AdWords

Top six PPC trends we expect in 2019
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Top six PPC trends we expect in 2019

PPC, AdWords, Blog, Keyword Research

23 12, 2018

Top six PPC trends we expect in 2019

By Stephen|2019-01-30T21:20:46+00:00December 23rd, 2018|PPC, AdWords, Blog, Keyword Research|0 Comments

2018 was an exciting year in PPC advertising writes Digital Web World’s PPC Manager, Arun. We saw Amazon rise as the first place audiences search for products, AdWords rebrand to Google Ads and Bing launch a huge range of new advert features.

So, will 2019 have as many developments? In this blog we’ll explore some of the new features & trends that might come to PPC in 2019. If you are a PPC agency or want help with PPC marketing, read on.

Audiences rising in prevalence for PPC

Next year we expect to see that keywords will become less important to PPC as the primary focus to trigger delivery of adverts. We expect to see audiences becoming more and more important, quite simply if you’re not using them, you need to start now.

This development will go hand in hand with a move towards greater personalisation in the delivery of Adverts which will entail using other Data Collecting products on PPC channels. These Audience Networks will aid delivery Adverts to individuals that have previously shown an interest in your website or products that are similar to yours.

Automation not keywords

In 2018, we saw a move from many search engines towards Automation, this was key in Google’s Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) and in changes to Exact Match Keywords, symbolising a move away from the traditional manual management of PPC Campaigns.

We expect to see Bid Management & Keyword Variables become managed by the platform you are using for delivering campaigns. We’ll have to be keeping a closer eye on that Negative Keyword List!

Alternative Advertising Platforms for PPC – maximise visibility of your adverts

If you are a PPC agency, you know that traditionally Google is king for PPC. It still is, but we might see alternatives rise in popularity. A good example of this would be Amazon’s “Sponsored Product Ads” in 2018 it emerged as not only a viable platform but an essential one, especially for our B2C clients.

However, other platforms are realising updates that potentially might be just as game-changing.

Bing: Currently in beta, Bing Ads is testing local inventory adverts that display product stock availability nearby. (Currently in the US, but we expect to see this soon in the UK)
Facebook: Improved adverts to include a new instant storefront template format that can automatically generate a video with products personalised to users.
The return of Pinterest: New features allow users to buy directly from a product pin with price and inventory availability. Not only that, but they will also be able to make personalised product recommendations to users.
Google: Putting mobile first, Google’s local catalogue adverts feature local in-store availability and pricing in an easy scrollable mobile layout.

Credit for these insights (Lisa Raehsler, 2018)

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

So, this one is also referenced in my second entry, but it’s very important to mention. 2019 will be the year where we see roles change in PPC. AI is allowing any PPC marketer in a PPC agency to become more and more efficient. It means we can spend more time where we really need to drill down into the Performance Data we see from our campaigns. Allowing us to Leverage Automation for us to use new markets and Cross-Channel Strategies.

I personally think we are a quite a long way off from a completely automated AI advertising process, but it’s a key step in this direction. Maybe this will come in the future.

Cross-Channel advertising is the way forward for PPC

We expect to see more Cross Channel Advertising. Platforms are more aware than ever that we don’t just use Google or Facebook, we use them all, so delivering on multiple channels will be essential to successful advertising in the future.

We might see this through a tighter blend of social, search and e-commerce, which will deliver a more complete and engaging process. So using and delivering a coherent campaign will become essential.

New Adverts & Extensions

In 2018 we saw game-changing innovations in PPC. As a PPC agency, the announcement of RSA’s and other Ad types allowed us to target audiences in a completely different way. Using Googles’ AI, gave us an opportunity to identify which adverts were the most engaging with our target markets. In 2019, we expect to see these evolve, we anticipate it will include many other products within the Google marketplace. A current trial to keep a close eye on will be the rollout of “Local Services Ads” which has been gathering a lot of traction in the US.

For a PPC Manager in a PPC agency, these developments are gold dust, but it will ultimately mean that we have to create better and better copy for our campaigns. The insights that a client can provide are more important than ever as they are the experts and they have unique requirements about how we have to approach and satisfy their needs.

