The majority of adults in the United States now own smartphones and an increasing number of people are using their mobile phones to shop online. As an e-commerce store owner, you want to be sure that you’re marketing to people who are shopping on smartphones, so that you don’t miss out on the chance to get new business. Experts predict that shopping on smartphones will only increase in popularity over the next decade, making it a good idea to begin marketing to mobile users now, especially because your competitors may not be.

 So yes, you should be using Adwords campaigns for mobile customers, but there is a catch–you’re likely not going to make as much from marketing to mobile users as you will to people who are shopping on tablets and computers. In my business, I’ve found that only a very small portion of my sales comes from mobile users and that the average dollar amount of the sales that I do have is significantly less than the average total for a tablet or computer users. People who are shopping on smartphones are simply more likely to tap on the one product they need and check out, while shoppers on other devices are more likely to browse and purchase more.

While there may be some exceptions, for most people who own e-commerce stores, Adwords marketing on smartphones isn’t going to be as profitable. This means that you don’t want to invest as much on your campaigns, and it is possible to minimize your cost of advertising by setting up a separate Adwords campaign specifically for mobile users. This way, you can set your bids at a lower cost and pay less when your ads are displayed.

Setting up a mobile only Adwords campaign is very easy. Just follow these steps to get the job done:

1. Set up a campaign the way you ordinarily would through your Google Adwords dashboard.

2. Determine how much you’re willing to pay for your mobile Adwords ads. You’ll need to decide what’s right for you by considering what your overall Adwords budget is and how much you want to devote to mobile marketing. Normally, the bid should be less than what you’re paying for Adwords ads to display on tablets and computers.

3. Divide the amount of the bid by 3, 4 or 5–whichever will give you a nice whole number.

4. Use the number that you received from your calculation in Step 3 as your bid for the campaign. This number will likely be very low. As a result, you’ll be very unlikely to have your ads display on computers and tablets, which is exactly what you want to have happen.

5. In the campaign menu, click on Settings. On the All Settings page, look for the area that says Devices and then click the blue link that says “Change mobile bid adjustment.”

6. On the line that says “Mobile devices with full browsers” click on the “Bid adj” column.

7. In the box that pops up, choose “Increase by” from the drop down menu. Then, in the box beside the percent sign, type in the number that you divided by in Step 3 followed by two zeroes. In other words, you’ll type “300,” “400” or “500.” Then, click the “Save” button.

When you’re finished with this process, you’ll want to make sure that you go into your other Adwords marketing campaigns and remove mobile devices from the list of devices that your ads are displaying on. Doing so will keep you from redundant advertising. I wrote an article previously discussing how to remove your Adwords ads from mobile device searches. Check it out and follow the steps if you haven’t done so already.