PPC Guide

Section 1: General Concepts of Pay-Per-Click Advertising

In this section, we’ll explore the PPC basics, covering all from the basic PPC marketing definition to the details of creating PPC campaign .

To kick things off, let’s start by answering the most obvious question:

What is PPC (Pay-Per-Click)?

PPC advertising, or pay-per-click marketing, is an online advertising model that has been designed to drive traffic to websites . Every time a user clicks on a PPC ad, the advertiser will get charged, hence the term pay-per-click.

How Does PPC Work?

Advertisers pay a set fee every time internet users click on a PPC ad. Essentially, advertisers pay for site visits instead of attracting clicks through organic traffic. This cost-per-click (CPC) can rise or fall depending on various factors in your campaign.

What is a PPC Campaign?

A PPC campaign is a well-defined advertising strategy that sets out to achieve a specific goal, known as a conversion. The most common conversion goals include generating more leads and getting customers to make a purchase. Advertisers must select keywords – user search queries - and create ads with these keywords to ensure their ads perform well in search engine results pages. Your ad can show on the search network when someone searches for terms that are similar to your products and services. You can create a PPC campaign on advertising platforms, using these dedicated systems to create, publish, and promote your ads to a specific target audience. The main platforms for PPC marketing are Google and Bing.

Google Ads

As the front door to the online world, Google is the dominant force in paid advertising, owning almost 80% of the market share. You can use the Google Display or Search Network to post your PPC ads, which will reach more people on Google compared to any other platform.

Bing

While overshadowed by Google, Bing is far from dead, powering almost 60 million searches each month in the U.S. alone. Bing is a great choice for small and medium-sized businesses, or if your company is based in the Google-free territories of East Asia, China and Japan.

Marketers can also advertise on Amazon, LinkedIn, and interestingly, Snapchat. However, if you really want to make a splash with paid advertising on social media, consider these platforms:

Facebook

The Facebook Ads platform allows for a high level of targeting, enabling advertisers to target people by demographics, age, interests, and location. The immense global popularity of the social media giant makes it ripe with opportunity for marketers.

YouTube

Have you heard that video marketing is kind of a big deal now? With over 1.8 billion active users, YouTube is attracting a LOT of businesses to experiment with video ads. As mobile mania continues to grow, this channel will surely become more potent for paid advertising.

Instagram

Since Facebook acquired Instagram, the latter has surged north of 500 million active users. The world’s love of video content makes this a hot prospect for PPC advertising, especially if your target audience consists of young women.

How Does PPC Advertising Work?

PPC advertising success depends on relevance. If your PPC ad is relevant to users, it will attract more clicks. Ergo, a fully-optimized campaign that is relevant to your target audience will have a better chance of accomplishing your goals, such as:

• Spreading greater brand awareness.
• Generating more leads.
• Increasing sales.

All over the planet, people search for information and solutions about specific topics, products, and services. Smart PPC advertising caters directly to these users by using targeted ads that satisfy their precise needs. For that reason, you can’t cheat in PPC advertising – paying for a better ad space won’t guarantee that you attract more customers.

Google Ads is a sophisticated system that uses Ad auctions to determine how valid and relevant every PPC ad is to users. As advertisers, you must target specific user search queries (i.e. keywords), bid on them, and the craft ads that will resonate with your audience.

With relevance in mind, you’ll have a better chance of generating a positive return on advertising spend (ROAS).

Why You Should Use PPC Advertising

As digital marketing has evolved and fueled more competitive markets, social media has become a tougher nut to crack. Companies are having less joy reaching audiences on free platforms, and organic traffic is slowing to a trickle as a result of the intense competition.

Now, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is taking center stage, preferred by many marketers over tried-and-tested techniques like search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing.

There are many great benefits of PPC advertising, including:

• Quick results – PPC makes it possible to reach audiences fast, as you pay to get your ads in front of specific audiences.
• Attract targeted traffic – You can direct a ton of traffic to your business website by using targeted ads.
• Increase leads, sales, and revenue – As you get better at optimizing your campaigns, you can earn a significant return on investment (ROI) from PPC advertising.

With these benefits in mind, it’s important to keep things in perspective.

PPC advertising is by no means a ‘get rich scheme’ – in fact, many have tried and failed, much to the detriment of their finances.

To succeed in PPC advertising, you must adopt a proactive attitude, where you are committed to constant monitoring and experimentation in an ongoing effort to optimize your campaign for better results.

SEO vs. PPC – Which is Better?

So, why should you opt for PPC over SEO?

Let’s consider the key differences first.

Search Engine Optimization , better known as SEO, is the process of optimizing a website so it attracts more organic traffic from search engines, like Google. By comparison, pay-per-click ads allow marketers to simply pay for traffic.

Both of these strategies involve the use of keyword search terms. SEO requires people to create content around popular keywords, while PPC involves ads and landing pages that target specific keywords.

