The Pay Per Click industry is constantly changing and those working in the field know how much truth is in the “adapt or die” message. Campaign automation, increased competition (and costs), and tracking restrictions are just some of the painful topics for those who have been working in the field for many years. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

What are the top PPC trends in 2020 and how can you use them to your favor?

 

1. Increased competition and CPC on the search network

A trend based more on logic than on assumptions, is the natural increase of the number of competitors who run auctions and automatically, the increase of the keyword CPC.

The annual search graph shows a moderate increase or even stagnation in the Google search volume in recent years. This means we will have more competitors bidding on the same number of keywords.

How do we prepare? If we want to keep our paid search traffic level, then we should adjust our budgets for 2020. If we are open to long-term solutions, we should also explore other ways for acquiring customers, such as campaigns on the display network (with a focus on video), content marketing, influencer marketing, and the creation of exceptional customer services which turn customers into unpaid brand ambassadors. Want to learn more? Book your seat in time for our next Google Ads course.

 

2. Automation and artificial intelligence

Yes, we know. Everyone talks about automation and AI, but few know what to do with them. Not everything that is automated is more efficient, just as not everything that is thought of and applied by humans is better.

Repetitive tasks which do not add extra value to our work are the first we should delegate to our friends, the robots. How can we do that?

• There are already many types of automated campaigns and smart bidding options. Our recommendation would be to test them before you decide to adopt them in the long run. How? By creating an experiment where you run 2 campaigns with different strategies (for example, Target Impression Share versus Manual CPC).
• In Google Ads we have the ability to install scripts to help us quickly control budgets, important indicators, or 404 links on the site. Here is a list of predefined ones ready to go into the account.
• Something less complicated that you should consider are the automatic rules, which help us keep track of important aspects of Google Ads campaigns.
• For Facebook campaigns, we use automatic platform-specific rules.
• There are several tools on the market that are used by AI to make decisions in our place. Not all add value, so we must learn to recognize those that are truly relevant to us. Some examples to test out: Optmyzr, Adalysis, Ad Espresso.

 

3. Focus on optimizing the conversion rate of the site

If, so far, conversion rate optimization had been a nice thing to have, then by 2020 it should become mandatory for those who want to grow/not be out of competition. We can use tools like Omniconvert, Hotjar, or Google Optimize to grow this area.

But more than optimizing the conversion rate, our focus should be on the post-conversion stage; namely, optimizing the customer experience. Before we come up with objections that this objective is not the responsibility of the PPC, let us not forget that the tasks that are ‘purely PPC’ are gradually diminished as automation progresses. Thus, acquiring an overview, strategic thinking, and an open (and curious) mind will be the most coveted skills of a PPC specialist.

 

4. Google Data Studio

Data Studio is a tool used to quickly (and beautifully) create custom reports based on the goals pursued by each client.

With each update, new features appear that help us analyze the data in more depth, thus being able to reach relevant conclusions that we wouldn’t have found that easily if we had only used Excel. Among the options offered by Data Studio are data collection from over 180 sources (Google services and partner platforms), reporting templates, data modeling, conditional formatting, and more.

In addition to the major advantage of efficient working time, the risk of errors caused by manually adding the data decreases.

Learn more about optimising your PPC campaigns and other useful information by joining our next Google Ads course.