The ever-changing landscape of Google Ads can leave PPC professionals on the edge of their seats as they await the next announcement. Privacy and automation are two trends for 2020 that will have a direct impact on PPC campaigns. Let’s delve deeper…
User trust
Users are becoming more focused on the privacy of their data and who is using it, and what for. The expectation is to be able to enjoy the browsing experience, which is more personalised for them, whilst feeling that their privacy is respected. Google will be building technology to meet these needs. But what impact will privacy concerns have on advertisers attempting to transfer user data into search engines?
The thought of having your life listened to or watched is a scary one, and many people worry about using open WiFi accounts, uploading their photos to the cloud and being watched by their webcams as they browse online. Google expects to introduce federated learning, whereby users’ private data can be kept secure locally in some sort of cloud rather than being uploaded to an unknown space. Machine learning will be responsible for this change.
Automation
Many PPC advertisers are sceptical about machine learning’s ability to assist with their PPC campaigns. Automation can help create great ad copy, so it is likely that humans and machines will have to work together, with machines offering suggestions and humans editing and using the suggestions as they see fit. The same goes for other powerful automations that will see machines helping to get certain jobs done more quickly, whilst the PPC team focuses on strategy and other aspects that machines can’t. Every automated task will save advertisers valuable time, freeing them up for other work. Automation layering is the term that means advertisers will collaborate with machine learning to maximise performance.
In the next two to five years, PPC professionals will be using automation, whether they like it or not, to evolve and improve their campaigns.
Conclusion
By respecting users’ privacy and understanding and acknowledging machine learning, PPC advertisers can continue to improve their campaigns. Automation is complicated and is still in its early phase, but the sooner humans accept that the PPC landscape is evolving, the sooner they can figure out how to work alongside machines for everyone’s benefit.
Do you have any comments on PPC automation or data privacy? Please leave them below.