While they are somewhat linked in this way, SEO and PPC are very different, and both provide their own distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Pros and Cons of SEO

• + Better for brand awareness and establishing an online reputation.
• + Helps build trust with the audience.
• + Has great ROI over time.
• − It takes a lot of time and effort to reap rewards.

Pros and Cons of PPC

• + Better for brand visibility in search results.
• + Enables refined customer targeting.
• + Generates quicker results than organic search strategies.
• − It’s expensive, especially if you don’t have proper knowledge and application.
• − Lacks a long-term benefit as most traffic will be lost as soon as you turn the PPC campaign off.

SEO has been around for years, and it’s still a highly effective strategy. It takes a lot of time, effort, and patience, but when done right, it will bring results.

PPC is much faster and requires less effort upfront; however, it’s also more expensive.

Both SEO and PPC are great avenues for the modern marketer, but if you don’t have the skills and time to dedicate, then you may want to consider hiring a PPC agency.

The 3 Main PPC Campaign Objectives for Maximum ROI

You could run an infinite number of different PPC campaigns, each with their own strategy. However, for the vast majority of PPC ads, there are three main objectives in mind:

1. Reducing Average Cost Per Click

PPC can be costly. Therefore, you should watch your budget to ensure you aren’t blowing it. If you want to keep your CPC and wasted spend to a minimum, think about this:

• Long Tail Keywords – Broad, single-word terms are competitive and hard to rank for. Focus on long-tail phrases. Not only are they less competitive, they also attract more targeted traffic with a higher purchasing intent.
• Negative Keywords – Scour your search terms report for keywords that are bringing unqualified traffic, then add these terms as ‘negative keywords’ in your campaign. This will filter out irrelevant clicks, which reduces your wasted spend.

2. Increase Your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)

Why bother investing in PPC if you aren’t going to get anything back? Everyone wants to turn a profit with paid advertising. Here are couple of considerations when you want to increase your returns:

• Device Targeting – Analyze existing data to understand which devices promise a good return, then adjust your bids accordingly to target those devices.
• Time Targeting – Similarly, your customers may be more active on certain days, or at certain times. Adjust your bids to target peak times so you can reduce waste and maximize gains.
• Location Targeting – Try targeting by location to exclude certain areas, and increase chances of conversion in cities where you have a physical store.

3. Boost Your ROI (Return on Investment)

Ultimately, a positive ROI is vital for PPC success. Unlike ROAS, ROI goes beyond pure financials. For example, you may deem improvements in Quality Score and ad performance as a good ROI for your efforts.

Quality Score has a direct relationship with Google Ads ROI. When your score is 7 or higher, Google Ads will offer discounted rates for clicks. Therefore, by taking action to improve your Quality Score, you can create better ads, which convert more, and you can also save money on campaign costs.

With that in mind, a focus on maximizing ROI will invariably involve significant work on your Quality Score.

How to Create A Winning PPC Strategy

To succeed in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising you must have a solid strategy that will help you reduce waste, and maximize profits. Furthermore, you need to invest considerable time and effort to execute the strategy.

There are three key phases in any great PPC advertising plan:

Planning Phase

This is the work you must do before spending a single cent on ads. It includes:

• Setting your PPC goals – lead gen, brand awareness, conversions, etc.
• Creating audience personas – who are you targeting? What do they need?
• Competitor analysis – What can you learn from successful rivals in the market?
• Keyword discovery – How do people search for the products and services you offer? Look for keywords with high search volume and low competition.
• Marketing channels – Consider how to present your business on multiple touchpoints, offering a seamless customer experience from one channel to the next.
• Brand protection – Think about how you will combat click fraud and establish a strong brand image that is widely-recognized.

Execution Phase

In this phase, you must consider how to execute your strategy. Will it be you, an in-house PPC expert, or an outsourced agency that does the work?

Regardless of whose duty it is, it’s imperative that you consider:

• Audience targeting – You may be able to engage people with remarketing or by clever timing around relevant life events.
• Ad Headlines – This is a vital aspect of any great PPC ad. Your headline must be a strong and concise value proposition that includes a compelling call-to-action.
• Landing Pages – These must flow on naturally from the ad, and be equally powerful. Relevance is key if you are to convert people after they click on your ads.

Optimization Phase

No PPC campaign will succeed without regular optimization. By keeping your finger on the pulse, you can leverage data insights to make informed decisions about your ads. Minor changes to keyword lists, bids, and ad copy can reap big rewards.

To truly succeed with this approach to your PPC advertising campaign, you must consider the value of data.

How a Data-Driven Attribution Model Enhances PPC Success

For many years, PPC managers attributed conversions to the last ad that a customer clicked on. Since Big Data has become a dominant force in modern business, marketers have been able to dig deeper with data analytics to find out much more about the customer journey.

What is PPC Data Analytics?

PPC data analytics is a holistic view and evaluation of the key data points in pay-per-click advertising campaigns, considering metrics like Impressions, Clicks, Conversions, and Cost-per-Acquisition.

What Are the Benefits of PPC Data Analytics?

