Applying new strategies and incorporating new features into your paid search campaigns is an effective way to improve performance. This article offers tips on how to develop your existing PPC strategy and bring it up to standard in 2020.
- Review your PPC budget
This is a task that should be done every year, as it allows you to look at what worked and perhaps what didn’t in the previous year, and allocate budget accordingly. No matter the size of your PPC budget you should ask the following questions:
- How much of the planned budget was spent for each PPC account and campaign?
- Should budget from poor performing campaigns be reallocated to other campaigns?
- Can we capture even more traffic from the best campaigns?
- Apply new features
Every year there are new PPC trends and focuses for marketers to consider – and in 2020 optimising audiences and ad extensions are the hot topics. New features (some in beta) in Google Ads and Microsoft Ads include:
- Gallery ads: These swipeable images will show at the top of the search results page.
- Image extensions: Add images to ad text to highlight your ad.
- Promotion extensions: A nice change for advertisers who usually use sitelinks or ad copy for promotions.
- Lead form extensions: Advertisers can collect leads directly from the paid ad.
- Associate audiences at campaign level: In Microsoft, Audience lists can be assigned at the campaign level as well as the ad-group level, saving time.
- Test new platforms
As well as the usual suspects – Google, Microsoft and Facebook – you should test out some of the other paid advertising channels.
- LinkedIn: The Facebook for businesses, LinkedIn is a perfect platform for targeting businesses and professionals.
- Pinterest: Ideal for advertising to females who are interested in consumer goods and products.
- Snapchat: This platform has a younger demographic (13 to 35) who will respond to video ads, filters and app installs.
- Optimise for mobile
Businesses should have both a desktop and a mobile paid ad strategy. Google Ads and Microsoft Ads will provide you with the data on the volume of traffic generated by each device – desktop, mobile, tablet or TV screens. You can use this information to decide if bids should be adjusted in campaigns based on device type.
- Use scripts
Scripts are a valuable tool for automating repetitive tasks in Google Ads accounts. PPC managers should learn how to use scripts in their PPC campaigns.