Characterizing Landing Pages in Sponsored Search

Abstract

Using a total of 60,419 ad links collected from three search engines (i.e., Bing, Google, and Yahoo), we characterize the ``mobile-friendliness'' of landing pages in sponsored search. In particular, we analyze the common and different characteristics between landing pages made for desktop vs. mobile device users, measure/validate the quantitative scores for their mobile-friendliness, and classify the results with respect to types of queries and landing pages. Based on our findings, we articulate that: (1) current landing pages (regardless of search engines or platforms) are \emph{not} mobile-friendly enough, and (2) better data-driven methods (as opposed to current static methods) to help advertisers build mobile-friendly landing pages are needed.