By embracing this data-driven approach to PPC campaign analysis, you can benefit in several ways:

• Understand the Customer Journey – With a data-driven attribution model, you can get a much clearer perspective on how users become customers. This can help refine your keyword selection, ad copy, and brand voice.
• Identify negative keywords – This will help you filter out unqualified traffic so you aren’t wasting your budget on irrelevant clicks.
• Discover valuable new keywords – Learning how users actually search is a big step to driving conversions and maximizing your PPC revenue.
• Determine your best and worst ads – Knowing what is working and what’s not is crucial for smart budgeting.

It’s not easy to predict the changes in your market. A data-driven attribution model can provide a clearer picture of your PPC campaigns, at every level. This will offer actionable insights that you can use to make the most out of your budget.

Why Google Ads Policies Are Rejecting Your Ads

Sometimes, Google may block your ads or simply refuse to display them on their search or display network. This can be a frustrating time for any advertiser, especially if you don’t know why it’s happening.

This can happen for a number of reasons, such as:

• Ad Text Format – You may be violating Google Ads policies with your ad text. It could be too long or appear ‘spammy’ due to caps, exclamatory signs, and outlandish claims.
• URL - Is it present and correct?
• Keywords – Avoid using branded keywords that belong to someone else. Be original!
• Restricted Content – Your ad should be above board with everything it offers. Anything counterfeit or dishonest is likely to get flagged.
• Billing information – You must set-up correct billing information to be able to use Google Ads.

Google Ads has a list of policies and disclaimers that you should abide by if you want your ads to be approved. For example:

• Don’t violate trademark rules.
• Don’t try to publish content that focuses on gambling, adult entertainment, explosive products, etc.
• Don’t display your company phone number in the ad copy text. Use phone extensions.
• Delete any previously disapproved ads from your account.

Once you submit your ad, it will undergo a review process, and will then receive one of the following statuses:

1. Eligible - Google is still reviewing the ad, however, during preliminary scanning it may display on a few Google search pages.
2. Under review - Your ad won’t be shown until it’s fully approved.
3. Approved - Your ad complies with all policy measures.
4. Approved limited - The ad is approved. However, due to content or industry restrictions, visibility may be limited.
5. Disapproved - Your ad violates Google Ads policies, and will not be allowed.

By building your knowledge of PPC advertising with Google Ads, you can avoid any hitches when it comes time to launch your pay-per-click campaign. An effective way to do this is by talking to a PPC marketing expert.

Essential Questions to Ask a PPC marketing expert to Improve Your Campaign

As powerful as PPC marketing can be, your success is limited by the knowledge on hand. Sometimes, if you really want to tap into its true potential, you’ll need an expert. By asking some important questions, you can develop a much better understanding of how PPC advertising works.

Before you pick the brain of a PPC marketing expert, you must define your goals. This will help guide your questions, and enable you to work together to determine whether or not your PPC budget is being put to good use.

Here are some questions you could ask:

How should I be planning my budget?

You must strike a balance between financial control and opportunity for growth. Consider your goals and your daily budget, and figure out if your goals are viable with the current balance.

How do I measure success in a PPC campaign?

Once again, this depends on your goals. True success should deliver a positive ROI, either in clicks, conversions, or profits. This involves tracking key metrics.

How can I track conversions?

PPC advertising is all about tracking and optimization. Evaluate the search terms your audience uses, then adjust your bids to target valuable keywords that are more likely to generate conversions.

What influences the Quality Score?

Your ad’s Quality Score is an instrumental factor in performance. The score ranges from 1 to 10 (1 being worst and 10 being best) and it is influenced by:

• Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
• Keyword Relevancy
• Ad text relevancy
• Landing page quality and relevance
• Google Ads account performance

A PPC marketing expert will be able to help you improve your quality score, which in turn will benefit your ad performance and cost-per-click rate.

Section 2: PPC Data Analytics

Now that you have a handle on the fundamentals of PPC marketing, it’s time to go deeper. This section explores the impact of data on paid advertising. Here, you’ll discover a treasure trove of practical information about data-driven advertising and analysis, which will help you improve your marketing strategies

Let’s begin.

How to Succeed with PPC Data-Driven Analysis

You can do a lot with data.

In PPC advertising, data can offer you valuable insights about your campaign, your customers, your competitors, and your current strategies. When it’s done right, data-driven analysis has the potential to boost your ROI in a big way.

Before getting started, you need to do two things:

1. Gather data – you can’t leverage it if you don’t have it! The more you have, the better. Luckily Google does this for you. You can retrieve your campaign's data from Google through API calls
2. Define your goals – It should be clear by now that you must keep your goals in mind to succeed with PPC marketing. Remind yourself of what you’re trying to achieve before you attempt data-driven analysis.

