PPC automation has progressed a lot recently and we can now rely on many functionalities within the engine to do more of the manual, repetitive work. Google Ads’ has introduced many automated features such as smart campaigns, smart shopping, and dynamic search ads as well as many automated bidding strategies – with the intention to let advertisers work smarter, not harder.
Voice search for PPC has been a buzzword for the last 12 months but it’s one we can’t ignore since recent statistics show that by 2022, 50% of consumers will be using voice shopping. You can now see voice searches within search term reports, and they are easy to spot as they start with “OK, Google”, “Alexa” and “Hey Siri”. Advertisers are being encouraged to do this by opening out match types to capture the related traffic.
Cost per clicks (CPC) are on the rise. As unwelcoming as that sounds, this will continue in 2020. As search becomes more competitive, the organic listings are ranking lower down the search results and this encourages bigger advertisers to spend more, thus inflating costs for everyone else.
Diversifying your platform buying as a result of the increasing CPCs, advertisers are taking their money elsewhere – some of the obvious alternatives include Google Display Network, Google Shopping, Discovery campaigns, but also there is much more traction to social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
Artificial intelligence is becoming more accessible and Google’s data-driven ability to automate may be overwhelming for most advertisers, but Google are focusing their efforts on growing exposure for tools where you can create your algorithm to automate highly manual tasks of their own.
All Response Media viewpoint
2020 is going to be a pivotal year for PPC as tech giants invest more in advance technology to take control of PPC automation and artificial development. Last year was a great milestone for PPC buying: we were introduced by Google to the new ad formats, such as lead generation and gallery ads, the discovery campaign launch, and we also said goodbye to some long-standing metrics such as average ranking position. Bing also launched their new user interface and partnered with LinkedIn to target profiles. There was a lot of growth across the board.
Based on the above trends, we believe that advertisers need to be agile and ahead of the game with their media buying strategy. With rising CPCs, being open-minded to alternative channels is going to be crucial. Having a well-structured account will benefit when PPC automation progresses, which will allow bid strategies to do the heavy lifting to improve performance.
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