We’re well on our way into the new decade, and one question is at the forefront of every paid search specialist’s mind—what PPC changes will 2020 bring to light? This past year saw the rise of artificial intelligence, the birth of countless new social platforms, and an increasing consumer focus on brand loyalty. These factors, and several others, contributed heavily to paid search trends.
2020’s PPC changes will continue to be shaped by industry trends, new technologies, and consumer preferences. To make the most of them, businesses and marketers need to be prepared. Here are the changes our PPC experts expect to see within the pay-per-click landscape.
Remind Me—How Does Pay-Per-Click Work?
Pay-per-click ads, or PPC ads, use keyword research to display relevant, targeted results to searchers. The company occupying the ad space pays a small amount for every click their link receives. Utilizing PPC advertising allows ads to blend almost seamlessly with organic search results and win more clicks. This integration, along with the constant evolution of Google search algorithms, has made PPC campaigns a vital part of every successful digital marketing strategy.
Budgetary Benefits of Cutting-Edge PPC
Well-planned and thoughtfully executed PPC campaigns offer brands an ideal way to boost their advertising return without sacrificing their budget. Thanks to many helpful tools and PPC planning programs, ads can be set to run for a certain amount of time, or until a preset budget is reached. Once that limit is achieved, the campaign can be paused or turned off to keep further costs from accruing.
Marketing Benefits of PPC
Another added benefit of PPC ads is their positive correlation to dedicated SEO and keyword research. When keyword research and SEO are done well, your brand’s PPC ads will naturally be more highly-targeted and effective. These three facets of marketing all provide stellar value to a marketing campaign on their own. But when used in conjunction, they’re even more effective.
3 PPC Changes You Need to Know About
Depending on who you ask, marketers’ lists of the top and predicted PPC trends will vary wildly. Here at Snap, we anticipate 2020’s PPC landscape will be marked by an expansion of paid ads, heightened content targeting, and increased automation.
New Brands Joining PPC Top Players
For many years, Facebook and Google ruled the pay-per-click landscape, controlling much of the digital ad space and outpacing their competition by miles. Today, though, they are no longer the only key players in the PPC game. Amazon and YouTube are now beginning to capitalize on paid ads to further their own search functions.
Paid Ads on Amazon
Amazon’s paid advertising appears both on and off its parent site, making the feature incredibly popular with e-commerce retailers. Another advantage of Amazon’s paid ads is buyer intent. Searchers on Facebook and Google aren’t necessarily seeking out a particular product; Amazon buyers are.
YouTube Bumper Videos
Paid search teams are tapping into the power of video ads. These types of ads can be created at affordable prices and offer a fantastic opportunity to raise brand awareness. Google’s latest video marketing tool, Bumper Machine from YouTube, will be able to automatically create 6-second “bumper” ads from longer clips, making it simpler and more efficient to cut a produced clip down to its most important elements.
Smart Bidding Advances
Smart Bidding is a machine learning-controlled automated bidding system, meant to optimize conversions and conversion values in auctions. Enhanced Cost-Per-Click (CPC), Target Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS), and other Smart Bidding tools are pushing manual bidding aside. As the popularity of Smart Bidding and associated tools continues to rise, strategy and semantics will play a key role in staying ahead of paid search trends.
The Advantages of Increased PPC Automation
PPC automation provides a powerful way to improve and monitor campaign performance, and major brands have funneled a vast amount of resources into perfecting it. To ensure that your automation efforts are maximized, support them with high-level copy and target marketing. Automating large chunks of a PPC campaign can be hugely beneficial in terms of time and resources, but remember to do some quality checks from time to time in order to remain in control of your campaigns and their results.
PPC Matters—Now More Than Ever
Strategic thought leadership is becoming more valuable, especially in light of increased smart and automated options that take some manual control away from marketers. In the everchanging PPC landscape, a tight strategy will ensure high-level consistency. Artificial intelligence and smart technology options can only rely upon computed logic, which goes a long way but can miss the mark without human guidance. The happy medium lies at the intersection of tech and humanity, with marketers relying both on emerging trends and consumer preferences to take their PPC strategies to the next level.
Stay Ahead of PPC Trends With Snap
Whether PPC is practically your brand’s middle name or your team is just getting up to speed on the latest pay-per-click changes and trends, consider partnering with an expert in 2020 to make sure that your content reaches the right audience. Contact Snap today to learn more about how we can use our PPC management expertise to maximize your budget and generate ROI.