Now that you’re ready, here are some strategies you can use:

• Statistical Analysis – Collect and analyze data for trends. For example, you can identify traffic patterns based on device type or specific search terms.
• Exploratory Analysis – By drilling down in data sets, you can evaluate keyword performance by day-parting, locations, devices, etc. You can also analyze metrics like impression share and CPC (cost-per-click).
• Associative Analysis – This considers related metrics and attributes in your account, helping you gauge relationships between impressions and clicks, or CTR and conversions.
• Historical Analysis – Judging the past performance of key elements can help you figure out what is working, and what needs to be changed.
• Comparative Analysis – Similarly, you can compare data from two time periods, like the current and past. This is useful for identifying trending behaviors and spotting opportunities before your competitors.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed here, as Google Ads has a wide array of metrics to consider. The key is to focus on the metrics and information that matter to your goals. Start small, succeed, then expand.

Another tip is to consider the tools you will use for PPC analysis. Data can be a dry topic at times, so you may find it is easier to perform this in-depth evaluation of your campaigns when there is a visual element.

With that in mind, let’s consider the next section…

The Game-Changing Role of Interactive PDFs (iPDF) in PPC Analytics

For many years, PDF documents have been a reliable format in the business world. However, they are not without their flaws. Some find them flat and dull, while others lament the ability to edit the documents directly.

But change is afoot, as the rise of interactive PDF documents (iPDF) is already making big improvements to the user experience (UX).

This change is all made possible by Tooltips.

What are Tooltips?

Tooltips are user-friendly pop-up windows that allow programmers to label objects in PDF documents, such as controls and command buttons. Once done, users can hover their mouse cursor over these objects to read key information.

Tooltips can help users get a better understanding of the functions of different controls, and they also act as a memo to remind people about features if they haven’t used the document in a while.

Overall, this provides a much better UX. Here are a few pointers to optimize your use of Tooltips in iPDF documents:

• Make them easy discoverable – There are no visual clues, so it’s good to adhere to a consistent style and predictable manner in your use of Tooltips.
• Offer appropriate information – Use concise sentences to provide useful information that users wouldn’t already know from looking at the doc.
• Use static information – Your Tooltips should be evergreen, so there is no need to constantly change them.

The world is waking up to the wonders of iPDF technology. PPCexpo is taking it next level by enabling tooltips on these docs. This enhances visualizations, making iPDF documents more user-friendly, and more engaging. This makes it much easier to get valuable insights from your analysis.

How to Use Actionable Insights for Google Ads Campaign Optimization

PPC advertising will never work if you have a ‘set and forget’ attitude.

Instead, you must be ready and willing to continually monitor and optimize ppc campaigns by constantly experimenting with new strategies and ideas.

By doing this, you can gain actionable insights that guide your decision-making in PPC campaigns. You can apply these insights into several key areas:

1. Attributes - The core components of your PPC campaign, including Match Types, Bid Strategy, Quality Score, and Targeting.
2. Performance Metrics - Performance indicators including Clicks, Impressions, and Clickthrough Rate (CTR).
3. Conversion Metrics – Aspects that offer performance insights, including Conversion Rate, Cost per Conversion, and Conversion Spend.
4. Attribution Metrics – Values that provide insights on the customer journey, such as Click-Assisted Conversions.
5. Competitive Metrics – Know when you’re ahead by tracking metrics like Total Impression Share and Lost Impressions Share.

When you explore these metrics in great depth, you’ll understand three things about PPC advertising:

• The more you know, the better your decision-making will become.
• Context matters when you are trying to target your audience.
• As you get to know more about your audience, you should make adjustments to your PPC campaigns.

Ultimately, data-driven analysis has the power to shape your advertising strategy from the top to the bottom of your campaign. Soon enough, this will reap results worthy of all the time, money, and effort you have invested.

The Road to the Best PPC Campaign Through Associative Analysis

Associative analysis is the process of collecting information and evaluating to find related data points and patterns, as to generate a clear picture of the perfect solution. When consumers search for products and services, all their searches culminate in this way, as they piece together information from different searches to hone in on the specific product or service they need.

Many marketers make the mistake of choosing keywords that aren’t aligned with user intent, which ends up attracting unqualified traffic. You can use associative analysis to change your fortunes, tackling several common issues along the way:

• High Traffic but Low Conversions – By studying click data, you’ll discover why certain leads convert, and why others do not.
• Low Quality Score – Associative analysis can help you find the issues that are negatively impacting your Quality Score.
• Poor Landing Pages – Highlight potential sticking points in your funnel to provide a smoother customer journey.

When you’re working with online data, it’s possible to collate large data sets and analyze important data points in relation to one another. You can use associative analysis in this way to build context and identify key relationships. This will give you a clear picture of your audience, and help you understand them at a deeper level.

How to Use Visual Storytelling in Your PPC Strategy

The world is obsessed with visual content nowadays.

In PPC advertising, visual storytelling is a highly effective method of engaging people as it brings your brand message to life.

