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.
Get more clicks with Maximize Clicks — available worldwide
By Haily De La Cruz | Mar 5, 2019
Bing Ads has made its Maximize Clicks automated bidding strategy available worldwide. The tool is designed to help you get as many clicks as possible within your budget. With the Maximize Clicks automated bidding, you no longer need to manage keyword bids individually. In this article, they also provide instructions on how to get started with the new feature. Side note: Maximize Clicks does not coordinate with third-party bid management tools.
5 Bad Habits That Waste Your Paid Search Budget
By Pam Neely | Mar 5, 2019
Pam Neely dives into 5 of the most common bad habits in pay per click advertising that can waste money fast if you’re not paying attention. She explores when to use Google Ad’s suggestions, regular competitor research, optimizing negative keywords, managing text ads, and investing in your own continuing education.
How to Increase PPC Profits – By Decreasing Sales
By Jonathan Ellins | Mar 6, 2018
Jonathan Ellins provides us a guide to maximize PPC profitability for your ecommerce both by adjusting your bids, and a more non-traditional way, by actually decreasing your sales. He first examines increasing profitability the more traditional way by tweaking or modifying bids. Then, he explains how a less is more approach can also work. He argues that by making each sale significantly more profitable, you need fewer sales to boost your overall profits and return on ad spend. He recommends achieving that by raising product prices (finding a sweet spot) and raising average order values.
The future of search engine marketing is full funnel
By Josh Dreller | Mar 7, 2019
Typically, upper funnel terms have higher CPCs and lower conversion rates. Therefore, search marketers may tend to deprioritize those terms and focus on bottom terms where the metrics look better. However, the bottom funnel isn’t always how people search because consumers use search engines across the entire funnel during their purchase journey. Josh Dreller explores the question, “What if the myopic focus on chasing the most efficient KPIs is literally holding today’s search programs back from fully flourishing?”
Why SKAGs Are No Longer a PPC Best Practice (and How to Respond)
By Emma Franks | Mar 7, 2019
It may be time to drop SKAGs from your PPC strategy. They were effective a couple of years ago when search engines adhered much more closely to match types. With the dynamic changes the PPC industry routinely undergoes, SKAGs are nearly obsolete with the introduction of close variants with intent. With trends moving towards contextual and behavioral audience targeting, SKAGs are no longer relevant.
3 Ways Quality Data Can Help You Achieve SEM Success
By Chaitanya Chandrasekar | Mar 7, 2019
Key business decisions require high-quality data to inform the best outcomes. Chaitanya Chandrasekar explores these three areas where having quality data makes the largest impact: Higher revenue and ROI, historical context for better decision making, and being able to differentiate yourself from the competition.
The Definitive Guide to Ecommerce PPC on Google, Amazon, & Bing
By Conor Bond | Mar 11, 2019
Wordstream has put together a comprehensive guide to ecommerce PPC so you don’t fall behind on Shopping Ads. They have outlined the fundamentals of Google Shopping, Bing Shopping, and Amazon advertising. The guide includes:
- How Google Shopping, Bing Shopping, and Amazon advertising work
- How to set up and structure accounts on each platform
- How to optimize your bids on each platform
Google launches marketer-friendly Google Ads API query builder
By Ginny Marvin | Mar 11, 2019
Google Ads announced a new query builder tool that is marketer-friendly, making it easier to build queries for reporting. You can find the Query Builder on the Google Ads API Developer site, but the intuitive interface means that you don’t have to be a developer to use it. Anyone will be able to quickly build reporting queries and either execute them themselves or pass along the proper syntax to their developers.
Google Shopping Ads to Automatically Appear in Google Images
By Matt Southern | Mar 11, 2019
Google Images is now a default placement option for Google Ads users who are running shopping ads. Shopping ads will now be appearing in Google Images. The change is automatic and mandatory.
How to Use RSAs with Limited Data
By Michael Knight | Mar 11, 2019
Michael Knight shares a few ways to start testing RSAs (Responsive Search Ads) despite the limited visibility into variants and their results. He highly suggests using pins strategically in a detailed way, creating specific variations of ads you approve. He suggests using pins by saying, “This uses the power of the RSA to create ad variations through automation but helps the system by selecting pin “themes” we have outlined. We can then re-order the pins by creating another RSAs for deeper ad testing to find out where the brand headline or description headline best resonate.”
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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