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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.

Facebook Ads Updates: Conversions API Gateway & AEM for iOS14 Users

By Miranda Miller | Oct 22, 2021 | Search Engine Journal

Facebook announced a series of improvements designed to help advertisers with performance and measurement issues from the tracking prompt fallout. What’s new includes:

• Conversions API Gateway
• Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM) for iOS14 Users: Updates

4 Easy Lead Qualification Strategies for Better Clicks & Conversions

By Joe Martinez | Oct 25, 2021 | WordStream

“Racking up conversion metrics on your channels may look great. Having a click-through rate is something most paid media advertisers work towards. But if the majority of those users aren’t quality, then we are looking at vanity metrics,” writes Joe Martinez. To help ensure your leads are qualified, Martinez recommends these strategies:

1. Be specific in your ad copy  
2. Use price extensions
3. Optimize lead forms for quality, not volume
4. Add more questions in your lead forms

What to Do When Competitors Buy Your Brand Keyword

By Jon Clark | Oct 25, 2021 | Search Engine Journal

If your competitors bid on your branded keywords, you must immediately prevent your pipeline from being drained. Going through Google to fix such an issue has become more limited. Jon Clark recommends these four things you can do that can turn a sour situation into something beneficial for your business:

1. Own Your Brand Name
2. Talk To The Business, File A Cease & Desist
3. File A Trademark Complaint With The Engines
4. Bid On Your Competition’s Brand Keywords

12 Paid Advertising Mistakes & How You Can Make Your Ads Better

By Amy Bishop | Oct 25, 2021 | Semrush Blog

Paid media used to be pretty simple: you chose your keywords, set bids, drafted your ad copy, added negatives, and tweaked as needed. Over the years, though, paid advertising platforms have become more and more complex. With that, there are more opportunities to make small mistakes that can be costly. I cover the following simple mistakes that can kill your paid advertising ROI (and how to fix them):

1. Following the Search Engines’ Default Settings
2. Relying on Smart Campaigns
3. Paying Too Much for Clicks
4. Choosing the Wrong Bidding Strategy for Your Goals
5. Misusing Bid Modifiers
6. Choosing the Wrong Keywords for Your Goals
7. Using the Same Ads for Everything
8. Driving Traffic to Content That Doesn’t Align with Their Goals
9. Paying for Purchases That You Might Have Generated for Free
10. Not Keeping an Eye on Display Placements
11. Not Paying Attention to Your Competitors
12. Not Testing Enough 

Improve Your ROAS with Geofencing Marketing

By Amy Bishop | Oct 26, 2021 | Semrush Blog

Geofencing is a marketing technique used to identify potential prospects based on their location. The beauty of geofencing is that you can leverage hyper-specific location information to engage folks, using their location to indicate what they might be interested in. I cover some of the most common ways that geofencing can be used to support marketing efforts, including:

• How Does Geofencing Work?
• Identify Prospecting Audiences Based Upon Their Whereabouts
• Drive Local Foot Traffic 
• Build Audiences From In-Person Visitors
• Tap Into Event Attendees
• Use Geofencing to Conquest
• The Downside of Geofencing
• Leveraging These Principles in Search & Display Campaigns

13 Effective Ways to Reduce Your Google Ads CPA

By Justin Lugbill | Oct 27, 2021 | Search Engine Journal

“Despite loosening definitions on keyword matching, increased opaqueness (Search Terms report limitations; responsive ad reporting), and increased competition, marketers still have the needed controls to maximize their acquisition efficiency,” writes Justin Lugbill. He recommends these best practices for optimizing CPA:

1. Revisit account structure.
2. Campaign budget rebalancing.
3. Campaign/bid alignment.
4. Keyword-level optimizations.
5. Audience/device bid adjustments.
6. Keyword expansion.
7. Ad personalization.
8. User journey personalization.
9. Post-click experience.
10. Data integration.
11. Automated bid strategies.
12. Use the Recommendations section of Google Ads.
13. Adjust conversion setting.

How to Choose the Right Facebook Ads Bidding Strategy

By Corinna Keefe | Oct 27, 2021 | SocialMedia Examiner

“You can choose how Facebook Ads Manager bids for ad placements. There’s a whole range of options, from set-it-and-forget-it lowest-cost bidding to advanced strategies like minimum return on ad spend (ROAS).” Corinna Keefe walks through how and when to use the following:

• Lowest-Cost Bidding
• Cost Cap Bidding
• Bid Cap Bidding
• Minimum ROAS

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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