Data visualizations can be used to great effect at several stages in the PPC process:

1. Devising your PPC strategy – With data visualizations from previous campaigns, you can craft a solid, well-thought-out strategy.
2. Identifying Problems – It’s much easier to discover flaws in your campaigns by looking at graphics, charts, and clear visuals, as opposed to trawling through reams of numbers. This saves time and makes the job of data analysis more engaging.
3. Keyword Selection – If you have low-performing keywords, data visualizations can help you discover the right ones to discard. You may also find new, more promising search queries to add to your campaign.
4. Holistic View for Final Touch-Ups – Visual analysis offers a big-picture view in an instant, making it easy for anybody to glean insights at a glance. You can get familiar with all key metrics, and look to plug all holes in your PPC strategy.
5. Executing Your Strategy – As you know, paid advertising is a continual process. Therefore, visuals will continue to be useful. You can use visual reports to monitor and optimize your campaigns on an ongoing basis.

Today, data visualization is a powerful tool for any PPC marketer. By embracing this type of analysis, you will soon develop an advanced understanding of your PPC campaigns.

Ultimate Campaign Optimization: 5 Core Areas

Campaign optimization is crucial if you’re going to succeed with paid advertising. Here are five key areas to always be thinking about improving:

Ad Copy

You don’t get a lot of space for your ad text – make it count. It should be punchy, value-driven, and completely irresistible. Think about how you can use these aspects to entice people to click:

• An eye-catching headline
• Relatable ad text that is tailored to user needs.
• A compelling call-to-action
• Ad Extensions that boost visibility

Landing Pages

The click is just the beginning. Next, people will arrive on your landing page. A well-optimized landing page is crucial if you are to convert visitors. This requires a few things:

• Clear, Strong Headlines.
• Smooth and Mobile-Responsive Theme.
• Fast Loading Speed.
• Relevant, Current Content.

Audience Targeting

If you don’t know your audience, you’re going to struggle with PPC advertising. Here are several techniques to forge stronger connections with the people you want to serve:

• Audience personas that detail users’ needs, interests, and pain points.
• Demographic targeting focused on people within specific age groups or gender.
• Targeting by time (i.e. day of the week, hour of the day), device, or location, so you can narrow your focus to engage specific groups of people.

Keyword List

Keywords make or break PPC advertising success. Consider the following strategies to optimize your keyword list:

• Keyword Discovery tools that help you find valuable, relevant keywords.
• A balance between reach and relevance so you get traffic that is likely to convert.
• Adding negative keywords to filter out irrelevant clicks.
• Adjusting match types according to your goals. For example, Modified Broad is good for brand awareness, while Exact Match is best for conversions.
• Adjusting bids to invest more on top-performing keywords, and less on low-performing keywords.

Monitoring Strategy

If you want to make your monitoring and data analysis worthwhile, you must make the necessary adjustments. Here are a few ideas:

• Always be testing something. This is how you will find problems and opportunities, and continuing to test and tweak will allow you to maximize your return on advertising spend (ROAS).
• Split-test ad copy and analyze the results to find the best version.
• Consider your competitors’ actions to learn from their mistakes and their wins. They can give you great ideas on how to improve your ads and strategies.

How to do An Effective Audit of Your PPC Campaign

Sooner or later, your Google Ads account is going to need an audit. A PPC audit is a well-structured and in-depth evaluation of your entire account that aims to determine how effective your PPC efforts are.

When you know how to do a PPC audit the right way, it can completely transform your PPC fortunes in the short-term and give you a wealth of knowledge to improve performance and ROI in the long-term.

Follow the 10 steps below to do a PPC audit:

1. Goals

Define your objectives by setting your main goal for conversion. Ensure conversion tracking and call tracking are both enabled and take time to set an establish CPA (Cost per Action).

2. Campaign Analysis

In Google Ads, you can review your campaign settings in just a few minutes. But don’t just glaze over things – stay proactive and look for opportunities to optimize your campaigns.

3. Settings Analysis

When you’re doing a PPC audit, your settings may change. Think about how you use features like mobile bids, day-parting, and location targeting.

4. Google Search Network Ad Group Analysis

In any PPC campaign, conversions are the ultimate goal. You need to be sure that every aspect of your campaign is primed for maximum conversion rates. Think about your ads, landing pages, keywords, and Quality Scores.

5. Google Display Network Ad Group Analysis

Just as you did with the Search network, you should ask probing questions about the Display Network. Think about how your ad groups are targeting keywords, audiences, and interests. Analyze everything in detail to ensure you are honing in on the best audience for your product or service.

6. Ads Analysis

You should never rely on the Google algorithm to do everything for you. During a PPC audit, take the time to look for issues the autopilot system may have missed. For example:

• Are all ad groups split-testing multiple ad versions?
• Are you using both text and image ads in your display campaigns?
• Have you checked all ads for broken links, grammar errors or spelling mistakes?

7. Bid-Based Analysis

Don’t waste your money on locations, devices, or time periods that aren’t working out. Analyze your results and adjust bids accordingly.

8. Landing Page Analysis

You must have dedicated, mobile-responsive landing pages that are optimized for conversions. They may be external to Google Ads but your landing pages impact your key metrics, so it’s vital that you test and tweak them to perfection.

9. Comparison from Previous Period

Use previous period data to make key comparisons about your cost-per-acquisition.

