PPC is an increasingly competitive channel, and to get the most of your ad budget, keeping up with trends is essential.
New PPC trends are emerging all the time, and it can be difficult to identify the ones that are worth prioritising.
So to save you the hassle, we’ve highlighted some key trends that will be worth keeping up with in 2023, starting with automation.
1. PPC Automation
PPC automation has emerged as a powerful, and now essential tool to improve campaign performance and drive better return on investment (ROI). If you’re not already utilising automation within your paid campaigns, it’s more than likely they are not performing as well as they could be.
But, it’s important to remember that a human approach to PPC automation is key (link). To make the most of it, you need to ‘help’ the algorithms and assist machines with their learning. For example, setting up accurate conversion tracking and producing high quality ad copy is a must.
Whilst automation will be doing a lot of the hard work, you’ll still be hands on with a campaign. With automation tools running a campaign alone, it’s likely that changes will be made that will not actually benefit your business. After all, nobody knows your business more than you.
With some hands-on changes and input, automation can save you valuable time and give you back the hours that could be used to improve your overall strategy.
2. Machine learning
Machine learning is considered a subset o f artificial intelligence (AI) is already having a major impact for many businesses. Machine learning can improve your PPC campaigns by helping you to predict things like CTR, the likelihood of a conversion, and the bids that will drive maximum traffic.
3. SEO and PPC in tandem
PPC and SEO go hand in hand in many instances, and there’s no doubt that results will be improved when integrating the two channels. In short, SEO can be improved by using PPC data to analyse top-performing ad copy, content and more.You can use PPC data to create content that will boost your ranking. PPC Auctions Insights data can help you to identify market opportunities.
Find out how your PPC data can fuel SEO campaigns here.
4. Smart Bidding
Smart bidding refers to PPC bid strategies that use machine learning to optimise for conversions or conversion value in every auction. Examples include Enhanced Cost-Per-Click (CPC), Target Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS), and Target Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA). Smart bidding will only become more powerful in 2023.
5. Voice Search
Smart homes and personal assistant speakers such as Siri, Alexa, Google Home and Cortana, are only getting more popular. More and more people are using voice search to find information and even make purchases. In fact, according to Statista, there will be 8 billion voice assistants in use worldwide by 2024.
So, if you’re not already optimising your online content for voice search, you could be missing opportunities to reach a lot of potential customers. We would recommend adopting a more conversational tone on your site, to suit voice searches. The same can apply to your PPC ad copy.
We’d also recommend updating FAQ pages and using long-tail keywords to align with voice searches.
5. Social media
Whilst Google and Facebook are still the ‘bread and butter’ of PPC advertising, you could look to expand your efforts across a variety of social channels in 2023. This is because the number of consumers using social platforms is only increasing, and is set to do so further next year.
6. Audience Targeting
Narrowing your audience down is essential, and will become even more important in 2023 as competition continues to rise. Audience targeting enables you to specify things like the age group, household income and relationship status of your target user.
You can also set ad preferences to exclude certain audiences that don’t match up to your service or product. You can use Google Ads to layer audiences on top of eachother, combining keyword targeting and demographic targeting to reach your ideal customer.
Privacy-focused audience targeting is more important than ever. Find out more on this here.
Get in touch with our PPC team
Do you have any questions or want advice from a PPC expert on your 2023 strategy? Feel free to get in touch with our London based PPC team today.