Key PPC Trends for the Year Ahead
The PPC landscape saw some major changes in 2018, and there are more to come in the months ahead. Is your PPC strategy moving with the times?
The last 12 months have been hectic ones in the world of PPC marketing. Google gave its whole PPC functionality something of a shake up, with a rebranded Google Ads replacing Adwords, and being accompanied by a range of new PPC tools. Not to be left behind, Bing also made some profound changes, while Amazon progressed its service offering to become a genuine and viable competitor to Google in the PPC space.
Some, but by no means all, of these changes were things we could see coming at the beginning of 2018. 12 months on, a growing PPC agency in Colchester has decided to dust off the crystal ball to see if we can predict what new dramas 2019 has in store.
Audience targeting
Every year, a core of SEO experts comes out and announces the end of the keyword age. Some are saying the same for 2019, but to suggest that keywords will become obsolete is taking things a little far. They will always remain a fundamental aspect to PPC, but the real point is that businesses can no longer base their strategies on keywords alone. Audience targeting and segmentation is going to be core to success – but this needs to strategically compliment, not replace, conventional keyword methodology.
Automation
The rise of AI was one of the hot topics of 2018, and it goes without saying that it will continue to change the technological landscape in the months ahead, in ways we can only begin to contemplate. In PPC, Google has put lots of time and research dollars into the automation and smart ads with which we are already becoming familiar. Naturally, where Google leads, Bing and the rest will follow, so it is a case of when, not if, AI takes centre stage. This doesn’t mean human PPC work is consigned to history, however. Like all forms of AI, automated bid management, keyword optimisation and the like are tools that SEO and PPC consultants can use to free up time for more strategic activities.
Cross-channel experiences
In 2019, omnichannel is likely to become one of the biggest buzzwords. Today’s users operate across different channels via a range of platforms. The challenge is to create a coordinated approach that does not just cover each channel individually, but in which the channels interact and feed off one another. To stay on top, marketers will need to ditch the siloed approach and adopt more of a grand unified theory of PPC in the year ahead.
The power of video
Social hits are becoming increasingly prevalent on SERPs, and over the past year, video emerged at the most popular type of mobile content. Incorporating some form of video media into a search campaign is something that is no longer optional, so expect such tools as Google’s new vertical video ads to take on increasing significance over the months ahead.