The year 2018 was impactful for marketing campaigns and PPC strategies. There were massive changes in Google, such as the change of name from AdWords to Google Ads; the new “experience” of Google Ads (the interface); and the launch of numerous types of new campaigns, features, improvements, targeting options and tools.
What has 2019 reserved for PPC strategy sellers? Last year, some of the most popular trends were artificial intelligence, voice search, audience focus, and automation. However, in 2019 there are two trends in everyone’s mind: audiences and automation but this is only the beginning.
In this article, we will tell you the 10 most important trends that you need to know this year to carry out successful PPC strategies and campaigns, which include: paid searches, paid social media guidelines and remarketing, according to several marketing experts and PPC campaigns.
1. Audiences, not keywords
Aaron Levy of Elite SEM believes that 2019 will be the beginning of the end for the use of keywords, as advertisers change the focus from ‘types and terms’ to ‘context and people.’
“A lot of time has passed; the search engines have given us too many extra levers to work along with the keywords,” said Levy. In addition, the expert states: “I think this year will be the beginning of the end of keywords as primary elements of search.”
On the other hand, Andrew Lolk of SavvyRevenue said: “If you are not using audiences, you are doing poor PPC” and adds: “The keywords will be important, but the target audience in the search network in 2019 will be of equal importance to ensure high performance.”
But what will keep separating the best marketing professionals in the media search engines will be how audience data is divided and implemented through a strategy of audience segmentation, says Christi Olson, Director in Microsoft.
2. Automation + Human Intelligence
Automation is already here and we recommend that all PPC campaigns should apply it.
In fact, the trend we’re seeing from search engines is more automation, said Frederick Vallaeys, CEO of Optmyzr. “Google said that their search ads should be ads that work for everyone,” says Vallaeys. In addition, the expert adds: “They believe that automation makes it possible for more businesses to be successful in terms of sales through search engines so we will see more intelligent Google features, and Bing will continue in the same direction.”
This does not mean that people have to worry about being replaced by a machine, at least not yet. “It will not be a race of humans against machines,” added Vallamy from Optmyzr: “It will be a race to see which experts in successful PPC campaigns have the best process to take advantage of the machines and eliminate their competition. “
We see that the evaluation to automate the systems will be incredibly important in 2019 and beyond.
3. Amazon and advertising alternatives
It will be more important than ever for marketers to diversify their spending on PPC strategies over the next year, according to Wesley MacLaggan, Senior Marketing Vice President at Marin Software.
“We expect Amazon will continue its successful run in 2019, and that sponsored product announcements and other formats are a key aspect for the success of PPC campaigns, especially for CPG brands and retailers,” says MacLaggan.
Lisa Raehsler, founder of Big Click Co. said that 2019 would be an incredible year for e-commerce brands because they will have more opportunities to reach buyers with greater customization and detail:
Bing: it is currently in a pilot phase with Bing Ads and its testing local inventory ads that show the availability of nearby products for visits to stores.
Facebook: ads improved to include a new template format for the instant store that can automatically generate a video with personalized products for users.
Pinterest: the new features allow users to buy a product directly from a pin that includes price and availability of inventory. Not only that, but you can also make personalized recommendations of products to users.
Google: putting the mobile design first, the local Google catalog ads offer availability and prices in stores in an easy to move design.
4. Account management and the role of marketing professionals in PPC strategies
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionize PPC strategies, according to Marc Poirier, CEO of Acquisio, but campaign managers do not run out of work.
“In fact, PPC campaign managers can now carry out their own machine learning battles to select which system will get the best results for their customers’ -or companies- campaigns,” says Poirier.
Susan Wenograd, account manager at Aimclear, points out that while you are handling all the data and numbers for a campaign, never forget: “You’re a salesperson! Keep sharpening that skill. You will stay ahead of the game because you will not care what algorithms change or what features disappear since you are not so dependent on them.”
5. Attribution and experiences of advertising through crossed channels
More and more companies are adopting the idea that we live in a multiple channel world and that they advertise (or market) across multiple platforms more than ever, said Michelle Morgan, Director of Customer Services of Clix Marketing.
That’s why Amy Bishop, owner of Cultivative, hopes that more attention will be given to the cross-attribution between channels and devices. “It is becoming easier to create well-coordinated multichannel campaigns, but information silos continue to be a challenge for many companies,” says Bishop.
The problem?
There is still no perfect solution, said Morgan of Clix Marketing.
The solution?
“Continuously adjust models based on performance,” said Morgan.
In addition, Michelle Morgan added: “No attribution model makes sense for every business, so it is up to all of us to find what works best for our unique business model.” One solution comes from Pete Kluge, manager of Adobe Advertising Cloud. He believes that marketing experts should strive to offer advertising experiences in 2019.
6. Ads
The messages that users see, the ads themselves, will continue to be as important as ever. “The use of RSA, text ads, the third headline (it is debatable whether you should skip the line or not), and really looking at the cohesion of your advertising message,” said Geddes.
Pauline Jakober, Founder and CEO of the company Group Twenty Seven, added: “In addition, with multiple headline versions and descriptions available to us, I predict that strategic marketers will need to be more deliberate in considering whether headlines one, two and three will work with lines one and two. (And do not forget the extensions!) “.
7. Video
WordStream’s Hopkins said that social conquests (specifically through video) should be included in marketing strategies, as they increase placements on the search engine result pages (SERP).
“Even if you do not want to invest in video advertising (the average cost per view is $ 0.02), you can take YouTube as a target audience for search campaigns,” says the expert.
This is particularly useful if you are in an expensive industry and need help to focus on the budget. Gilbert de Brainlabs added that video has emerged as the most important type of mobile content: “We will see platforms that encourage advertisers to adapt to more updates such as Google’s recent video vertical ads,” he concludes.
8. Remarketing
Larry Kim, CEO of MobileMonkey, said that the year 2019 will focus exclusively on remarketing. Why? “Because they have CTR and much higher conversion rates.” Remarketing has also been combined with the Facebook Click to Message ad format. “Combining these two tactics yields a return on investment that I had not seen since 2013, when the prices of the ads were much lower,” Kim added.
9. Brand elaboration
2019 will be a year of brand creation, according to Jeff Allen, president of Hanapin Marketing. “PPC campaigns have been so focused on ROI that they forget that marketing also has to do with creating demand for a product and, hopefully, creating brand loyalty,” Allen said.
In addition, the president of Hanapin Marketing said: “From the screen to YouTube, to keeping some generic keywords of low performance running… Digital marketing in 2019 will stop trying to make each click profitable and will begin to segment the strategies by objectives”.
“The platforms and tactics will go come and go with a focus to prioritize the empathy and loyalty of the brand so that it will stand longer through time,” Wenograd added.
10. New types of ads, extensions, and features
It is clear that 2019 will come with several known secrets for campaign vendors and PPC strategies. That is, we know that there will be several types of announcements, reports and new tools, but we still do not know exactly what type.
What do we know? “Local service announcements will be disseminated throughout the country and to other industries. We can expect to see a change in the volume of queries from the standard keyword to the text ad and the landing page process, and start thinking about opportunities based on location and conversion,” said Levy.
“I hope that the ads begin to impregnate other angles in Google and Bing such as maps, knowledge panels, answer boxes, etc., as Google begins to monetize the ‘zero position’ and encourage advertisers to keep their users in the SERP “.
In the end, however, that is what makes marketing through PPC campaigns so challenging and so rewarding. If you want to successfully work with PPC strategies, we invite you to read more in our Synapse Ads blog where we have more information about campaigns and digital marketing strategy. Also, you could try our Keyword Mixer, which will help you optimize your keyword strategy.
