11% Decline in AdWords Cost Presents Powerful Mobile and Call Tracking Incentives

After Google released their fourth quarter 2013 earnings, one thing is clear: more people are clicking on Google AdWords than ever before. Paid clicks are up 31% year-over-year! While this shouldn’t come as a shock, what is infinitely more interesting is the fact that cost-per-click (CPC) declined 11% since the fourth quarter of 2012.

In a nutshell, more people are clicking on ads, and yet it’s not driving up the prices of keywords. So what gives? In a word: mobile. Increased clicks quite likely correlates with a surge of clicks from mobile devices, which are growing more common by the day—especially in high-growth economies. And mobile ad prices simply command lower rates.

Here are some key takeaways:

Invest More in Mobile

Increased mobile adoption is paving the way for mobile advertising. Marketers who are adept at mobile advertising (using Google and other sources) will have enormous opportunities to get a bigger bang for their marketing bucks.

Optimize Landing Pages for Mobile Calls

More and more of your prospects are going to be clicking through to landing pages from their mobile devices. It’s vital to make sure that those pages are optimized for viewing on mobile screens. If you haven’t already done this, you have fallen behind the curve. You should also make it easier than ever for leads to dial your company directly from mobile landing pages. According to Google, 70% of mobile searchers have called businesses directly from Google’s search results page. That’s why it’s  critical to implement an option for prospects to call your business with a single click.

Implement a Call Tracking System

When a mobile user clicks on a paid search keyword and reaches your site, are they going to fill out a conversion form 100% of the time? Though that would sure make our jobs as marketers easy, I think we all know the answer is no. Some leads are going to click those convenient click to call buttons or dial your number manually if necessary. And when those prospects dial your business, you’ll have no way of reporting which AdWords campaign or keyword delivers the best calls unless you invest in a system to track calls.

Revenue.io offers marketers the opportunity to integrate call metrics seamlessly with Salesforce. With Revenue.io, marketers can get a real-time view of which paid search ads deliver calls that drive ROI. With CPCs going down, there are enormous opportunities available for marketers to spend more on ads that deliver sales-ready leads.