Once it comes to PPC (Pay-per-Click), you seek for instant results. And according to a survey by Blue list, paid search ads can increase brand awareness by a whopping 80%. However, as the trends in digital marketing are changing rapidly, you need to spend your budget efficiently in order to meet your business objectives. The only way to do this is by adopting the latest PPC strategies.
No worry. We have got you covered. Learn these PPC trends you are going to witness in 2020 so that you can implement the right hacks to improve your ROI.
# PPC Trends in 2020
During the initial phase of PPC, search engines like Google and others used to run search listing ads only. But with time, display and video ads along with various social media channels, and popular e-Commerce platforms are coming to the forefront. These are gradually changing the PPC landscape. Check these out.
1. Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Digital marketing has not simply revolutionized the advertisement landscape, but also brought about a renaissance in the manner we receive, handle, and process the humongous sets of data available in the cyberspace.
In other words, PPC automation is reshaping marketing.
PPC automation is the use of AI and machine learning to optimize search engine marketing (SEM) efforts. It can manage the bidding procedure with more accuracy thereby saving both time and money.
AI’s machine learning capabilities can collect and identify the users’ search patterns, web browsing activity, and purchase history. Thus, Artificial Intelligence automates the optimization procedure and offers optimum results. Here’s how AI can be beneficial for you:
- Pausing Low-Performing Ads
AI allows you a respite from constantly monitoring everything. AI can identify the low-performing ads and suggest you stop them while prioritizing those offering the most returns. It recommends you to bid more on the best performing ads while reducing the budget for poorly performing ones. Thus, it can improve the ad performance based on your set goal while effectively saving money.
- Adopt the Right Bidding Strategy
AI can also determine the best bidding strategy to accomplish different goals. Therefore, you can choose whether you want to prioritize clicks, impressions, or conversions and allow the system to make intelligent bidding actions on the campaigns.
- Dynamic Search Ads
Another significant automation to help you increase the CTR (Click-Through-Rate) is the Dynamic Search Ad. It uses the search engine’s organic web crawling technology to target relevant search queries. Dynamic Search Ads pull content from your website and display the same in the ad. Then it directs the ad to your most relevant web page containing that keyword. Let’s simplify it with an example.
If you own a hotel in Mumbai and someone searches for a luxury hotel in Mumbai, the search engine will automatically generate a relevant headline by taking information from your website content and allow you to reach audiences that you could have missed otherwise.
Thus, AI helps to create powerful, optimized, and relevant ads that can drive more conversions.
Why Should You Care?
With a massive amount of information swirling around, search engines use automation systems that are built to capture the patterns of user behavior and can be advantageous for advertisers like you. With more user-centric and relevant ads you can catch the attention of your target audience and increase the conversion rate.
2. Alternative Platforms To Google Search Listing Ads
The scope, impact, and cost-effectiveness of digital marketing coupled with the rising cost of advertising in the print and electronic media has led companies to invest in Google Search Listing Ads. However, this huge influx of advertisements has cluttered the Google Search Ad space and limited its scope in drawing eyeballs. This has resulted in a higher cost per conversion ratio as multiple companies are fighting for the same ad space. Thus, as per the expert PPC service providers, the Google Search Listing Ads Space is no longer the sovereign ruler in the PPC market.
In fact, by diversifying your PPC campaign, you can access multiple channels to draw the eyeballs of your potential customers. You may need to remind consumers about your service or product several times before they make a purchase. This can allow your ad to frequently appear in front of them if you advertise across multiple platforms they use.
Several platforms are increasingly becoming crucial to the advertisers. Here, we will mention the five most important alternative platforms you should check out in 2020:
- Google Banner Search Ads
Display or banner search ads can promote your business when people are watching YouTube videos, browsing online, checking emails, or using any web or mobile application. Since it reaches 90% of global internet users, these can be your best bet as far as drawing customer eyeballs is concerned.
You can use the social media giant, Facebook to advertise your business in its Marketplace section. Here, you can create advertisements in the form of stores to be seen by people in their news feed, search, and other areas. Such stores can reach more customers with buyers’ intent.
Even a few years ago, in 2013, Instagram had nearly 130 million monthly users. But currently, with over 1 billion monthly active users (source: Oberlo), Instagram has become one of the most favorable ad platforms.
Visual appeal is a crucial element for Instagram ads to draw more attention. Therefore, it’s important to make your ads visually attractive to get more leads in 2020.
- Quora
Quora is a question-answer forum where people come to ask questions and read and share useful answers. This also includes people searching for reliable information about a company, products, or services. Thus, it provides advertisers with the opportunity to promote their business and influence people to purchase their products.
- Amazon
According to Thee Digital, Amazon is the third-largest advertising platform right after Google and Facebook. Though the latter ones have a wide audience, the users are not always looking to purchase something from these sites. Whereas in Amazon, the buyer intent plays a prominent role. Most of the users searching the site are planning to buy something. Therefore, the conversion rate is usually high on Amazon.
Other than these three, other platforms like Reddit, Pinterest, and Tiktok among others also have a wide user base.
Why Should You Care?
Publishing your ad on diversified paid media platforms is a step to acquire more leads and boost your business. Not convinced yet? According to a recent study by Foundation Inc, Quora has over 300 million monthly active users. Do we need to say more?
3. The surge in Video Advertising
According to HubSpot, 72% of consumers prefer to learn about a service or product with the help of a video. Video is an amazing resource that businesses should utilize and is sure to dominate the market in the coming years.
The video ad is a great tool to enhance your business reach and add to your brand’s appeal. Videos also evoke a sense of reliability and a compelling video can effectively make a brand go viral.
The Bumper Machine tool of Google helps video advertisers in this regard. Powered by machine learning, it can select a few catchy moments from a longer video and conjoin them to produce multiple 6 seconds bumper ads.
Why Should You Care?
Videos allow the brands to communicate their story to the target audience. With the increasing popularity of video advertising, you should leverage its advantages by integrating it into your marketing strategy.
