PPC Trends & Best Practices to Look Out For in 2021
1. The Rise of Automation
New to Automation? So this is how it works according to Google: Google Ads Smart Bidding and Smart Creative solutions use machine learning that analyzes millions of signals in real-time to show the right message, to the right customer, in the moments that matter.
So instead of having to spend time manually optimizing your ads or bidding, you can get better results faster with the help of automated solutions.
Advertisers might think that automation mostly revolves around automatic bidding strategies such as target CPA, maximize conversions, and more. But also be informed that automation can also save you time in optimizing your campaigns and generating reports.
Though manual bidding is still preferred by many, the introduction of automating stuff in your Google Ads campaigns means being more efficient when it comes to optimization, report generation in your campaigns. It is still important to consider that automation will still rely on your historical data for algorithms to work with.
Here are some samples that you can use automation with:
- Responsive Search Ads
When you create Responsive Search Ads, Google Ads ask you to input multiple variations of titles/headlines & description. And by using automation on your RSA, the algorithm will rotate your ads based on which ad copies are performing the best.
If you’re worried about the automation messing up with your titles & descriptions combinations, this is an easy fix as you can pin specific parts of your RSA. So make sure you pin the titles & descriptions that include the unique selling points of your services.
- Bidding Strategies:
As we mentioned above, there are a wide variety of bid strategies where you can use automation on. Just always remember that your campaigns should have enough data so the automation for bidding will be smooth.
Not sure what bidding strategies to use? Here’s a guide from Google.
2. Great Mobile Experience is Key
If you’re a business owner and have a website, it is important to take advantage of a great mobile experience if you wanted to succeed. It was suggested that if your brand or business wanted to succeed, a great mobile experience would play a great role in it. By great experience, a functioning, and accessible mobile website is key. So many business owners only check their desktop versions of their website, they forget to optimize the mobile side. Remember that lots of people are more on their mobile than on their desktops.
3. Analyze & Understand Your Audience and the Buyer’s Journey
As an advertiser, it’s very important to understand your target audience. And in 2021, it was suggested that successful advertisers will include and focus on their target audience on their advertising efforts & strategies. You should be always aligning your PPC marketing efforts with the buyer’s journey for 2021.
Think like your target customer and their methods when they are deciding to buy your product and services. Always consider the following things on the buyer’s journey:
- What your customers’ are searching for
- Where they interact
- And How long the actual buying process takes
4. Invest more in Facebook Video Ads
Facebook video ads are considered to have a larger reach organically and have a huge engagement rate compared to other ad formats and content. Video ads in general are more engaging compared to static image ads and can create an impact on your brand and can ensure that customers will indeed remember your brand compared to static images.
It’s not just engaging but also it can provide a chunk of information about your products & services to a wider audience!
So what makes it more compelling? Facebook video ads can appear in multiple places in Facebook such as news feeds, Facebook stories and they can even appear in longer video ads.
5. Get Your Hands on First-Party Data
Industry experts suggested that how data is sourced by everyone is about to be disrupted due to the restrictions of third-party cookies that are present across all browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Opera) and hugely impacts privacy policies. Advertisers will have to work and develop a strategy to maintain privacy compliance with their data. So it’s really important now for you as an advertiser to be in a position where you can recover a chunk of your traffic data.
6. Explore and Test New Ad Platforms and their Features
Being a good advertiser means testing new things and adapting to changes be it huge or small. If this means going out of your comfort zone, then so be it. If you’re just doing Google Ads before, maybe it’s time to explore and go out of your comfort zone and try doing Facebook and Instagram for advertising opportunities.
Remember that companies like Google and Facebook can change their advertising policies overnight that may impact your campaigns and there’s nothing you can do about it since, in the end, you’ll have to play by their rules. So, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket!
7. Deliver the Right and Perfect Ad Message
In 2021, it is really important not only to deliver your message right but to articulately deliver it as well. Perfecting your Ad copies will be more valuable than ever! Targeting the right audience isn’t always about numbers, it’s also about sending the right message.
You may have great products or services to offer but having a bad ad copy will throw away those opportunities of gaining customers (new & returning). So make sure you invest in perfecting this craft.