Without the right PPC marketing tools, essential tasks including bid adjustments, updating ad copy and gathering key data for reporting could take up valuable time.
Luckily, there are many online tools available to ensure there is less time spent on those tasks.
In this post, we are going to go over our recommended automation tools that every PPC marketer could benefit from using alongside other tasks day-to-day.
What is PPC automation?
In short, PPC automation allows digital marketers to control their campaigns via machine learning. This means there is no need to spend countless hours updating scope, timing and targeting manually.
PPC automation can refer to any tool that takes a manual task, and essentially has a computer do it for you (bid adjusting, data pulling, ad copy changes etc). Whilst there is still a lot of work to do manually, PPC automation simply allows more time to develop a successful long-term strategy by handling those otherwise time-consuming tasks.
So, which automation tools do we recommend?
We recommend introducing the following automation tools to your workflow. All of the below recommendations can be used free of charge and are likely to benefit any business using paid marketing methods:
Google Data Studio
In our opinion, one key tool for any PPC marketer is Google Data Studio. This is an online tool that can solve two common PPC problems at once; the time taken to compile reporting data, and the time taken trying to present this data in the most simple and understandable way.
Google Data Studio enables its users to pull live data and present it quickly and clearly to clients or colleagues. It also offers multiple options when it comes to how you choose to display your data. This includes different tables, graphs, colours and much more.
Read more on Data Studio here.
Google Ads Editor
If you work in PPC, you’ll already be familiar with Google Ads Editor. This is an invaluable PPC tool that helps with those often monotonous tasks that can come with pay per click.
Google Ads Editor allows you to easily update headlines and CTAs within your PPC ad copy. This process involves performing a simple ‘find and replace’ to change multiple ads at once. This can be very useful if a product changes or there is a new unique selling point (USP) that you want to draw attention to within multiple ads or campaigns.
We would recommend using Google Ads Editor for things like holiday promotions and other timely sales. For example, you may need to add 200+ new ads for a temporary holiday sale, which you can quickly do in bulk using the tool. You can use this for Christmas promotions, Black Friday and more.
If you want to copy a PPC campaign’s ad schedule across an account, you can also quickly do this using Google Ads Editor. Essentially, without this PPC automation tool, it would be very tricky (and time-consuming) to manage multiple large accounts.
If you’re just getting started in the world of PPC and need to manage those menial yet important changes that are needed across ad groups and campaigns, you’ll definitely benefit from Google Ads Editor.
Read more on GA Editor here.
Google Automated Rules
Google Rules is a feature within Google Ads that can, again, help with those tasks that are crucial but time-sensitive. This feature lets you make changes in your account automatically, based on settings and conditions that you choose yourself. You can change your ad status, ad budget, bids and more. For example, you may want to boost your keyword bid each time your ad falls off the first page of search results – this can be done within the tool.
If you have a specific cost-per-click that you don’t want to overtake, you can create a rule that simply pauses keywords once they go above that CPC threshold.
We also use Rules for time-sensitive ads and seasonal promotions. When the sale is set to end, you can set up a rule to pause your ads at 11:59 on that specific date, so you don’t have to stay up and pause them manually!
Read more on this here.
Automated Bidding Strategies
Automated bidding strategies essentially take the heavy lifting out of setting bids to meet performance goals. There is no need to spend time updating bids for specific groups or keywords, like there is with manual CPC bidding.
Google Ads can automatically set bids for your PPC ad based on an ad’s likelihood to result in a click or conversion, helping to achieve a specific goal/s for your business.
Different types of automated bidding strategies can be used to meet those objectives, whether that’s increasing clicks, visibility or driving maximum conversions etc.
Automated bidding strategies do not only free up valuable time that would be spent adjusting bids for all of your keywords, but they can also drastically improve the overall performance of the account when set up in the correct way.
Need help navigating PPC tools?
If you need help navigating any of the above tools or want someone to step in and maximise PPC campaign performance, feel free to get in touch with our PPC team.