PPC

Every year brings a ton of change in digital marketing. In each of my 10 years in the industry, I’ve noticed that the beginning of the year can mark a surge in calls for SEO and PPC to work together.  The difference in 2024? There’s an elephant in the room: AI. Google’s organic and paid sides are both rushing to adopt AI. From Search Generative Experience (SGE) to Gemini (formerly Bard), the SERP results for both paid and organic are evolving almost daily.This is sparking unrest for paid and organic marketers…

How often have you heard, “Use broad match along with smart bidding to get the best results?” Broad match can learn based on previous conversion activity. It can also use previous user search data, other keywords in your ad group and your landing page’s content to show your ads on relevant searches. Broad match has more learning capabilities than phrase or exact match.  If broad match can do all these things, is there even a need for exact match?Let’s walk through one advertiser’s journey to discover what…

Trends and hurdles are already taking shape for all PPC marketers in 2024. Changes in the privacy and data landscapes are dictating most of them, alongside continuing economic struggles. But what are those challenges and how can we prepare and react to them? Here are the five biggest I foresee for the rest of the year. 1. Audience targeting With the end of third-party cookies and stricter consent rules, website data coverage will decrease, limiting your leverage. This means remarketing audiences will gradually…

In response to growing demand from consumers and regulators to protect online privacy, in January 2020, Google announced plans to phase out support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser by 2022. Cookies, the tool used to collect and share data on user behavior as they move across the open web, are the foundation of the adtech ecosystem and provide the data that powers the majority of all behavior and audience targeting. Google’s decision to kill the cookie effectively put a ticking clock on the current state…

In PPC advertising, the skills and knowledge of ad buyers directly impact campaign success and return on investment.  So, what separates good ad buyers from the truly world-class? The journey from a novice to an expert in ad buying is paved with trials, errors and invaluable lessons. This article delves into personal experiences and industry insights, offering a comprehensive guide to mastering the art of ad buying. 1. Invest your own money in ads The first and most profound lesson in ad buying comes…

Google confirmed it is testing a new PPC ad format. However, key details such as the official name, functionality, influence on auction dynamics, and effect on metrics are yet to be released. The lack of information surrounding the new ad format has drawn criticism from advertisers. First spotted: The new ad format was first flagged by Anthony Higman, CEO of online advertising agency Adsquire, who shared a preview on X:He posted: “These aren’t LSAs, they’re PPC ads. What are we calling this new ad format?…

Marketing relies heavily on the marketing funnel concept, a tool essential for visualizing and planning our strategies. When used correctly, it can greatly benefit your marketing efforts, particularly in PPC, where budget allocation directly influences outcomes. This article breaks down what a full-funnel PPC strategy looks like, from top to bottom, so that you can use it as a blueprint for your own PPC strategy. The marketing funnel: A refresher At its core, the marketing funnel is a simple way to…

One of the great tragedies of the digital marketing world is that “PPC” folks and “paid social” folks don’t see themselves at the same marketing table – even as ad networks push them closer and closer.  Advertisers who are “Google-first” or “Meta-first” tend to struggle to make the leap to the alternate platform. Yet, as paid media (i.e., more than just SERP and feed-based) becomes the norm, advertisers will need to get comfortable translating their strategies across platforms. Ad networks have already begun to…

The language capabilities of generative AI, specifically GPT-4, have proven helpful in various PPC tasks like managing keywords, writing ad text, and helping with audience development.  However, there are also difficulties to tackle, such as figuring out which existing domain expertise to prioritize, connecting with business data and integrating into established workflows. To address these, PPC marketers working with GPT-4 can focus on four aspects:  Prompt engineering. Plugins. Custom GPTs. Actions.…

Click-through rate (CTR) is a cornerstone metric of PPC marketing.  Calculated as the percentage of people who click on an ad after seeing it, CTR is often treated as a key performance indicator (KPI), commanding disproportionate attention and optimization efforts.Google search interest in the topic of CTR far exceeds that of conversion rate (CVR), even though conversions more directly align with the health and success of a business. This hyperfocus on CTR largely stems from outdated reasoning that deserves…