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.
Marketing automation for search: Five time-saving strategies
By Lauren Crain | Mar 11, 2019
Marketers are always looking for ways to save time and speed up results on campaigns. Lauren Crain examines five strategies that are commonly used to save on time. They include scripts, excel tools and function, automated rules, automated bid rules, and smart bidding.
Semantic search for Google Ads: What it is and why it matters
By Mike Ncube | Mar 12, 2019
Google Ads will be using semantic search and search user intent more and more as we progress into the future. Semantic search focuses on the meaning and intent of a user’s search based on the context, intent, and concept of the search query. Broad match keywords target semantic searches and incorporate synonyms, misspellings, stemming, plurals/singulars, and close variants. On the other hand, exact match only matches queries that have the exact intent as your keyword. Mike Ncube explains the differences between syntactic and semantic search, and when you should be using them.
Chrome Extensions Every PPC Pro Should Try: 2019 Edition
By Andrea Taylor | Mar 14, 2019
Who doesn’t love finding new Chrome extensions? Andrea Taylor shares her updated list of Chrome extensions for PPC that she can’t live without. They include:
- Twitter Pixel Helper
- Keywords Everywhere
- GTM and Google Analytics Debug
- Click & Clean
- Desktop for Instagram
- Google Dictionary
- Project Management Extensions
- Extensions Manager
Google Ads to Provide Users With More Assistance After Ad Disapprovals
By Matt Southern | Mar 14, 2019
- Read the article here.
In April, Google Ads is introducing the new ‘Policy manager’ as an aim to be a better solution for letting users know when ads are removed for policy violations and make policy appeals. In some cases, Google Ads may be able to detect violations during the ad creation. Hopefully, the new feature will give advertisers the opportunity to make the changes to comply with policies before submitting ads for approval.
4 Google Display Network Targeting Facts You Need to Know
By Joe Martinez | Mar 14, 2019
Joe Martinez shares four facts you should know about Google Display Network targeting to get the best results from your ad groups. First fact is that ad placements don’t have to stick to websites– they can appear on YouTube and relevant apps. Therefore, you should monitor your placement reports regularly to watch where your ads are being placed. Second, keyword targeting works in two ways: by audience and content. You should understand when to use them. Third, if you’re stuck you can use Google’s machine learning to suggest and preview custom audience intent ideas. And lastly, if you don’t want to include mobile, he shares a link to a workaround.
Diagnose High CPL In PPC Search
By Lara Lowery | Mar 14, 2019
Lara Lowery shares her step by step approach for looking at your PPC accounts and diagnosing the problem when you have a high CPL. First, she reviews what keywords are converting and then filters out the highest costing keywords but you must consider if the account can handle the costs of a non-branded broad keyword that is actually more effective at awareness. Then, she reviews branded keywords for competitors bidding and irrelevant or misspelled keywords. Next, she reviews the quality of leads with the clients which requires platform strategies. Lastly, it may be time to refresh or switch up the ad copy if it’s been running for a long time.
Google Ads Will Recommend Which Columns to Add to Reports
By Matt Southern | Mar 15, 2019
Google Ads has a new “recommended columns” feature. The new feature which will highlight the columns of data that they think are worth paying attention to based on their campaign and account settings. Recommended columns are turned on by default, but can easily be turned off.
Using insights to find new audiences to test for awareness campaigns
By Joe Martinez | Mar 18, 2019
Joe Martinez explains how to test new audience combinations with the Audience Insights tool in Google Ads Audience Manager. He walks you through how to use the Insights tool and where to source your data with the type of searches you should be doing. He then explains patterns you should be looking for to segment your audiences.
Google: Don’t Blindly Stuff Text into Ecommerce Category Pages
By Matt Southern | Mar 18, 2019
Google’s John Mueller recently revealed in a Twitter chat that ecommerce site owners shouldn’t be adding unnecessary text to category pages. Mueller stated that site owners should consider the purpose of a page and the user intent of those who land on the page because unnecessary text distracts the user. Matt Southern suggests linking to top sub-categories, showcasing trending products, or maybe offering a selection of matching accessories as an alternative to unnecessary text.
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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