There is an Easter egg hidden in Google AdWords. Tucked away in your campaigns is a tool that will make you rethink mobile search and its implications for your business. Yes my friends, there is a Google Mobile Keyword Tool.
To access this tool, you must have an AdWords account with some odd specs set up.
The easiest way to get there is to open up AdWords Editor and create a new paused campaign with a paused ad group. In that new ad group toss in a random keyword and create a single mobile ad. Click-to-call or one with a link, it doesn’t matter the kind of ad you create. Now upload that sucker and head over to Google AdWords.
Log into Google AdWords and drill down until you are in your new ad group with one little mobile ad. Click on the Keywords tab. Next to “+ Add keywords:” there is a link to the Keyword tool. Click it.
This should look pretty familiar to you. We’re now at the Google Keyword Tool! I know what you’re thinking. “Joe, you made me do all of that when I could have just Googled “Google Keyword Tool” and been done with this? I hate you and your entire family.” Look up in the upper right corner. You’ll notice that your mobile ad is there. That’s a little different, now isn’t it? And if you read the text before the tool input, it says that the results are geared towards mobile searches.
Go ahead and use the keyword tool as you normally would, but check it out: the search volumes and cost per click data are associated with mobile and not with standard search.
When you clicked on that link back to the Keyword Tool back at the ad group level, something magical happened. Google looked at the oldest ad in you ad group, saw that it was a mobile ad, and is now giving you data that is all about mobile. If you accessed the tool any other way, you would get the standard search data.
I know it’s a lot of work to reach, but the Google Mobile Keyword Tool is a great gadget to help you determine if mobile search should be the next step in your marketing plan.
Thanks for the image goes to salomonrbc via Flickr.
