PPC is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website or landing page quickly. You can start seeing results immediately—start a PPC campaign and test what users think.
Of course, what sounds easy is often more difficult when you put it into action, especially with changing technology. Whether you’ve used PPC in the past or are brand new, keeping these PPC trends in mind will push your ads to rank better as you navigate the coming months.
What Is PPC?
PPC stands for “pay-per-click.” It’s a digital marketing technique that allows advertisers to pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. PPC gives you a way of buying clicks to your site rather than waiting for a user to find it and visit organically.
PPC started with search engine advertising and was a way for advertisers to bid for ad placement within the ranks of search engine results. If you search anything on Google, you’ll find both sponsored links and organic content. Advertisers choose appropriate keywords and use the PPC platform to rank on their ideal data. They have flexibility to be able to advertise when and where they want, testing different nuances along the way.
When an ad is clicked, it sends the clicker to the specified location. The advertiser pays the search engine a small fee for the connection. This is where strategy comes in to ensure the value of each click is less than the cost of the ultimate sale. You can use analytics to confirm your marketing strategy is performing well.
Of course, Google isn’t the only one to use a PPC platform anymore. You’ll find it in other search engines, social media sites, large platforms like Amazon, and many other online sites.
Creating a winning PPC ad is a never-ending process. It takes building an ad, selecting the right demographics, choosing the right keywords, and creating a well-organized campaign. It also requires constant watching and adjustment to ensure it continues to work well.
How Current PPC Trends Impact Your Recent PPC Ads
Marketing is never a static process. It’s something you monitor and change over time.
The same applies to your PPC campaigns. If you set up a campaign today and put it on autopilot, you might do very well at first. But you’ll notice results slowly fall off over time. This can be because:
- The target audience sees it and is no longer interested
- The information is no longer relevant
- There’s newer technology available
- Competition catches up with you
No matter how much you like a campaign, it takes consistent monitoring to be assured it’s giving you the best results. Knowing what PPC trends are currently impacting the PPC market will ensure you’re doing all you can to keep your ads relevant and in place.
Here are some of the top PPC trends you should pay attention to as you move forward:
Automation
PPC automation is one of the top trends impacting PPC technology. Companies like Google and Facebook invest massive amounts into growing the automated experience.
The purpose of automation is to eliminate the mundane pieces of the PPC advertising process. Digital marketing firms specializing in PPC and SEO spend a lot of time researching keywords, performing PPC bid management, and creating compelling ad copy. What if there was a way to automate it and free up time better spent? That’s the reasoning behind automation.
In theory, smarter technology would also allow companies to gain an advantage over competitors and brands by being more agile with their marketing efforts. Without tracking and analysis, companies could spend more time identifying audiences or varying their content.
Audience Targeting
When creating keywords, you can choose from a variety of demographics, like broad- and phrase-match keywords. Smart technology is changing the way these are categorized, making audience demographics even more critical.
The goal here is to make it less about keywords and more about intention. If you’re closer to what the audience really wants, resources like Google want to reward you with better results.
Content is everything. And as we move forward, context will be equally important. With smart technology doing more work, the marketer should be doing more for audience targeting.
Social Media
Most of the population is on some type of social media every day. That means if you want to reach out to new audiences, using PPC on social sites is a good way to go about it.
Social media can help you further target an audience. Because people tend to have preferences, you may find different segments prefer different social sites. A person who loves YouTube and consumes video daily may not be the same person who creates pinboards on Pinterest.
By digging deeper and understanding what each segment wants, you can utilize your advertising skills to get creative with the content you display on each site. And with a growing PPC trend of greater automation in place, it’ll also give you more time to work on the content side of advertising.
Visual and Voice Search
While PPC is primarily controlled by content today, it’s moving more toward visual and voice as technology changes. Paid voice search has grown in popularity since virtual personal assistants, such as Siri and Alexa, entered the market.
Visual search allows you to search for pictures similarly to how you search with keywords. Instead of trying to find where your friend purchased her “dress with little white daisies,” you can simply upload a photo, and it’ll find the results. It directs you to resources, making your search function ever more successful.
How Vested Are You in PPC Trends?
Do your PPC campaigns still bring in business, or are you noticing changes in your results? You can’t ignore PPC trends. They’ll impact your ads no matter what. It’s up to you to decide if you’re ready to adjust your campaigns now and prepare for what’s coming.
