This blog has always been more about analysis and tutorials than news, but since this is probably the biggest news ever to hit mobile search marketers, I’ll happily make an exception.
Today Google released a mobile keyword tool that allows AdWords users to see mobile search volume from within their AdWords account. Here’s the announcement from Google:
Keyword Tool Update: Mobile Suggestions
We are happy to let you know that the Keyword Tool now offers keyword suggestions for Mobile campaigns. Just access the Keyword Tool from within any mobile-only ad group and you’ll get shorter, mobile-device specific results. (Note that, at this time, mobile suggestions are not available in the stand alone version of the tool so you’ll need to be logged into an account directly.)
A mobile keyword suggestion feature has been in high demand and we hope you find the tool useful!
I’ve been asking the Google mobile team for a while for this feature, and I, for one, am thrilled that it’s finally here. It’s essentially the Google AdWords keyword tool with data from mobile devices. For marketers it means no longer having to guess about mobile queries and opportunity in a certain industry, but actually having the data on hand to make the most informed choices. If you’re one of many marketers in 2009 looking to take advantage of the opportunity in mobile search, this is a good place to start.
To access the tool, one must have a Google AdWords account with a mobile ad group set up. Access the tool from within your mobile ad group by selecting Keyword Tool directly below the date range.
The keyword tool itself has the same interface as the desktop tool, but the data is noticeably different. For comparison, here is a screenshot of the desktop tool results for the keyword maps, followed by the mobile keyword tool results for the same query:
Desktop Keyword Tool
Mobile Keyword Tool
The biggest differences, other than the highlighted mobile area, are the search volume numbers, the relative search volume, the apparent absence of average CPCs and ad positions, and the keywords themselves, which Google says are “influenced by data [it has] gathered from Google and Google partner searches performed on cellular phones and other mobile devices”. I’ll have more to report after I’ve had a chance to experiment with the tool, but for now here are a few things blog readers can use it for right now:
- Understanding differences between mobile and desktop search behavior
- Estimating mobile search traffic opportunity in a given vertical
- Finding high volume mobile search queries that are relevant to a given page or site
- Optimizing site pages or landing pages with these high volume mobile queries
- Building a mobile search advertising keyword list
If you’ve used the tool, and have additional suggestions for its use, please leave your comments below.
For a look at mobile keyword research before the Google mobile suggestions keyword tool, see the mobile SEO’s guide to mobile keyword research I posted in November of 2008.
Another Great tool from Google and nice explanation done here. Tweeted this one 🙂
Hello! I just joined your website via Google Friend Connect. Thanks for the heads up on the new tool for mobile keyword search density. That will certainly come in handy as more people migrate to the internet on their cell phones.
Best,
Heather
Bryson,
Great news! This is the biggest win for mobile since… well… Zack Morris!
Cheers,
Dan
Thats a useful tool!
It would be better if they could integrate it into the main tool, and have a select box to choose if you want keywords for mobile or desktop sites, rather than creating an ad group first and then trying to find mobile keywords. Still, its good we can access this data.
I am looking for some advice on the Google tool, I wonder if you can help.
I often search and there are 1000’s of results displayed in the Approx Avg Search Volume column yet the data from the previous month is “Insufficient Data”.
This does not make logical senses to me as how can there be no search volume (Insufficient data) during previous months if there are 1000’s on an average month.
Looking at your graphics above, this does not seem to be the case, but here in South Africa it is.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
i tried google adwords keyword tool for my campaigns, good keyword source.