Since getting home and talking with family, friends and clients about the Trip to San Francisco and the Googleplex at Mountain View and answering the question, How was it? It has been interesting to reflect.
Google really looked after the 15 agencies from Australia and NZ that were invited, From Luxury transfers to the Googleplex, awesome tours around San Francisco and a couple of amazing dinners. Their employes are looked after the same way year round and if I ever wanted to get a real job again, that is the type of culture in a workplace that would interest me. Without those enthusiastic employees all happy to go to work each day we would not have the incredible offering that is “Google”. Where would we be without Google?
Giving us an insight into how it all works and a glimpse into the future offerings, I have to say some of the video content is very impressive. Take a look here at an example of a campaign that Google have been working with Burberry on http://kisses.burberry.com/ (Needs Google Chrome)
Another clear message, that wasn’t really a secret to us, but for advertisers is the growth of the mobile device. Your business can no longer ignore the importance. This year in Australia, more searches will take place on a mobile device than computers. Regardless of your business and where or how your sales take place. There is a fair chance that the initial search will start on a mobile device and a sale or inquiry will take place when back in the home or office once the desktop site has been reviewed.
Here is an example from one client of just how much the mobile phone dominates his industry.
For this client, I had build him a WordPress site for the desktop, but the site became fully responsive for the mobile device, most importantly the phone numbers that are displayed on the site are click-able. The mobile site, like a desktop site must make it as easy as possible for your visitors to contact you.
Here are 5 important requirements for mobile:
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Site is responsive – Mobile site uses content, colors and features of desktop site.
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Modify the menu so that it looks great on the mobile device.
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Make is easy for users to get in touch, eg. Phone numbers are clickable.
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Reduce the number of pages down to the essential ones.
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Images are used sparingly to enhance loading time.
On Point 4, users tend to have a lot of short sessions on a mobile device, think about your personal activity, cutting the pages down to just the essential is a great way to keep the user there just long enough to call or want to visit you on a desktop.
With the development of enhanced campaigns, you do need to be careful that if your site is not optimised for mobile, that you set the Mobile targeting to 0% under settings → devices.
While I don’t advertise it on the site (at the moment) I have developed a large number of mobile friendly websites and would relish the opportunity to help you dominate your industry with mobile and traditional online marketing.