Welcome to Cultivative’s weekly roundup for all things PPC from around the web—everything you need to know right now about PPC!
At Cultivative, we’re all about making your life easier. We’ve gathered the top PPC news and innovations from around the web and getting it into your hands. Check out what we found this past week.
5 PPC Strategies to Test in 2019
By Michelle Morgan | Jan 2, 2019
If you’re inspired by the new year, you might want to test these five strategies in your PPC approach. Besides, with the ever-changing PPC landscape, if you don’t try new things, you may get left behind! New strategies for you to test as we begin 2019 include:
- Test a new channel– Look beyond Google and Bing; Quora seems particularly promising.
- Map conversion actions– chart out where your CTAs fit in the buyer funnel and map those into your campaigns accordingly. Then, fill in the gaps that are missing.
- Segment retargeting lists by date ranges
- Leverage audiences in campaigns
- Test automating a portion of your account– consider applying to keywords and ads, bidding strategies, and automated rules.
What makes people click on search ads?
By Ginny Marvin | Jan 2, 2019
Ginny Marvin examines a new survey from Clutch that sets out to answer what makes people knowingly click on search ads across Google, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon. The survey results point to the clear need to connect ad copy to the query. Highlights from the 506 people surveyed who had clicked on a paid search ad in the past month, with 75% responding that the ads make it easier to find the information they’re looking for:
-Answered a search query: 33%
-Mentioned a familiar brand: 26%
-Are listed above other search results: 20%
-Have compelling description, title, or image: 19%
New Year, New You(Tube): Creating a Robust YouTube Ad Strategy for 2019
By Andrew Harder | Jan 2, 2019
If you’re considering adding YouTube to your PPC strategy, Andrew Harder walks you through a few practical steps that will get you closer to a complete and effective TrueView in-stream ads strategy. He goes in depth on selecting the creative, campaign specifics, audience targeting, and remarketing. He gives you all the info you need to launch your first TrueView campaign or enhance what you’re currently doing.
Google Shopping is largest growth opportunity for most online retailers in 2019
By Andy Taylor | Jan 2, 2019
Andy Taylor makes a solid argument for why Google Shopping holds the largest growth opportunities for online advertisers in his analysis of the preceding year’s quarterly trends. Based on those trends, he predicts that Google Shopping will continue to be the biggest Google paid search growth opportunity for most online retailers. He recommends that brands invest time and resources into feed management and proven campaign optimization tactics like query mapping. He also suggests that advertisers also need to be taking advantage of new Shopping format variations to ensure they appear for as many relevant queries as possible.
How Mastering User Psychology (Breadcrumb Technique) Boosts Conversions
By Jonathan Dane | Jan 3, 2019
On top of a technically optimized landing page for engagement, your form should be a seamless extension of your sales message. In fact, it should act as a guide that leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for users to follow and use as a basis for taking action. “The Breadcrumb Technique” throws out the common CRO wisdom (paring down your form will inevitably improve conversions). Instead, if you start with qualifying but anonymous questions, you can take your lead through your conversion process without resorting to a high-pressure sale. Especially when you apply user psychology to the equation. Jonathan Dane walks you through 7 ways the Breadcrumb Technique may boost conversions in your next campaign.
Bounce Rate: What It Is & Why Dwell Time Matters More
By Pam Neely | Jan 3, 2019
In an examination of bounce rate by industry benchmarks and by device, Pam Neely suggests that you may get more actionable data from looking at dwell time and time on page over bounce rate for web pages. Advertisers, however, will want to pay attention to their bounce rates for PPC. She outlines ways to improve your bounce rate:
1. Speed up your site. 40% of visitors will leave a site that takes more than three seconds to load.
2. Make your site mobile friendly. Super mobile friendly.
3. Redesign your site.
4. Make sure the keywords people are using match what the page is about.
5. Make your content more readable.
6. Be careful with pop-ups.
7. Have a clear call to action.
15 Things to Consider Before Choosing Your Content KPIs
By Rob Garner | Jan 3, 2019
Setting your metrics and KPIs are important to think carefully and critically about before making them a firm part of your measurement strategy. Depending on what your focus is, for brand business goals, transactional goals, or something more complex and in-between, choosing the right metrics and KPIs will help you get more from your content marketing than you are now. Rob Garner presents 15 considerations you should be taking into account to measure your content marketing.
Post-Holiday Sales Slump: 11 Effective Ways To Overcome It
By Kunal Khullar | Jan 4, 2019
If you’re looking to avoid the post-holiday sales slump this January, you’re in luck! SEMrush has put together 11 ways to overcome dips in sales this time of year. These tactics can help you get through the sales decline soon after the holiday spending sprees ends. The best thing to do is to not disappear after the holiday season ends but to focus on both new and pre-existing consumers.
Google Ads conversion rates by industry: How do you compare?
By Robin Sherwood | Jan 4, 2019
Sometimes you need to look outside your own historical data and compare yourself industry-wide to see just how well you’re doing. If you’re curious to see how you stack up against others in your vertical, check out this post. Robin Sherwood breaks down data from Wordstream– they compiled average conversion rate data over 20 different industries for you to compare yourself to. How well are your conversion rates doing?
We hope you learned something new you can apply to your PPC business strategy. Let us know in the comments below what you want to start implementing. As always, we are happy to be a resource for your paid advertising needs. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
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