Go Mobile with Google Affiliate Network: Advertiser best practices

This is the third post in our ‘Go Mobile with Google Affiliate Network’ series. Today, we’ll focus on best practices to help advertisers make the most of mobile in affiliate marketing.

As we continue in our series, today, we’ll cover affiliate mobile strategies for advertisers. As a direct-response focused advertiser, you might already see the evolution of mobile and the rise of mobile e-commerce.

With more mobile devices being activated each day and two out of three smartphone users now accessing the web on their devices, today’s mobile user is primed for online conversions. Half of US smartphone users use m-commerce apps, and our research at ourmobileplanet.com points out that purchases directly via mobile continue to increase, with 35% of smartphone users having made a purchase on their phone.  

Mobile optimization tips
Visitors to a mobile or tablet site might be at a different point of the purchase funnel than visitors to a desktop site, so it's important to have an optimized site to match user intent and behavior. Plus, optimizing for mobile might also help you increase your conversion rate through all of your marketing channels, including affiliate.

We recommend reviewing the tips and best practices shared in last week’s post covering ways you can optimize your website for mobile.

In addition, it’s important that your website makes it easy for the consumer to convert and focus on information that might help conversion. You can find more tips & best practices in our GoMo Guide for advertisers at howtogomo.com.

Next, we’ll cover tips specific to affiliate marketing and mobile.

Affiliate conversion tracking
Advertisers using affiliate marketing must always ensure conversion tracking functions as expected. Google Affiliate Network advertisers are required to successfully implement and track conversions on their desktop sites in order to launch their account, and they must also implement Google Affiliate Network conversion tracking for any separate mobile sites they may create. See our Conversion tracking implementation guide for more information.

Add mobile creative sizes
It’s important to make mobile ad sizes available to your publishers. The Google Affiliate Network interface includes mobile ad sizes as standard ad units to make it easier for link creation and publisher discovery. You can find a list of standard ad sizes for Android, iOS, and other devices with full HTML browsers in our Help Center.

Partner with mobile-optimized publishers
Many traditional affiliates have mobile-focused sites, and we also distinguish publishers with mobile apps with the “Mobile application” segment. You can use this filter in the UI to discover virtual gaming apps, price comparison apps, retail catalog apps, and deal and product apps. See our Help Center for more information on finding mobile-focused publishers.

Additional tools
Google Affiliate Network extends the opportunity for advertisers to use pay-per-call via our Partner Marketplace. If you offer a toll-free number on your website and want to capture affiliate conversions via phone, review our Partner marketplace today to find partners to help you track pay-per-call activities.

As mobile continues to evolve, we look forward to providing more tips and tools to help you make the most of affiliate marketing for mobile.

Posted by:
Emily Harris, Product Marketing Manager