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Pay-per-click advertising, or PPC advertising, is an online advertising model that has been developed specifically to drive internet traffic to websites. For every click that occurs on a PPC ad, the advertiser must pay the publisher, such as a network or search engine.
This pay-per-click advertising model operates on the premise that by paying for more traffic, you will be able to generate more conversions.
The PPC model is sometimes referred to as Cost-Per-Click (CPC), and it’s important to realize rising costs don’t always equate to an increased chance of a conversion. As such, advertisers would be wise to make use of data-driven alerts in their campaigns. These alerts can flag any unusual behaviors or potential issues, and opportunities, so you will be able to take action before it’s too late.
In this article, we’ll see just how useful data-driven alerts can be to people in pay-per-click advertising.
In layman’s terms, data-driven analysis is when we collect information about consumers’ online behavior and use it to guide our marketing decisions. Advertisers do this by analyzing data points from consumer engagements with PPC ads.
The more you learn about the way people react to your ads, the better you will be able to target their needs and interests in the future.
In Google Ads, you must set parameters first, which is effectively a manual alert. Once configured, the platform will alert you whenever your custom limit is reached. There is also a script option that makes it easy to customize how the alerts work.
For example, let’s say you set a maximum limit of $100 for Wasted Spend. Once your pay-per-click advertising campaign hits that mark, Google Ads will alert you.
At first glance, these manual alerts have a few key benefits:
On the downside, the static limits mean you will continually have to update and adjust these alerts throughout the PPC life cycle. As your campaigns grow, this may become a tedious task that ends up costing you more time than it saves.
As mentioned, data-driven analysis can help you optimize your website, and your pay-per-click advertising efforts so that you are able to show more relevant, targeted ads, which are more likely to generate conversions.
The big advantage that data-driven alerts have over manual alerts is that they are programmatically calculated based on your data history — you don’t need to set up parameters!
You’ll get an alert whenever there are any signs of unusual activity, such as a sudden spike in your average CPC. Data-driven alerts are useful here, as they help us recognize when we are on target, or when there is something questionable happening. Not only do these alerts save your budget and your time, but they are data-led, which makes them more reliable.
Data-driven marketing is an intrinsic part of business today, and there’s no doubt that it has the power to enhance pay-per-click advertising campaigns. For advertisers, there are several benefits to incorporating data-driven alerts in their PPC campaigns:
1. You stay informed ahead of time
2. You can optimize your PPC campaigns with data insights
3. You get an edge on your competitors
4. You can earn a better return on investment (ROI)
Critical alerts are shown in a red bar at the top of your PPC account dashboard.
Less critical alerts will be displayed in a preview bar new the top of the screen. Click “View All” to see the full list of alerts.
There are several options to click, including:
Low-priority alerts don’t have a preview bar, but there will be an exclamation point at the top of the screen, next to the bell icon. Click it to see the alerts.
Furthermore, you can change your Google Ads preferences to receive alerts by email.
Typically, you will receive alerts for one of three reasons:
These alerts will be denoted by a red exclamation mark. You should consider these as critical issues, which must be addressed as soon as possible. For example, your billing information may be outdated, which means your ads won’t be running.
These alerts will be denoted by a yellow light bulb. Generally speaking, these are tailored snippets of advice that suggest some actions that will help your account. For example, it may advise you to add more keywords or adjust your targeting to reach a wider audience.
These alerts will be denoted by a blue “info” icon. You can use these alerts to learn about new PPC reports, which are designed to help you gauge performance and optimize your campaign. For example, there may be a new tool that helps improve your keyword selection.
The music streaming giant, Spotify has embraced data and artificial intelligence (AI) in a big way in recent years, with their Discover Weekly feature serving up personalized playlists based on user’s history and previous song choices.
This handed listeners some control, as they could choose certain genres, and know it would lead to new discoveries that were aligned with their interests.
As Google Ads changes all the time, it’s surely only a matter of time before people can make data-driven decisions in the pay-per-click advertising journey. Advertisers can already use data-driven alerts to keep their PPC campaign on track. This practice is likely to become even more important as time goes on.
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