If you want to find out more about PPC and the trends we expect to see, subscribe to Digital Web World’s, newsletter below and we’ll send you an update from time to time. Otherwise, if you want to maximise your PPC in light of any of these trends, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your PPC agency.

This article was written by Arun who manages PPC for Digital Web World.

PPC Marketing £2 Made For Every £1 Spent Really?
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PPC Marketing £2 Made For Every £1 Spent Really?

PPC, AdWords, Blog, Keyword Research, Keywords, SEO

5 08, 2016

PPC Marketing £2 Made For Every £1 Spent Really?

By Stephen|2019-01-30T21:20:49+00:00August 5th, 2016|PPC, AdWords, Blog, Keyword Research, Keywords, SEO|0 Comments

PPC Marketing – Where Do You Make Your Money?

PPC Marketing – Jupiter Research a Forrester Research company said that 81% of users find their desired destination through a search engine. Broadly speaking, you need to be in the top of the SERP (search engine results page).

PPC marketing is still a relatively new concept and from the outside looking in it can look a bit daunting. What with it looking like a war zone with multiple companies trying to outbid each other on keywords to get their ads to the top. There are many more business not doing PPC Marketing than there are, so therefor Google and Microsoft stand to get even larger in size.

But its important to be aware of whether or not it is right for your business. There have been multiple success stories when it comes to PPC, but it has also seen its fair share of companies who haven’t seen success with the advertising platform.

I want to share with you some amazing statistics before I get into the good & bad of PPC Marketing.

When it comes to AdWords, businesses make an average of £2 in revenue for every £1 they spend PPC Marketing on the platform.

Organic results are 8.5x more likely to be clicked on than paid search results! However, PPC holds a slight edge in conversion rates, as paid search results are 1.5x more likely to convert into sales or email sign-ups for example than organic search. After all the average click-through rate for a Google ad is 3.16%

While those may be huge positives, let me share with you what I found to be the bad points of PPC……

The Bad

It can get very expensive

PPC Marketing costs money, after all its in the title Pay Per Click, you pay up every time someone clicks on your ads. Depending on your experience with the advertising medium it can appear like you are burning cash with no return on investment. So it is essential and good practise that you have defined objectives before you start. Keep your PPC objectives and strategy at the forefront of your mind. What is your CPC (Cost Per Click) target. Even then with the fact that you are bidding with hundreds of other companies for keywords – costs can still skyrocket if you want to see your ads in the top 3 of the first page in Google or Bing.

As an example, “Insurance” is the most expensive keyword at £55 per click! Now can you imagine if 100 people clicked on your ad. That would end up costing you £5500!

Of course this is all relative depending on the size of the business and how much a conversion is worth compared to the PPC spend. Another essential element of effective PPC management is knowing how much you are making in profit margin terms. The product or service you are advertising will have a profit and this should be included as a goal to measure against your PPC efforts.

Did you know, a YouTube homepage ad can cost on average £4,000!

Constant management

One thing a lot of companies don’t realise is the constant management required to run effective PPC Marketing campaigns. A lot of companies start out not knowing this fact and believe it is a set and forget job, burning cash and not achieving results in the process.

For small companies this can be a problem as they usually do not have the resources or time to allocate to manage PPC on an ongoing basis. Many get disillusioned and will say ‘it doesn’t work after trying it briefly’.

Keeping up to date

This almost ties into the previous point in some respect, as being on the ball with PPC Marketing will make sure you are aware of the latest updates and changes. Looking at AdWords for example and Google being Google, they are constantly updating the algorithms and if you are not aware of the changes until its too late, then your campaigns suffer. A good example is Google expanding the character limit for text ads. If you weren’t made aware of this, then you’ll be losing out as your competitors will be one step ahead of you, all because they are constantly aware of what Google have planned and act upon it.

The Good

Instant results over SEO

It’s a fact that SEO takes times before any improvements or changes take effect within the search engines. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, its not great if you are looking for results in a short space of time.

