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.

How to Organize a Successful PPC Audit

By Rachael Law | Jan 22, 2019

Are your PPC client audits set up for success? Rachael Law outlines an improved process for getting the right information from the client and structuring your analysis & findings in a way that tells a better story. The most important stage is finding clarity by asking the right questions in the initial conversation. The next step is a formal outline to save you time and guide your process, example outlines included. Next, your presentation of data should be more than graphs and numbers but tell a story as to how those numbers impact real-world situations. Lastly, you should provide your client with adequate supplemental materials, like appendix materials, handout notes, and supporting documents instead of cramming it all into a power point presentation.

6 Overlooked Optimizations to Increase Your PPC Conversion Rate

By Athena Pham | Jan 22, 2019

Think you’ve tested everything to improve performance and increase conversion rates in your PPC campaigns? Think again. Athena Pham shares 6 often overlooked strategies to optimize your PPC conversion rates. She goes into detail covering:
1. Running a branded campaign
2. Test branded ad copy: H1 vs H2
3. Leverage Search Impression Share
4. Optimize Your Landing Page Conversion Rate
5. Target In-Market Audiences
6. Add Negative Search Terms

Important Phrase Match Difference Between Google and Bing

By Bethany Bey | Jan 22, 2019

There are some instances where there are small variations in how search keywords work that can make a large difference in performance between Google and Bing. Looking at how each platform defines phrase match, the main difference is that on Google word order of the phrase match keywords matters while on Bing it doesn’t, as long as the reordering doesn’t change the meaning of the query as determined by Bing. Keeping this in mind may change your strategy for each individual platform.

Google tells some advertisers it will handle their campaign management

By Ginny Marvin | Jan 24, 2019

Google has announced that they are bringing in “Google Ads experts” to manage campaigns “behind the scenes.” Will these decisions be largely influenced by Google’s machine-powered recommendations engine? We should expect immediate implications for advertisers that opt to use this service. But, are there longer-term implications for the larger ecosystems of agencies, consultants, clients, and paid search industries?

5 Facebook Tests That Can Improve Your Marketing

By Krista Neher | Jan 25, 2019

Krista Neher shares 5 tests you can run in Facebook to help improve your campaigns that you may not have tried before. She suggests running an ad objective for reach and which KPIs to measure for finding your target audience. You can test your creative concepts and marketing message with an ad objective for a similar objective on a small budget and Facebook’s A/B tools testing to see how your concept resonates. You can test a new product idea or launch by first promoting a concept ad to see how well it is received to guide future campaigns. She also suggests ways to test content optimization for content that gets attention.

How to Use Google Tag Manager for PPC Tracking

By Tim Jensen | Jan 28, 2019

Tracking your PPC campaigns informs decisions on keywords, ad copy, and audiences. Google Tag Manager (GTM) provides a solution to save time when tracking codes. Once a single code has been installed on the site, PPC marketers can then have full access to add as many ad platform tags as they need without having to rely on back and forth messaging with IT. Tim Jensen walks us through how to set your GTM up the right ways for the best results.

Amazon advertising attribution: Here’s how it works

By Trevor George | Jan 28, 2019

Trevor George breaks down what you need to know about Amazon’s Seller Central, Advertising Console and Amazon DSP for advertisers in regards to attribution. Amazon tracks attribution differently depending on the platform you’re using, so this gets complicated fast! But Trevor walks you through every aspect of all three attribution models clearly and concisely. Do take note of the handy chart summarizing all of the differences for reference.

LinkedIn Ads Introduces Interest Targeting (Plus Complete List of Targeting Options)

By Trevor George | Jan 28, 2019

LinkedIn Ads is introducing interest targeting in January 2019. Advertisers will now be allowed to reach users based on topics they share or engage with. The new targeting extends reach to people potentially interested in your clients’ services, while still layering on existing criteria (job titles, companies, or matched audiences). Additional targeting will reach people who have the selected interests AND other criteria you’ve selected.

Amazon Gives Advertisers Needed Insight into New vs. Existing Customers but Leaves Out Sponsored Products

By Andy Taylor | Jan 28, 2019

Amazon recently announced that it will now provide new-to-brand metrics that segment new vs. existing customers for display, video, and Sponsored Brands ads. Ideally, the update is aimed at gauging the incremental impact of ad spend and to reassure brands that they aren’t just paying for ad clicks from existing customers that are likely to reorder. The new metrics don’t include new-to-brand reporting to Sponsored Products and advertisers should be aware that simple new vs. existing reporting doesn’t fully answer the question of the incremental value of ads.

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.