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.
The Impact of COVID-19 on PPC: Industry-by-Industry
By Vivien Leung | Mar 31, 2020

The impact of COVID-19 is affecting various verticals in different ways. Acquisio analyzed 56,000 active campaigns within their platform to assess how industry-specific shifts are affecting impressions, clicks, CPCs, and CTRs. By looking at the data, you can go beyond gut feelings and make better predictions. They analyzed data from the start of 2020 until now (and are updating the data to stay current) for the following verticals:
- Financial
- Medical
- Real Estate
- Legal Services
- Leisure & Recreation
- Fitness
- Education & Employment
- Travel & Tourism
- Automotive (broken down into dealerships, rental, repair, and parts businesses)
- Local Businesses (broken down into retailers and service providers of different types)
Setting up a Microsoft Audience ads campaign
By Joe Martinez | Mar 31, 2020

Microsoft Audience Ads is an ideal advertising channel for B2B advertisers because of their LinkedIn profile targeting. Joe Martinez explains that Microsoft Audience Ads is an affordable and effective native ad platform with unique targeting features that no other native ad platform can offer B2B advertisers. He covers how to set the campaign up, including targeting options using LinkedIn parameters, budgets, and bids.
Coronavirus and the paid search sector: How businesses are gearing up to come out the other side
By Luke Richards | Apr 1, 2020

Luke Richards spoke to Adthena’s VP of marketing about the questions C-level executives are asking, their plans, and sharing data insights into how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the paid search sector in markets around the globe. Data is showing significant feats of agility in travel and food verticals. Businesses are adapting to new ways of connecting with their customers through online channels. While prices go up and clicks go down as users and brands change their behaviors, gaps and opportunities are opening up in surprising places as brands shift their focus to specific products and services. Smart marketers should take note of the gaps and act on them.
New in Apple Search Ads: Recommendations
By Joe Martinez | Apr 1, 2020

Apple Search Ads announced its new Recommendations feature on March 18, 2020, that prompts optimizations for keywords, bids, and daily cap for iOS app advertisers. “This will make reviewing optimization opportunities and implementing those changes a lot easier than having to go campaign by campaign,” writes Joe Martinez. He goes into detail on how the recommendations work for keywords, bids, and daily cap.
How Marketers Can Start to Prepare for the Path Forward
By Jann Schwarz | Apr 2, 2020

The LinkedIn Marketing Blog talks with McKinsey partner Michael Betz, who shares practical advice for marketers from his unique perspective as a C-suite practitioner, a business strategist, and a marketing effectiveness expert. The interview focuses on moving from “what now” to “what next” in your marketing career and business. He discusses steps you should be taking to protect your marketing business, adjusting budgets, and how to prepare for what comes next.
Amazon & Google: Affects Of COVID-19 On Digital Marketing
By Jack Pendergast | Apr 2, 2020

Jack Pendergast shares insights to current trends on Amazon Ads and Google Ads. Amazon is serving high priority essential products, making essential ads CPCs high and non-essential ads low or completely halting. Google Ads will see mid-level and below spending companies reducing campaign spend drastically. He states, “There is still room for growth I have seen clients who are performing very well over the past two weeks and are looking to expand their search and shopping budgets on google for the rest of the month…those who have opportunities for growth and high performance, take advantage of it, and those who are facing a drop in performance, buckle down.”
Marketing During COVID-19: 4 Essential Copywriting Guidelines
By Kristen McCormick | Apr 2, 2020

Even if you are not in a health-related field, your marketing is most likely trying to incorporate aspects of the pandemic in your content. Writers need to stay relevant but at the same time appropriate for the environment of disruption and uncertainty that the entire world is in right now. Kristen McCormick offers a guide to copywriting during COVID-19, including:
- Guidelines for staying sensitive
- Resources for ensuring accuracy
- Suggestions for modifying your offers
- Tips for keeping track of it all
PPC Training Resources for Spare Time
By Andrea Taylor | Apr 3, 2020

Many people are finding themselves with some downtime on their hands right now. Now is a perfect time to invest in self-education from online resources to up your PPC skills. Andrea Taylor recommends these resources to fill your time:
- LinkedIn Learning/Lynda.com
- Udemy.com
- Coursera.org
- Paid Media Pros
- Wordstream.com
- Digital Marketing Depot
- Google Ads Courses
- Microsoft Advertising Learning Lab
- Facebook Blueprint Courses
Digital Marketing Strategies Brands Often Overlook
By Adelina Karpenkova | Apr 3, 2020

Most businesses have an online presence – social media, email, blog, etc. How can you stand out from the noise? Adelina Karpenkova recommends some outside the box thinking to make your digital marketing strategy gain visibility online, including:
1. Launch a native advertising campaign
2. Publish survey research
3. Get traffic from Quora
4. Stay active in online communities
5. Sign Up for The HARO Newsletter
6. Leverage gamification
7. Build meaningful relationships
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.