This is where PPC Marketing comes in! you can put together a campaign with ad groups, keywords and ads – set it live and the next morning see results from the get go. These may mainly be impressions and only a few clicks but results nonetheless. Getting these results instantly also enables you to make changes whereas you would have to wait for SEO to take effect before seeing if you need to make any improvements.

That’s not to say you should neglect SEO entirely, as they both go hand in hand in improving your visibility.

Data, data and more data!

Using AdWords as an example again, there is so much data you can pull from campaigns that help you make smarter decisions and optimise effectively. Data like quality score, average CPC, average position, impression share, % impressions lost and the rules around these.

As an example of how data heavy PPC Marketing can get, the Google Display Network serves about 180 billion impressions (views of an ad) each month, which is about 6 billion a day!

You can also pull data from Google Analytics to find out the effect the campaigns are having on traffic, bounce rate and new sessions.

Some may also see this as a negative because of the overwhelming amount of data, but I like to look at it in a positive way. The more data means the more opportunities you have to make smart decisions that improve your campaign and therefore improve click-through and conversion performance.

Specific Customer Targeting

This is great for businesses of any size, location and target market.

For example you can specify locations down to individual counties which is great for local businesses, this means you won’t waste money from clicks by individuals who are not in your location.

Another great feature is the ability to schedule when your ads are shown. Like the previous point, it helps to reduce click wastage by making sure your ads are shown when your target audience is at its most active.

Conclusion

I have aimed to provide a completely even view of the benefits & negatives of PPC Marketing, to summarise it works for some companies and others not so much. It requires diligence, understanding and real commitment to see true results that become conversions for your business.

If you find that the process puts you off, then we would love to help manage your PPC and show you just how successful it can be for your business. We have years of experience and proven results! If that interests you Click Here!

Some further reading we would recommend includes :

We are currently making an offer that will enable the

How To Do Keyword Research In 2016
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How To Do Keyword Research In 2016

Keyword Research, AdWords, Keywords, PPC, SEO

17 05, 2016

How To Do Keyword Research In 2016

By Stephen|2017-01-24T11:35:17+00:00May 17th, 2016|Keyword Research, AdWords, Keywords, PPC, SEO|0 Comments

Updated Practices For Keyword Research In 2016

One thing that won’t change for Inbound Marketing is keywords, but what has changed is how you effectively research and come up with a strategy for the right keywords that will drive traffic.

Keyword research in it’s simplest form is looking at when users input words and phrases into a search engine and taking that data, then forming it into a strategy of keywords that your website could rank for.

Let’s have a look today at how to effectively keyword research in 2016!

Understanding your business and the relevant topics associated with it

How much do you know about your business? If you struggle to answer this question then maybe you need to take a step back and understand your business a bit better before delving into keyword research.

What are the most important topics for your business that you want most users to find you by? Create a list of these 10 keys areas, as these will form the basis for coming up with more specific keywords at a later point.

Understanding your audience (and/or any customers you may have had) is key to knowing what keywords should be targeted. For example if you are a company that sells shoes and a customer who has made a purchase started the journey to that purchase by inputting red trainers into the search engine. That is a keyword you should use.

Of course finding that information is not easy. You need an analytics tool that will trawl through all the search data. The best tool I can recommend to you is Google Analytics, it’s free, comprehensive and will give you all the information you need to find and fine-tune the keywords your audience is using.

Starting to flesh out the keywords

Now that you have got your list of the 10 key areas of your business, it is time to identify and narrow down keywords for each of those areas. For example if one of the key areas of your business is SEO, one keyword you might use is backlinks as it is relevant to the topic of SEO. Another example (long-tail) may be search engine optimisation services.

Come up with 3 keywords for each key area you listed. Doing this will give you a good start at 30 keywords, enabling you to increase as your SEO efforts expand in the future.

A good practice is to put yourself in the customers shoes, use the search engine as if you were looking to buy a product/service you sell. Look at the results that appear and see if there are any keywords you can put to use.

