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.
Holiday PPC Strategy: 11 Steps to Drive Greater Profit This Year
By Amy Bishop | Oct 9, 2019

If you haven’t already planned your holiday strategy, now is the time! Don’t fret, I’ve got you covered with the steps that you need to take to ensure that you’re ready to hit the ground running with your holiday efforts.
1. Review Last Year’s Results
2. Choose Your Channels and Plan Some Tests
3. Plan Your Funnels
4. Start Building Your Audiences
5. Re-engage Lists of Yore
6. Get in Front of Gift-Givers
7. Drive Brand Engagement
8. Get Creative with Your Ads & Landing Pages
9. Start Thinking About Your Promo Strategy
10. Simplify Gift Shopping
11. Sometimes Things Don’t Go as Planned
3 tips to maximize the holiday shopping season
By Kenneth Andrew | Oct 8, 2019

Microsoft Advertising outlines some digital marketing tips to help retailers to maximize sales this holiday season. Their top tips include:
1: Build awareness now to capture early birds
2: Maximize efficiency during Black Friday and Cyber Week
3: Make it easy for last-minute shoppers
A privacy-safe approach to managing ad frequency
By Rahul Srinivasan | Oct 9, 2019

To improve user privacy while preserving access to the ad-supported web, Google has announced that they wil be using machine learning to manage ad frequency while respecting user privacy. They will be rolling out a new feature in Display & Video 360 that uses machine learning to help advertisers manage ad frequency in a way that respects user privacy when third-party cookies are missing. They also have future plans to bring the new feature to display ads as well. The feature relies on a publisher’s first-party data to inform the ad experience for its own site visitors.
What is Cross-Platform Advertising? Getting The Most Out of All Channels
By Tom Whatley | Oct 9, 2019

You can achieve market omnipresence through cross-platform advertising to stay top of mind with your consumers. Cross-platform advertising allows you to expand your message across several channels, and extend your reach to capture your customer’s attention. Targeting, timing and segmenting your audience is crucial to getting your cross-platform advertising right. You can use consumer and behavioral data to serve the right message and content at the right time. Remarketing makes this possible across multiple channels across the web through social media and display ads.
7 Ways to Boost Your Instagram Sales This Holiday Season
By Val Razo | Oct 9, 2019

If you want to stay ahead of your competitors this holiday season, you might want to consider promoting your holiday sales campaign on Instagram. Instagram has made it easy for brands to sell by introducing product tags, shopping Instagram Stories stickers, and in-app checkout. Val Razo shares seven ways to drive Instagram sales this holiday season, including:
1. Use limited-time offers and deals
2. Run a seasonal sale
3. Share last-minute gift ideas
4. Run a giveaway or contest
5. Offer free shipping and gift wrapping
6. Appeal to emotions
7. Publish short-lived content
Solve Attribution Woes: Adjust Your Settings & Expectations for a More Comprehensive Marketing Strategy
By Mary Hartman | Oct 10, 2019

It’s often difficult to attribute conversions to each platform, be it paid or organic. The frustration stems from 3 main factors: The customer journey is more complex than ever before, there are more attribution platforms, both free and paid, offered in the digital marketing space, and getting any attribution source to align with others seems impossible. How do marketers make more educated attribution choices? Mary Hartman suggests:
1: Pick Your Windows Wisely
2: Learn How Different Platforms Attribute Conversions Differently
3: Appreciate Lag & LTV when Testing a New Channel or Campaign
4: The Source of Truth is Beyond the Platforms: It’s in Your Sales Data
3 Tricks to Make the Most of Google Ads Automation
By Navah Hopkins | Oct 10, 2019

“As automation evolves and becomes more integral in running successful campaigns, we need to be clear that delegating tasks to the machine doesn’t diminish our value. It opens our mental bandwidth up to take on bigger challenges and focus on strategic tasks,” explains Navah Hopkins. She offers these tips to use automation and machine learning to get ahead:
1. Try Smart bidding in at least one campaign
2. Test responsive ads
3. Embrace close variants
Turn up Q4 Revenue with Customer Match and Similar Audiences
By Carolanne Hornung | Oct 10, 2019

Looking to beat last year’s sales? You can gain the upper hand this holiday season using Google Ads, Customer Match, and Similar Audiences to meet your holiday goals. Customer Match is a Google Ads tool that utilizes your customer email file. By uploading a file with your customer emails, you can target these users when they’re signed into their Google account. Google will create Similar Audiences if your list meets the required criteria. Similar Audiences allow you to reach people who share characteristics with the users in your Customer Match file. Some ways you can use Customer Match and Similar Audiences are:
- Create Customer Segments
- Increase Bids for Past Purchasers
- Target Broad/General Keywords
- Develop New Ad Copy
- Cross-Sell and Upsell
- Expand Acquisition Efforts
6 Tips to Get Your Business Holiday-Ready
By Facebook Business | Oct 10, 2019

Facebook’s best practices share some tips to have your business ready for the holiday shopping season. They include:
- Create gift guides
- Share gifts in every price range
- Add holiday flair
- Use your product to create holiday-specific visuals
- Plan a holiday event
- Encourage customers to share the holiday cheer
New Quora Ads Targeting Options Recently Announced
By Joe Martinez | Oct 14, 2019

Joe Martinez reviews two new Quora Ads features that have rolled out in October. Gender Targeting has been added to Demographic Targeting. Keyword History targeting allows advertisers to target users who have previously read questions or answers containing these keywords.
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.