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.
3 ways PPC campaign management could soon change
By Joseph Kerschbaum | Jul 26, 2023 | Search Engine Land
Search marketing has rapidly evolved, and automation and AI will continue to drive changes in the industry. Google and Microsoft are pushing for match type consolidation, favoring broad match over phrase and exact match. Channel consolidation is being promoted through Performance Max, blended campaigns, and data-driven attribution. Google’s auto-applied recommendations may become a core feature, further transforming PPC campaign management. Automation and AI will play a crucial role in shaping the future of search marketing.
The 7 Pillars of Building a Future-Proof PPC Account Structure
By Navah Hopkins | Jul 27, 2023 | WordStream
Navah Hopkins discusses how to create a future-proof PPC account structure in the ever-changing landscape of pay-per-click marketing. She emphasizes seven essential pillars for success:
- Mindful budget allocation to support campaign initiatives and accommodate non-branded searches.
- Adherence to current audience engagement best practices and targeting policies to improve performance.
- Striking a balance between human control and Google’s AI machine learning for optimal results.
- The importance of using negative keywords to protect costs and direct traffic effectively.
- Leveraging audiences and placements strategically to target or exclude potential traffic based on behavior.
- Harnessing the power of first-party data for better ad targeting and conversion tracking.
- Managing privacy and conversion tracking practices to strike a balance between compliance and performance visibility.
Following these pillars will help advertisers build and manage a PPC account structure that can adapt to industry demands and changes.
Google Ads broad match: What the data reveals for PPC marketers
By Jason Tabeling | Jul 27, 2023 | Search Engine Land
Jason Tabeling discusses the performance of different match types in Google Ads and their implications for PPC marketers. Key takeaways from the analysis include:
- Broad match has the lowest cost per click (CPC) and the lowest cost per conversion, making it cost-effective.
- Exact match has the highest click-through rate (CTR), indicating its relevance to specific queries.
- Phrase match performs poorly with high CPC and cost per conversion.
- Data suggests that performance remains consistent with the introduction of AI tools, and there’s no clear indication of significant changes in match type usage over time. The article also provides tips for using broad match effectively, including the use of negative keywords and ad extensions, and emphasizes the importance of data-driven decisions for smarter optimizations as the industry moves towards a “keywordless” future.
Lead Scoring: The Value In B2B Marketing
By Alex Macura | Jul 27, 2023 | Search Engine Journal
Alex Macura discusses the importance and benefits of lead scoring in managing leads effectively. Lead scoring involves assigning points to leads based on various criteria such as customer behavior, brand engagement, demographics, and segmentation. He helps identify high-quality leads to focus on and which ones to ignore, leading to increased conversion opportunities and efficiency. Lead scoring also improves marketing campaigns, boosts conversion rates, and enhances sales and marketing alignment. The article provides tips for developing a lead scoring system, including using behavioral attributes, demographics, segmentation, negative scoring, and building a lead scoring model either manually, probability-based, or predictive. Best practices for lead scoring involve continuous updates, setting a point threshold, and training the sales and marketing teams.
3 Time-Saving Facebook Automated Rules to Try (+1 to Avoid!)
By Brett McHale | Jul 27, 2023 | WordStream
Brett McHale introduces Facebook Ads’ automated rules feature, which empowers advertisers to automate routine campaign management tasks and optimize ad performance. McHale outlines four types of automated rules: custom rules, reducing auction overlap, optimizing ad creative, and reducing audience fragmentation. Custom rules allow advertisers to set specific parameters and actions based on their needs, such as cost-per-action caps or turning off campaigns when budgets are hit. The article also advises against using the reduce audience fragmentation option to maintain control over individual audience segments. Additionally, it provides examples of three custom automated rules: budget control, frequency management, and cost-per-result optimization, to help advertisers streamline their campaigns and improve results efficiently.
7 reports SEO and PPC can use to help each other succeed
By Laura Schiele | Aug 1, 2023 | Search Engine Land
Laura Schiele emphasizes the importance of collaboration and communication between PPC and SEO teams to enhance the overall marketing strategy. She suggests seven reports that PPC and SEO teams can share with each other to leverage their strengths and improve performance.
For PPC teams, sharing top-performing keywords can help SEO teams focus on adding value through organic search results. Highest-CPC keywords can guide SEO efforts in areas where PPC costs are prohibitive. Additionally, monthly drops in impression share and search top impression share indicate increased competition, which can prompt SEO teams to optimize content and metadata.
On the other hand, SEO teams can share insights with PPC teams about keyword performance dips and high-priority keywords to refine messaging, targeting, and CTAs. Keyword difficulty can help PPC teams allocate budget and CPC caps for engagement. Top-performing pages and content can be employed by PPC teams for retargeting or gated content strategies.
To ensure effective collaboration, regular meetings and reporting should be established to keep both teams informed about each other’s priorities and campaigns. This intentional communication can lead to fruitful brainstorming sessions and a deeper understanding of the interplay between PPC and SEO channels.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): Definition, Formula, and Tips
By Sean Collins | Aug 1, 2023 | Semrush
Sean Collins explains what Click-Through Rate (CTR) is, defining it as the ratio of clicks to impressions expressed as a percentage. He highlights the importance of CTR in measuring the effectiveness of PPC ads on platforms like Google Ads. A high CTR indicates that ads effectively capture the audience’s interest, driving cost efficiency and improving Ad Rank. However, a high CTR doesn’t always guarantee success if it doesn’t lead to conversions. Collilns provides tips to improve CTR, such as targeting the right keywords, writing compelling ad copy, and using sitelink assets to enhance ad visibility and appeal.
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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