Looking at the competition

Similar to understanding the business you are in. It is paramount that you know who your competition is. Get a list together of your main competitors and research each of them individually, using the search engines to discover any keywords that may be ranking well for them and improving upon it yourself.

Another good idea is to look at keywords that the competition may not be fully behind. These represent a great chance to rank well for keywords that are not being utilised by your competitors.

Make use of related search

A good way to find inspiration is using google’s related search feature at the bottom of the SERP (search engine results page). This is a great way to find keywords you may not have found or realised could be put to use.

I would recommend this strategy only if you are really struggling to meet that 30 keyword target as the related searches are sometimes not that consistent nor contain useful phrases.

Finalise that strategy

Using these updated practices for keyword research in 2016 I have mentioned above, you should be close to having a strategy in place that can be carried out onto your website.

Of course that doesn’t mean keyword research is over once the website has been optimised, it is a constantly evolving process that requires you to be on the ball the whole time. Continue looking at the competition and expanding the keyword goal every couple of months to rank well for even more keywords and boosting your website in the search engine rankings.

For more information on keyword research, visit our dedicated page on PPC

Image courtesy of patpitchaya/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Four Reasons Why Google AdWords Is Awesome
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Four Reasons Why Google AdWords Is Awesome

AdWords, Google, PPC

20 04, 2016

Four Reasons Why Google AdWords Is Awesome

By Stephen|2019-01-30T21:20:51+00:00April 20th, 2016|AdWords, Google, PPC|0 Comments

Google AdWords Is Awesome!

Whether you are running a campaign to get your brand noticed or are looking at getting conversions. Google AdWords is awesome for a variety of reasons. Almost any business can effectively run ad campaigns and the AdWords tool makes it the easiest and most powerful way to do so.

Now I’m not saying Google AdWords is the definitive be all and end all of ad platforms, because there is Bing Ads and that is also a great tool in it’s own right. There is good and bad in anything, and I want to share the positives of AdWords from my experience with it.

1. Faster And More Simple Than SEO

Usually to see results from performing SEO on a website, you could wait months before there are any changes (if any). For Search Engine Optimisation to take effect, a website needs to be well established and earn links and authority the right way.

In AdWords you see results fast and can get impressions almost immediately. It is also a good way of judging if a keyword is worth targeting in organic search. For faster results which enable you to improve performance on your site quicker than SEO, Google AdWords is your friend.

As for why it’s more simple to use. PPC can be set and forget, whilst SEO requires consistent management and changes to keep up with the ever changing nature of it. AdWords is a really simple tool to use and is in one place, whereas SEO takes place with a variety of different software and complex tasks that require some training to understand.

2. Powerful Statistics

AdWords includes many statistics which you can measure campaigns by. Google gives you the freedom to pick and choose what metrics should be measured, giving you information as to what each does.

You are able to look at graphs, compare metrics against each other, link with Google Analytics and much more…

One of the most useful metrics Google has is quality score. This is used to measure keywords and ads. It influences the page rank and the CPC (cost per click) of an ad. It can be one of the best ways Google allows you to measure PPC campaigns by.

Having a lot of metrics to work with is good for the continuous development of a PPC campaign and website, giving a general sense of where improvements could be made. A keyword might not be working, bounce-rate may be too high etc.

3. Ability To Specify Who Sees Your Ads

A great way to save money in a PPC campaign is to only show ads to your target audience and not receive any wasted clicks by users who are not in the same area as your business.

Google AdWords gives you the simple settings to change devices targeted, Geo location and the exclusion of IP’s to help avoid wasting campaign money and reach your intended targeted audience.

4. Ad Creation Tool Is A Breeze To Use

AdWords makes it simple and intuitive to create ads. It gives you the guidelines to follow so that your ad meets Google’s standards and can be shown. Character limits are made clear and the ad preview lets you see what your creation will look like on the SERP (Search engine results page). If the ad doesn’t perform well, AdWords makes it easy to go back and make changes whenever you like.