10. Budget Utilization

Is a tight budget causing you to lose impression share? Think about your budget and your conversion rates over the past 90 days to identify any negative-ROI aspects that need to be culled.

How a Competition Analysis Improves Your Pay-Per-Click Strategy

Regardless of your industry, there’s no way you are operating in a vacuum. While it’s easy to only view your competitors as a threat, they can actually help you succeed – if you know ppc competitor analysis.

Follow the five steps below to learn from your competition:

1. Identify Your Paid Competition – Conduct thorough market research to pinpoint the closest rivals who target the same audience with similar products and services to yours.
2. Discover Your Competitors’ Keywords – By developing an extensive list of keywords, you can get a clear understanding of user intent. Moreover, you’ll discover how your competitors are succeeding.
3. Study their Ad Copy – Evaluate their calls-to-action (CTAs). How do your competitors use CTAs to convey value in their PPC ads? How can you do the same with your ads?
4. Analyze their Landing Pages – How do their landing pages offer a smooth customer journey?
5. Mobile Optimization – Is this mobile experience seamless and engaging? Think about how you can optimize for mobile users to get an edge.

The Power of Data-Driven Alerts In Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Typically, many advertisers use manual alerts in Google Ads to automate warnings that let them know when a budget limit has been hit.

Manual alerts have a few benefits:

• They save you time
• They can be customized to specific needs
• You receive a warning in advance that protects your budget from huge losses

Now, with the rise of data, PPC managers have another option – data-driven alerts. These are based on data history, which means you don’t have to configure parameters first.

These data-driven alerts have several advantages:

• You are informed of issues ahead of time
• You get actionable data insights to optimize your PPC campaigns
• You get a competitive edge
• You have a better chance of a good return on investment (ROI)

As data continues to become a central pillar in business and marketing, it’s inevitable that it will become more important in paid advertising. Soon enough, users may be able to make data-driven decisions during the customer journey. If advertisers embrace the change, there is a lot to gained by harnessing the power of data. From data-driven alerts to data-driven analysis, your Ads account can benefit in many ways, which gives you a huge competitive advantage in any market.

Section 3: Future Trends in PPC

In the third and final section, we’ll focus on what the future has in store for PPC advertising. The digital landscape is always shifting, and it’s the marketers and advertisers who stay agile that will have the greatest success.

Rapid advances in technology are certainly impacting PPC in major ways, and you’ll need to keep your ear to the ground to make the most of your budget in the years ahead.

How to Enhance the PPC System with Artificial intelligence

Google research found that artificial intelligence (AI) has a positive impact on user engagement with PPC ads. While some may fear the rise of AI, it holds incredible potential for marketers.

The main benefits include:

• Higher ROI with Smart Bidding – This machine learning-based system uses large data sets to devise sophisticated bidding strategies for a range of conversion goals. With this data, Google Ads can improve your targeting and your returns.
• Optimize Your Spending – The Smart google ads display from Google effectively run on autopilot, ensuring you don’t waste any money with human errors.
• Align your Ads with Consumer Interests – AI can help advertisers learn more about their audience, and therefore, make it easier to serve them.
• Better Keywords Selection – Quite often, people choose keywords because of gut instinct or personal preference. When you trust AI and cold, hard data, you’ll end up with a better keyword list that considers competitor actions and consumer trends.

While AI may still be developing, there’s no doubt it is a revolutionary technology. Humans are an important part of the process, as it’s only with skilled people that you can hope to leverage data insights.

AI and machine learning are already changing how paid advertising works. Getting on board now will help your campaigns immensely, and make it easier to adapt as the technology evolves.

How Voice Assistants are Shaking Up Search and PPC

Voice search is one of the hottest trends in recent years. The digital giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are vying for the market, with their voice assistants transforming customer service, search marketing, and global business as a whole.

These digital assistants are becoming more popular year-on-year, which has impacted several key areas of digital marketing, such as:

• Increased Accuracy – Voice recognition software now has a precision rate of around 95%, which makes it more appealing for users.
• Automation and Personalization – As these features improve, people can expect a better user experience, which means advertisers can expect better results from their advertising efforts.
• Featured Snippet Prominence – Digital assistants can integrate into search engines, which means marketers who can create more relevant ads will have a good chance of standing out from the pack.
• Increased Traffic – As voice search queries tend to be longer and more detailed, marketers will be able to generate more targeted traffic by creating ads that are tailored to specific queries.
• Better Content For Optimization – People want quick solutions. They also enjoy interactive, engaging content. Companies can use digital assistants to their advantage here to refine their content to make it more engaging.
• Predictive Analysis – Thanks to AI, you can configure digital assistants to use campaign data to optimize your campaign.

The popularity of voice assistants goes hand-in-hand with another huge trend in global digital marketing – chatbots.

Why Chatbots are Vital for the Future of PPC strategy

Chatbots are computer programs designed to communicate with people. This form of AI-technology has quickly become a common feature of online business in recent years, typically used for customer service or marketing purposes.

