The pay-per-click (PPC) industry can help you considerably increase your business revenue, especially if you keep up with the newest PPC trends and updates. However, with new trends appearing all the time, it can be difficult to tell which ones are worthwhile as you want to be sure you’re getting the most out of your advertising budget.
From business marketers to independent start-ups, anyone who wants to develop a thriving online platform must devote time and effort to staying on top of PPC trends.
And in order to help you in your journey toward PPC success, we’ve put together a list of the top trends to follow. Let’s get started.
What is pay-per-click (PPC)?
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a type of digital advertising in which businesses pay when users click on their ads.
It’s all about relevancy in PPC. At every given time, users are looking for products, services, and info. Advertisers can present pay-per-click ads at the precise moment this search is taking place.
You must pay a fee to the search engine every time a user clicks (which leads them to your website, landing page, or lead form). When PPC is working properly, the charge can be more worthwhile than what you paid for it.
The biggest platforms where marketers can run PPC ads are:
12 PPC trends to follow
1. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving at a rapid pace and is soon becoming a key component of a successful PPC campaign. PPC marketing benefits from AI in a variety of ways, from optimising ineffective keywords to assessing ad performance.
AI is a PPC trend to keep an eye on, whether it gives diagnostics insights or recommends relevant lengthy keywords. Even experts predict that AI will see wider use in the future to improve PPC campaigns in a plethora of ways.
2. Virtual Reality (VR)
More and more people are warming up to the idea of virtual reality. And as a result of that, numerous eCommerce brands are starting to implement it in innovative ways to improve the shopping experience of their customers.
Say, for instance, you plan on buying a new couch to fill up all that empty space in your living room. Brands can use VR filters on your phone camera to give you an idea of how a certain couch of theirs will look in your room.
In other words, you can have a good idea of what to buy or not from the comfort of your home.
And such a unique selling point can make for a great call to action (CTA) button for your PPC ads.
3. Automation
PPC automation has proven to be an effective technique to boost ad campaigns. Google, for example, has spent a significant amount of money on its automation tools.
To get the most out of PPC automation, you’ll need to make the algorithms work for you and help the computers adapt. Conversion tracking should be accurate and efficient, and a strong ad copy should be prepared. Make sure you know who your target audience is and what keywords they use.
4. PPC trends: Smart bidding
Smart bidding is an automated bidding system that is managed by machine learning. It optimises conversions and conversion rates in auctions using machine learning. Enhanced Cost-Per-Click (CPC), Target Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA), and Target Return on Advertising Spend are a few examples (ROAS).
Smart bidding will only get more effective as we move forward, and strategies that use it will become more common. It’s possible that manual bidding will become a distant memory. This isn’t necessarily a terrible thing because it will free up time for marketers to focus on things like strategy.
5. Social media
As of 2022, in the UK, there are around 53 million active social media users, accounting for 77.9% of the population. So, you’re totally missing out if you’re not incorporating social media into your PPC campaigns.
The majority of people use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest on a daily basis. And many of them, particularly the younger ones, use various platforms all at once.
This means that PPC advertisers should pay more attention to these platforms and, consequently, the advertising potential that comes with them. As most users are on multiple social media platforms, you’ll want to take advantage of this trend.
While a platform like Google is considered the backbone of paid advertising, you should aim to broaden your horizons and analytics to other social platforms, which takes us to our next point.
6. TikTok
For a long time, social media has been the best venue for PPC advertising, with Facebook and Instagram dominating the social media sector. That is until TikTok appeared.
TikTok is still growing and appears to be here to stay. With the ability to easily communicate with audiences, this fascinating social media platform provides amazing prospects for PPC marketing.
To further emphasise TikTok’s breakthrough into marketing, the company announced a partnership with Shopify to simplify the advertising process for corporate marketing initiatives.
And one great thing about advertising on TikTok is the fact that the algorithm of the platform doesn’t just pick the highest bidder. It also takes into account the quality of the ads. This means that even if you don’t have the greatest budget out there, you can still make something out of it.
Additionally, considering how effective short-form video advertising is, it can really be worth your money and energy if you expand your campaigns to TikTok since it’s the king of such content.
7. PPC trends: Amazon’s paid advertising
Although Google and Facebook continue to lead the sector of paid advertising, Amazon is close behind. They’ve risen to become the third-largest and fastest-growing advertiser in the world. Amazon’s advantage is that its ads are appearing both on and off its website, which has boosted its popularity among online vendors.
Buyer interest is their most significant advantage versus Facebook and Google. While Facebook and Google have the largest audiences, users aren’t usually looking for something to buy. This could indicate reduced conversions on these platforms when compared to Amazon’s obvious purchaser intent. As a result, you may be paying more for less.
8. Boosting Google ads ROI with lead tracking software
Several companies rely solely on Google Ads to give the best advertising outcomes, believing that the platform will suffice in delivering profitable conversion rates. Google Ads is a powerful PPC digital platform and a wise investment. But did you realise that lead tracking software can boost Google Ads ROI?
Yes, you could get by using no lead tracking software, but what if you could improve your Google Ads ROI using lead tracking software? With it, you can view individual lead statistics and deliver quotable leads back to Google Ads.
Gathering personal data and collaborating with Google Ads to acquire good PPC conversions that would have been overlooked otherwise is a benefit that will surely become a PPC trend.
9. Audience targeting
The option to add target audiences is one of Google Ads’ newest features. This reduces the number of people who see your advertisements. Using this function will help you get the most out of your advertising budget.
You can target your product to a specific age group or family income level using audience targeting. You can even create ad settings to exclude audiences that you don’t think will be interested.
So, it comes as no surprise that more and more marketers are focusing more on their target audiences instead of solely focusing on keywords, for instance. After all, segmenting your audience and targeting them are two elements that you can control.
10. PPC trends: Voice search
Personal assistant speakers and smart homes like Siri, Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa Dot have exploded in popularity. Paid voice search advertising has not really hit the mainstream yet, but thanks to rapid technological improvements, it’s almost inevitable that we’ll see this technology surface soon. The best you can do for now is start preparing some future strategies.
Adopting a more conversational style on your website is a fantastic way to get ahead of the competition. People are more interactive while conducting voice searches, so you’ll have a better chance of getting results.
11. Visual searching
Instead of utilising text, visual search uses an image as the “keyword” search. For instance, if you take a photo of a necklace you like, the visual search will provide links to where you can purchase it.
Everyone keeps seeking faster results now more than ever, and visual search allows them to find exactly what they’re looking for in less time than when typing.
While the technology is still in its early stages, considerable advancements are expected in the upcoming years. Create a photo library of your products and services to remain a step ahead of this trend.
12. First-party data
In the last couple of years, we have witnessed an increased focus on everything privacy and data protection. So, collecting data about your customers through third-party means is only going to get harder.
It should then come as no surprise that more and more brands are focusing on getting their data directly from customers through emails and the like. If something this major isn’t on your agenda yet, add it.
Conclusion
As is the case with every coming year, there are new and promising trends that marketers could follow. And while they get the job done if you do them properly, it is always important to stick to your fundamentals.
What we mean by fundamentals is elements such as your keywords, target audience, automation, and more. The sort of trends that never go out of trend, basically. As for the ones that are continuously changing, we recommend that you rely on the ones that work best for your business.
For instance, our example of how you can use virtual reality as a tool in the furniture business doesn’t really hold its ground with other industries.
Let us keep track of new trends for you
Paid advertising is all about keeping track of new marketing trends. If you’re too busy to handle that yourself, we can help. Just book a discovery call with us today!
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