If text ads are not what you require, the same intuitive treatment is applied to display and mobile ads as well.

Summary

Whether you do SEO, PPC or both. Google AdWords give you the tools necessary to create PPC campaigns that get clicks and convert. Of course SEO can’t be forgotten and shouldn’t be, but working alongside AdWords can help you become a real authority in your niche.

This is not a paid promotion for Google, these are just my personal reasons as to why I think Google AdWords is awesome and that doesn’t mean to say I think it is the only platform you should use. Everything has it’s good and bad points.

Let me know what you think about Google AdWords?

If you need a link to Google AdWords then look no further:

https://www.google.co.uk/adwords/

Best Keyword Research Tools
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Best Keyword Research Tools

Keyword Research, AdWords, Keywords, PPC, SEO

31 03, 2016

Best Keyword Research Tools

By Stephen|2019-01-30T21:20:51+00:00March 31st, 2016|Keyword Research, AdWords, Keywords, PPC, SEO|0 Comments

As I talked about in my last post, Google’s algorithms have changed a lot over the years, no more is it just about keywords, but content and how good/relevant it is. Begging the question, what value do keywords hold now?

It’s true keywords don’t hold as much clout as they used to, but they are still required to help your content to appear relevant, which is what Google loves at this moment in time.

A lot of different factors come into play when researching keywords than just looking at exact-match keywords. Bounce-rates, expected CTR (click through rate) and volume of searches are just some of the areas that warrant attention before going ahead with a keyword.

What hasn’t changed is including the right keywords in meta descriptions, constantly monitoring and making judgments on your rankings and researching your competitors to get a sense of how they are performing on similar keywords.

3 Of The Best Keyword Research Tools Around:

WordStream

A great tool if you want thousands of results from a single search. WordStream gives you relative volume for each keyword, so you can see how many people are searching for that word and weigh up the pros and cons based on the data given. There are niche options and the ability to email all the keywords to you if required.

The only major problem with the WordStream tool is that relative volume is the only big metric that is analysable, which may not be enough for some users.

With WordStream you get 30 free searches with the keyword research tool, so there is no excuse to not give it a try. You may find it’s worth a great deal to your business.

Have a look: http://www.wordstream.com/keywords

Übersuggest

A free to use tool which is really simple but really effective. Übersuggest allows you to enter a word and pick the source (web, images, shopping, YouTube and news) and location from drop-down menus, if you are looking for something a little more specific. The results are laid out in alphabetic order, making it clearer for the reader.

But because it’s free tool, you don’t get any specific metrics or measurements in volume which may require a different tool if that is what you are looking for. Despite that being it’s only flaw, it is definitely one of the best tools on the market, it’s quick, easy-to-use, you get a ton of results and best of all it’s free!

Here is the link: https://ubersuggest.io/

Google

There are different keyword research tools that Google offer. They bring something different to the table and best of all they are free.

Google Trends (above) shows the interest of certain topics over periods of time. Great if you need to see when certain keywords are in “fashion” so you can plan your campaigns accordingly. It can go more specific if needed, with trends in different countries and the ability to look at categories. For a free tool it is great for looking at current hot trends in the market which you could use to your benefit.

https://www.google.co.uk/trends/

The second tool is Google’s Keyword Planner (below). For really in-depth analysis of search volumes, Keyword Planner is great for analysing your competitors for similar search queries to your own. It is mainly built with Google Adwords in mind, but that doesn’t stop it from being a great tool nonetheless.

Summary

There is a simple rule I think should be adhered to when it comes to researching keywords. Pick the words that have low competition and high volume of searches. Of course other factors help to come to a decision, but that simple sentence helps to put keyword research into perspective.

All round I feel I have picked a good mixture of the best keyword research tools available today, giving you a lot of options to find the right keywords for your meta tags, content, ads and many more.

What do you think are the best keyword research tools that are out there? Have you tried any of the tools I have mentioned above? What do you think? Have they been useful?

Leave a comment and let me know

Have you seen some of our other content on Digital Web World:

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