There is a lot to love about chatbots, with business benefits including:

• 24/7 Accessibility – Chatbots don’t get tired or bored. They just keep on working, which is great for customer engagement.
• Handling Capacity – They can multitask with aplomb. No stress, no breaks, and no human errors.
• Customer Satisfaction – robots may not understand human emotions yet but their ability to leverage data insights makes them the ultimate customer service tool.
• They Save Time And Money – Not only are chatbots faster at resolving problems, but they also cost less than hiring employees.

While they’re undoubtedly a revelation for marketers, chatbots are not without their shortcomings. They need to build up data reserves to truly become exceptional in their roles, so their inability to understand specific situations, words, phrases, or emotions may frustrate customers. Furthermore, they are, like all technology, susceptible to hackers.

Chatbots are sure to grow in popularity as the years go by, so it is a wise move to get involved now. However, you must have the patience to allow for some challenges involved in implementing chatbot services.

How Voice Search Will Impact the Future of PPC

Voice recognition software is changing how people search. Voice search technology is not in every smart device, from smartphones to speakers, home hubs to vehicles. We can now do a lot with voice search, such as:

• Makes calls
• Search for information
• Write (and send) text messages
• Play music
• Place food delivery orders
• Get directions

The rising popularity of voice search and voice-recognition technology is changing the way digital marketing works in many ways.

Here are some big changes to be aware of:

• Driving Increased Searches – Voice search offers a shorter response time than text-based search. This encourages more people to use it.
• Content is improving – marketers know that they must create more relevant, engaging content if they are to perform well in voice search.
• More Use of Call-Only Campaigns – People are more inclined to contact businesses nowadays, so you can boost your traffic by using call-only ads that are optimized for voice search.
• Long-tail Keywords – As users tend to speak in full sentences with voice search, long-tail keywords offer greater ROI. When you use these in your ads, they are likely to attract very targeted, qualified traffic.
• Encourages Mobile-Friendliness – In a world gone mad for mobile, it’s important to keep pace with trends. Voice search assistant will realize when mobile users bounce off your site. So, if you want to do well with this technology, you must also make sure your site offers a great UX for mobile users.

Mobile and Augmented Reality in Digital Marketing

As mobile use continues to surge, the potential for paid advertising on mobile devices grows. One of the most interesting avenues to explore in this regard is through the use of augmented reality technology.

To see just how successful this can be, you need only to look at Snapchat. The company began as a somewhat gimmicky short video messaging app, but it has exploded into a multi-billion dollar business that is the platform of choice among younger generations.

Snapchat’s success with augmented reality has led to several exciting ventures, including:

• Amazon partnership – Users can use Snapchat to identify products, then link to Amazon’s online store to find out more information. This could effectively beckon a new era of visual commerce.
• Snappables – By extending the vast array of interactive games, Snapchat allows users to compete with each other in augmented reality-driven worlds. This helps drive user engagement and brand awareness.
• Bitmoji – Snapchat wants people to immerse themselves in the AR world, so much so that they allow you to create a cartoon avatar through Bitmoji. This has opened the door for marketers to use the technology to create AR ads, displaying their products in the virtual world.

This technology boasts a lot of potential for digital marketing in the future. No doubt we’ll see more companies embrace it in the years ahead.

Why Video Advertising is Gaining Popularity

Content is no longer king.

Video content is king.

Studies indicate that 45% of people watch more than an hour of video content every day, with 92% of mobile users sharing videos with friends.

It’s no surprise that more marketers are using video for marketing and advertising. Not only are videos more engaging, but they promise higher conversion rates and a better ROI.

From a marketing perspective, it’s a gold mine.

Here are some of the main reasons for the meteoric rise of video:

• Live Video Streaming – This growing trend looks to be here for the long haul. It’s a great way to engage followers, as people pay more attention to live video feeds.
• Online Video Learning – Using video as an education tool allows companies to train employees and offer knowledge.
• Brand Storytelling – Video is a powerful way of connecting with your audience. It enables marketers to create more authenticity, which resonates with people to forge stronger connections.
• Videos Are Easier To Understand – As opposed to text, videos are easier to digest and comprehend.
• Visual Content Is More Engaging – People prefer graphics, images, and videos over text-based content. It is more engaging, and they are more likely to share it.

By the year 2021, Gartner predicts that 85% of all internet traffic will be video content. It’s here to stay. If you aren’t already using video marketing or advertising, it’s time to start.

Why Visual Search is Essential for Your PPC Strategy Now

As video becomes more popular, more marketers are looking at ways to use visual search as a marketing tool. People can already use visual search engines to find information based on images. Google, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Amazon are leading the charge in this market, and many other companies are working on ways to get involved.

When you consider the benefits of visual search for a pay-per-click marketing strategy, it’s easy to see the appeal:

• It makes searching easier.
• It’s easy to do – just take a shot then let the technology do its thing.
• Visual search enhances the customer experience, especially when done through apps like Google Lens or Pinterest Lens.
• It can be used as a map guidance tool, which can be good for location targeting in ads.
• You can use it to shop through images, as pioneered by Snapchat.

