Device Ad Preference and targeting mobile devices only

[Chris]

Hi Guys,

Looking here https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/guides/enhanced-campaigns I see that enhanced campaigns have the option of setting Device Ad Preference on ads. The page goes on to say "Marking ads as Mobile Preferred tells the serving system that mobile devices are favored over desktop and tablets."

I was wondering if we could get some clarification regarding exactly what this means. The fact that mobile devices are "favoured" over desktop and tablets, does not tell me that the ads will only appear on mobile devices. What exactly does favouring mobile devices entail?

I have some currently existing campaigns, that are set to target only mobile devices, and am looking into what changes are necessary to keep it like this when migrating to enhanced campaigns, hence why I am looking into device ad preferences. If there is a better way of achieving what I'm after, please do let me know!

Cheers,

Chris

[Jason Stedman]

Chris,

As I understand the DeviceAdPreference, the wording in that documentation is misleading. The way it is written sounds like the flag indicates that the ad prefers mobile devices, when it would be more accurate but a bit abstract to say that mobile devices prefer the Mobile Preferred ads.

I believe this is what they meant to say:

"Marking ads as Mobile Preferred tells the serving system that those ads are favored on mobile devices."

I believe that there is still nothing to tell you that the ads will only appear on mobile devices, but that the system will give preference to the Mobile Preferred ads when serving ads to mobile devices and that the system will still try to serve ads that are not Mobile Preferred if the Mobile Preferred ads are not performing well. I am pretty sure that the system always tries to serve the best performing ad for a situation, this feature gives you a way to tell the system you prefer this ad over others for mobile.

Hope this helps, and is still a correct understanding of the feature. 

Jason

[GregT]

I essentially asked this question a while back on the general AdWords forum, since this isn't specific to the API: https://www.en.adwords-community.com/t5/Manage-ads/mobile-optimized-ads/m-p/125392.  The gist is that if you only have ads that are not mobile preferred in an ad group, they will show to all devices (including mobile, assuming you don't have its bid modifier set to -100%).  Similarly, if all you have in an ad group are mobile preferred ads, they will show to all devices (including desktop/tablet).  However, if you have both mobile preferred ads and non mobile preferred ads in the same ad group, only the mobile preferred ads will show to mobile devices, and the non mobile preferred ads will show to desktop/tablet devices.

Hope that helps,

Greg

[Danial Klimkin]

Hello Chris,

Mobile preference increases the change the ad will be used on Mobile device and lowers it for Desktop. It does not guarantee this though as other factors are also considered.

There is no way to create a mobile-only search campaign as of v201302 with AdWords.

-Danial, AdWords API Team.