PPC is an ever growing and ever developing marketing channel that we just cant live without. For many businesses Google Ads is a gateway to give their company the push they need whilst they focus on the slower progress of SEO. As an Essex PPC Agency keeping up with the trends and changes within the world of PPC is vital to ensure our clients are kept up to date along with their Ad Accounts. These are just some of the trends we are seeing for 2023. Some look great and some well......
1. PPC Automation
Automation in the PPC world is growing and its been something that both Google and "some, not us" agencies are pushing. Automation allows Google to maximise the amount you spend with them whilst decreasing the work load for your agency. As always we like to avoid automation as much as possible as we have done years of A/B testing using our methods within our Essex PPC Agency and the results ae very clear that, Manual optimisation overrules automation 100%. Having said that, it can be a useful tool for small companies, with little budget in a niche market with no competiton. Having said this, with the latest changes in Automation and new features such as Negative Keyword Lists is something worth testing.
With the likes of Performance max campaigns now giving back some of the control it is a potentioal Ad type to look at. Whilst these changes are good they will still need the human touch to help guide the AI system to best perform for you.
Our Chelmsford PPC Account Managers will always start your campaigns with manual proccesses. This allows at least 30 days of data collection to establish your Ad rank, your cost per conversion, your cost per click and your click-through rate all of this data is incredibly important as it is what allows our PPC agency to make informed optimisations on the account. Only once we have this data would we consider split testing with Performance Max.
2. Machine learning
This term has been thrown around quiet a lot in the last 18 months. In short, Machine learning is a subset of Artificial Intelligence. It works by reading your data and then optimising elements such as bids based on these results. The more results, the more data and the more conversions....well, thats the idea. However it can also strangle your business and heavily reduce your clicks and impressions. On the other hand it can double your clicks and impressions. What is important is making sure the right consumer is seeing your Ad. The very basic concept of AI is to assist your PPC campaigns by helping you to predict things like CTR, how likely it is you get a conversion, and the cost per click that will drive maximum traffic.
3. SEO and PPC in tandem
Something we always advise, PPC and SEO should be ran together. Running PPC is great, it gets you instant traffic, brand awareness and the cogs moving. But PPC costs money and even our best account managers at our Essex PPC Agency can only reduce your costs so much. At the end of the day Google is a business looking to get as much money as possible from you. This is where SEO comes in. The better we improve your SEO the more organic clicks you get. Organic clicks are completely free and there is no better traffic to get. SEO is a slow'ish process. Almost every SEO agency we have looked at say 6-12 months. This is rubbish! That is purely down to putting in minimal work. The more work one puts in to SEO the better the results. For example; One of our clients hired us as their Chelmsford PPC Agency to manage their PPC and SEO on a very aggressive management plan. In two weeks we increased their organic clicks by 20%, Their top search terms from 7th to 4th on Google and their organic shopping clicks by 200%. In a two week period we put in roughly 110 hours of work! You will find most SEO packages you see online consist of the following 2 back links, 2 pages optimised, 2 blogs etc etc per month for about £600. That level of work is going to take 6-12 months to see anything. We dont even do packages that small because it is pointless. We want to get you results, properly and quickly and all we need to do? Put the time and effort in. Our most basic PPC package will see us put in at least 20 hours a month. Our most basic SEO packacge, 30-40 hours per month.
Now back to the comibination of the two, another reason these two go hand in hand is all to do with Ad Copy and Quality Score. Whilst we can get your PPC campaigns purring with the expertise of our Essex PPC Agency and Chelmsford PPC Agency. We are limited by your on-site content as to how Google ranks your Ad or Product and therefore dictating where you sit on google and how much you pay per click. Getting your SEO sorted on your site inturn lowers your costs on PPC. Our PPC Agency know exactly how to do this.
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4. Smart Bidding
Now, although we are against automation, this does not include Smart Bidding. smart bidding is just taking one small element of optimisation away from you but it does so in a positive manner, In short smart biding is a way of telling Google what you want from your money spent. There are different types of Smart Bidding, including:
- Enchance CPC - This is where depsite your maximum CPC google will increase this sometimes if they think that particular click is going to lead to a conversion.
- ROAS - This is a target where you tell Google how much money you want back for what you spend. For example you spend £100 per day you tell Google you want £500 in sales back. Great in theory but just because you want it, doesnt mean your going to get it!
- Target CPA - Similar to ROAs this is the smart bidding where you tell Google the maximum you want to spend to get a conversion.
As a company, our Essex PPC Agency will use Smart Bidding in over 90% of our campaigns.
5. Voice Search
Something that has been around for decades (in terms of accessibility) has become very popular in the last 4 years, Smart devices such as Alexa, Siri, Google home and, Cortana are gaining in populairty every year as we seek more convenience in our lives. More and more consumers are using voice search to find information and even make purchases.
This is something all Agenices should be considering when setting up Google Ads. To us it is not even a second though, Google gives kudos to ads that have a high Acccesibility score. This is a metric Google uses on Page Speed Index when giving your link, product or service its Quality score. We would recommend adopting a more conversational tone on your site, to suit voice searches. The same can apply to your PPC ad copy.
Its very important that when optimising on site, that long-tail keywords are used as voice search in general is more expressive then type searching.
5. Social media
Whilst our Essex PPC Agency focuses mainly on SEO and PPC, we dont shy away from The likes of Social Media advertising, whilst some believe Social Media is the way forward we are a little more cautious. After all the bulk of advertising on Facebook is done so by linking your Ad to a consumers interest. They are not searching for your product or service so are less likely to convert as the intent to purchae is not there. Interest and Intent are two very different fators. Having said that, for some busines types it has its place and is great for audience building and brand awareness. Ask one of Our Chelmsford PPC Agency account mangers where we would put your budget Google or Facebook and its going to be Google.
6. Audience Targeting
This is one of the best ways in which you can reduce your Ad spend without effecting your Conversions. Ensuring you have the right audience in front of your adverts is imperative to success. Typically this was done with Keywords and Search Terms to fish out any irrelevant searches in which your ads are showing up. Now though more audience sgments are being used to further filter down to the best audience possible, filters available include specifics such as 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.
Get in touch with our Essex PPC Agency
If you like what youve heard and looking to make a change thos year to your business then get in touch, We only agree to Act on behalf of 15 clients from any one of our bases be that our Essex PPC Agency, Witham PPC Agency or, Chelmsford PPC Agency. So gives us a shout and we will see what we can do to get your busines booming.