So, with so much to gain, the obvious question to ask is how can advertisers use visual search to increase their brand visibility?

• Use metadata and Schema markup to offer search engines more data.
• Place ads on image-sharing platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and even Facebook.
• Submit images to sitemaps. These should be optimized for the best dimensions and file type.
• Add multiple images for each product to increase the chances of it showing in search engine results.
• Never compromise on image quality as people are more drawn to hi-res images.

Why You Should Understand the Customer Journey

In PPC advertising, you should always be thinking about the customer journey. By keeping user intent in mind, you can adjust your marketing and advertising efforts to connect with prospects at every stage of their journey.

When you get it right, you’ll reap the rewards in the form of more leads, conversions, and best of all, profits.

The customer journey can be mapped out in relation to your marketing funnel, which has three sections – top, middle, and bottom.

Top of the Funnel

In the first phase, people become aware that they have a need for a specific solution. This involves two things:

1. Exposure – Where prospects find out about your brand. PPC managers should consider impressions and impression share, and consider how their budget is being used to spread brand awareness.
2. Discovery – In most cases, consumers need to engage with a brand on several occasions before they will make a purchase. It’s the advertiser’s job to streamline this journey by creating relevant, engaging landing pages that have a compelling CTA, and ultimately, can offer a smooth experience.

Middle of the Marketing Funnel

After the initial brand awareness, consumers will begin comparing options. This phase is all about consideration.

Here, they will conduct in-depth research on brands, and their products and services. Marketers can employ various tactics at this point in the effort to persuade prospects:

• Remarketing – This is when you use cookies to track customer behaviors, and then target them with follow-up ads.
• Personalized product recommendations – People love personalization, so if you can offer them tailor-made suggestions, it’s more likely to result in a conversion than a generic offer.
• Brand storytelling – Humans are natural-born storytellers. How can you use clever copy to cajole people into believing in your brand?

Bottom of the Marketing Funnel

In the final phase, the aim is to convert leads. This is the endgame of any PPC campaign, but it’s important to realize that a conversion doesn’t always have to be about making a sales. It is whenever someone completes the action that you have defined as a conversion goal, for example whenever someone:

• Subscribes to your Email newsletter
• Downloads an eBook
• Sign-ups for your webinar

Traditionally, a lot of businesses have considered conversion to be the culmination of the entire marketing or advertising cycle.

However, modern marketers know better.

The conversion is not the end – it is the start of a long-term relationship with a new customer. It is much cheaper to keep an existing customer compared to acquiring new ones.

You should seek to work on nurturing brand loyalty so that your company boosts customer retention rates. This makes each customer more valuable in the long run, helping you acquire loyal advocates that champion your brand, making it easier and cheaper to attract new customers.

Guiding Your PPC Digital Marketing Efforts – The Funnel and the Flywheel

The digital marketing funnel has been a reliable bedrock of digital marketing for years. However, like everything else, it has evolved over time.

Now, the funnel is rumored to be under threat from a new strategy – the marketing flywheel.

There’s no doubt that the funnel can optimize your campaign, and ensure you waste fewer resources trying to figure everything out. However, its primary purpose is to attract prospects and then drive them towards one goal – conversion.

It isn’t naturally designed with customer retention and customer lifetime value in mind. As a result, marketers have sought to create a new model.

To make the marketing flywheel work for your company, you must think about these three factors:

• Speed – What drives your campaign? A flywheel will gather momentum if you apply more force. In marketing terms, adding a chatbot could boost customer satisfaction, which will result in good feedback and more loyalty.
• Friction – What is slowing things down? The customer journey should be smooth, so you need to eliminate silos and improve your landing pages, mobile experience, and website navigation. Everything must be seamless to ensure there are no sticking points preventing people from converting.
• Size – You don’t have to be a millionaire to succeed with PPC campaigns, but if you are able to invest more money, you probably will stand a better chance. However, it’s more important to monitor, analyze, and optimize your campaigns with smart campaigns, data-driven decision making.

Both the funnel and the flywheel are excellent tools to guide your digital marketing efforts. However, the flywheel does have an advantage in that it is focused on keeping customers past the point of the initial conversion.

In the end, they both represent the core principles of PPC advertising success as you can’t win unless you are committed to continual optimization and effort.

The Secret to Success is to Use Data Analytics in PPC Advertising

Like a lot of things in digital marketing, paid advertising is undergoing big changes. It’s a challenge for marketers to stay on top, especially as markets and keywords become more competitive.

By focusing on data-driven analysis, you can gain a competitive edge. Rather than relying on gut instinct or personal bias, you should trust in the power of analytics in PPC advertising. This innovative approach will allow you to drill down into your campaign data, revealing actionable insights that guide your decision-making on all aspects of your account.

Ultimately, by trusting in analytics in PPC campaigns, you’ll become a better PPC manager. You can take a massive leap towards this prosperous future with the help of PPCexpo. We are a pioneer in using specialist analytics in PPC advertising.

Check out our extensive library of reporting tools to enhance your analytics-driven marketing today.