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.
Microsoft announces Automotive Ads, Audience Network expansion, and 7 other updates
By Nicole Farley | Aug 2, 2022 | Search Engine Land
Microsoft has just announced nine new updates on their blog. The updates include new Automotive Ads, vertical-based ads, and more. Nicole Farley covers updates to:
- Automotive Ads
- Vertical-based ads
- Audience network updates
- Additional bidding solutions
- Customer data platform integrations for Customer Match
- Expanding audience targeting new markets
- Smart Campaigns are expanding to new markets
- Reporting experience updates
- RSA reminder!
5 tips for strong media planning during a recession
By Amanda Evans | Aug 3, 2022 | Search Engine Land
The economy has many worried that we are headed for a recession. “Some advertisers have preemptively reduced marketing expenses to prepare for this downturn, and other brands have even paused their budgets altogether,” writes Amanda Evans. However, staying focused and agile for innovation and opportunity is essential. Here are five tips to keep your media planning on track for continued growth:
- Be the voice of reason
- Instrument proper tracking
- Keep frequent updates
- Get rid of waste now
- Take advantage of gaps left by competitors
Why Your Conversion Rates Are Down + 6 Things You Can Do About It
By Brett McHale | Aug 4, 2022 | WordStream
“The percentage decrease in CVR is rather startling when looking at nearly every industry being affected. Given the disruptions across the board with the pandemic, it’s likely that much of this is the result of the rapidly changing commercial environment,” writes Brett McHale. While there are factors beyond your control at play here, there are still a few approaches you can take to increase your PPC conversion rate. McHale recommends:
- Optimize the customer journey, not just your landing pages.
- Consider incorporating more top-of-funnel, lower-friction offers into your strategy.
- Prioritize keywords by intent.
- Have multiple ad copy variations.
- Optimize your landing pages.
- Choose the right bidding strategies.
Commercial Intent: How to Find Your Most Valuable Keywords
By Kristen McCormick | Aug 4, 2022 | WordStream
Commercial intent keywords are the most valuable to your business, but they are not one-size-fits all. Kristen McCormick looks at what commercial intent keywords are and how to use them to make the most of your marketing budget. She covers:
- What are commercial intent keywords?
- Why is keyword intent important?
- Examples of commercial intent keywords
- Keyword volume vs intent
- How to find them for your business specifically
Google announces 4 new features for Discovery ad users
By Nicole Farley | Aug 4, 2022 | Search Engine Land
New Discovery ad features should help advertisers get ahead of the holiday season with new assets, reporting, and targeting. Google says these features are aimed at helping keep audiences engaged throughout the upcoming holiday season. Nicole Farley covers the following new features:
- Better ad experiences
- Improved creative support
- New insights
- Enhanced campaign management
How To Write CTAs For B2B: A Call-To-Action Guide For Businesses [With 10 Examples]
By Alexander Kesler | Aug 5, 2022 | Search Engine Journal
“The CTA (call-to-action) is a make-or-break moment in your content strategy and lead generation goals. Therefore, it is a critical copywriting component and essential in your B2B (business-to-business) marketing content and webpages,” writes Alexander Kesler. He covers these four best practices to infuse into your copywriting:
- Deliver Value To The Buying Committee
- Be Conversational, To A Point
- Spark Curiosity By Addressing The Implications
- A/B Test Your Copy And Design
Layer on the automation: How to combine automation options for PPC success
By Christine Zirnheld | Aug 9, 2022 | Search Engine Land
To properly control and steer your Google Ads campaigns, you need to leverage the right automated features. “As Google continues to push features that take control out of the advertisers’ hands like automated extensions, ad suggestions, Performance Max campaigns, and even auto-applied recommendations, it’s easy to feel like leaning on machine learning is a risky move,” writes Christine Zirnheld. “However, there are forms of automation that can make your life a lot easier, but only when used the right way.” Zirnheld covers:
- Preparing your account for automation with proper conversion tracking
- Selecting the right smart bidding strategy to steer your campaigns
- Automated targeting tools
- Guiding automation with the right account structure
- Examples of automation in action
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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