Google AdWords Can Now Target Tablets Separately

Just as Google began to allow users to separate their AdWords campaigns on smartphones from their PC campaigns, the company is now letting advertisers separately target tablets. It becomes another check box on the AdWords “networks and devices” screen.

Here’s what Google said in its blog post:

In the next couple of weeks, the “Networks and Devices” section of your Settings tab within your AdWords account will include a new targeting option titled “Tablets with full browsers.” While you’ve been able to specifically target Apple iPad devices in the past, the new capability will enable you to easily target your ads to the entire tablet device category. In addition, you’ll be able to select more precisely the types of devices and operating systems on which your AdWords ads will show. For example, to display your ads on the Apple iPad, you’ll be able to choose “Tablets with full browsers” as your device targeting setting and “iOS” as your operating system setting. Tablet targeting will be available initially for Apple devices only, but we’ll expand ad serving to other specific devices in the near future.

Here’s the how-to:

1. Sign in to your AdWords account.
2. On the Campaigns tab, on either the left side or in the center of the screen,  click the name of the campaign you want to change.
3. Select the Settings tab.
4. In the “Networks and devices” section, click “Edit” next to “Devices.”
5. Select “Let me choose…”
6. Check or uncheck the box next to “Tablets with full browsers.”
7. Click “Save” when you’ve made your selection.

In addition to targeting tablet devices with full Internet browsers, you can also target specific tablet platforms. For example, if you want your ads to show on Apple iPad devices, select “Tablets with full browsers,” then select “iOS” under “Target only selected operating systems.”

This new functionality will work with AdWords text and image ads for “mobile web” and in-app advertising as well. Google Product Manager Surojit Chatterjee said the rationale behind the new option was simply to give advertisers more choice. He said that it was still “early days” and that Google anticipates that it will learn more as advertisers experiment with tablet-specific advertising.

Chatterjee added that advertisers will be able access the larger canvas of the tablet but with the location-targeting precision and capabilities of Google ads for smartphones.

The following are two slides are from recent AdMob research on US consumer tablet usage. They show that most usage is at home and that it is in fact “cannabilizing” PC usage. Nielsen data are consistent with this.

With huge growth projections for tablets in the next few years, it makes sense that Google break out this rising new platform.