, and tablet. Keeping an eye on the data provided by these three options helps keep your campaign optimized!

How to set up device bid adjustments on Google Ads

Click “Devices” under the Settings section on the left-hand side of the page.

Enter your device bid adjustments percentages in each field.

The default bid adjustment for mobile, tablet, and desktop is 0%. Leave at 0% if you want to run ads equally on all devices with 100% of your budget.

Why should I use device bidding for my company’s ads?

PPC advertising can make a huge difference in your online marketing. When you’re optimizing your ad campaigns, device bidding is a crucial factor to consider. All devices need different targeting capabilities to ensure that ads appear for the most relevant post. So, how do you know which device bidding setting is best for your business?

Google will automatically adjust your cost per click and bid amount on a per-device basis when you use device bidding. This setting helps Google show your ads more often on the devices that will afford you the most success.

3 Hacks for device bid adjustments

Increase based on click-through rate or conversion rate. 

Setting device bid adjustments for high-performing devices help continue generating quality traffic while limiting the reach of lower-performing devices.

For example, we often see better conversion rates from mobile phones for our restoration clients. When people have a disaster and need a contractor, they call right away! Accordingly, we often increase the device bid adjustments on mobile phones.

Decrease to create distance between device types

When there’s a lot of quality traffic from one particular device type, continually increasing that device bid adjustment is tempting. But, decreasing the device bid adjustments on other devices is also an effective way of driving more performance.

The key here is that there’s a difference between the devices. So, you don’t need a 100% increase on mobile devices—a 50% increase on mobile phones and a 50% decrease on tablets and desktops still provide plenty of incentive for Google to show your ads to mobile users.

Consider iOS vs OS

iOS and OS are Apple’s two operating systems; iOS for tablets and phones and OS for desktops and laptops. Google Ads doesn’t specify the operating system searchers use, but thinking about the two leads to another potential split: success with mobile and tablet but not with desktop.

It’s no secret that ads show up differently on different devices. But, because of the operating systems, there’s a good chance that mobile and tablet, on iOS, show ads in the same way. And, when these are doing better or worse than desktop, you can make effective device bid adjustments that capitalize on the difference in quality.

Pay attention to which devices work best for you, and don’t be afraid to target two simultaneously.

Device bid adjustments: Just one part of Google Ads

Device bid adjustments allow you to save money and increase your click-through rate by setting device bids for the devices that work best for your company. This strategy is a great way to get more clicks on ads while saving on ad spend! 

The three hacks provided in this article should help you set up device bidding with Google Ads, but if all of this sounds overwhelming, our team would be happy to partner with you—just reach out via our contact page! We have expert knowledge in SEO or digital marketing strategies and can create an effective device bidding strategy tailored to meet your needs.

So which of these tips will you try first?