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.
Goal Talk Podcast Episode 9: Everything You Need to Know About the Facebook Ads Auction
By Mikayla Wyman | Apr 7, 2020
Mikayla Wyman talks with WordStream’s Manager of Paid Search Scott Mesite on the Goal Talk Podcast. They cover how the Facebook ad auction works and how best to set up campaigns, structure accounts, set budgets, and optimize your ads to be successful on the platform. Topics discussed during the episode include:
- Which factors determine whether your ads show for a user.
- Some of the targeting options available for advertisers.
- Which metrics are most important to track.
- How Facebook determines how much money you’ll spend on a campaign.
- The major differences between advertising on search versus advertising on social media.
The best-kept secret to maintaining and defending the top spot with paid search
By Dave Naffziger | Apr 7, 2020
Many may think that the best way to keep your branded search position at the top is to pay more money than your competitors. Dave Naffziger argues that there are better ways to defend your top position. He recommends that you offensively takedown trademark infringements. Bad actors that infringe on your trademarks drive up CPCs for your branded search terms. He describes what trademark infringements to look out for and how to automate locating them so you can scale.
The BIG List of COVID-19 PPC Marketing Articles
By Michelle Morgan | Apr 8, 2020
With nearly all sectors of business being affected by COVID-19, it’s more important than ever that marketers be on top of industry trends. Michelle Morgan has put together a long list of marketing blogs as resources for you to stay on top of the latest marketing news as the pandemic continues. The list will be updated, so you may want to bookmark.
7 Effective Ways to Optimize Your E-Commerce Conversion Funnel
By Evelin Rácz | Apr 8, 2020
“Customers can be unpredictable, but improving and building a good conversion funnel brings a lot of new sales,” explains Evelin Rácz. She discusses what the four stages of an e-commerce funnel has: The Landing Page (Interest-Visit), The Product Page (Consideration-Discovery), The Shopping Cart (Decision-Check out), and Purchase (Loyalty-Orders). She then gives seven tips for optimizing that funnel, including:
1. Attract Customers Through Social Media (Interest Stage)
2. Offer Free and Engaging Content on Your Landing Page (Interest Stage)
3. Use Social Proof on Your Product Pages (Consideration Stage)
4. Optimize Your Product Pages (Consideration Stage)
5. Introduce Exit-Intent Triggers (Shopping Cart Stage)
6. Optimize Your Checkouts System (Shopping Cart Stage)
7. Offer a Loyalty Program and Promote it (Loyalty)
Google Delays Launch of New Partners Program to 2021
By Susan Wenograd | Apr 8, 2020
Google Ads announced they are suspending the planned changes to their Partners program until 2021, in light of the rapid COVID-19 changes. The new rules will no longer be enforced, and Partners will retain their current status and specialization badges. If agencies lost their specialization as of January 1, 2020, they will be re-granted their former status until 2021.
Track your impact better with new conversion goal options
By Ankit Kapoor and Haily De La Cruz | Apr 9, 2020
Microsoft Advertising is announcing two updates to Conversion Tracking. The aim is to help you focus your ad campaigns on the most important conversion goals for your business and make it easier for you to measure the true value of your ad campaigns on the Microsoft Audience Network. The two new settings for conversion goals include:
- Include in “Conversions”: This conversion goal setting determines whether or not the resulting conversions are included across the defaulted conversion metrics.
- View-through conversions: This conversion goal setting helps you measure the full value of your ads on the Microsoft Audience Network.
Empathy in marketing is more crucial than ever. Here’s how to do it.
By Rives Martin and Jennifer Wolf | Apr 10, 2020
It’s no surprise that brands that understand their customers have a higher rate of converting and keeping them long term. Applying empathy allows you to discover the deep-seated motivations that subconsciously drive purchase decisions, then quantifies them for audience segmentation. You will need to have conversations with your customers to understand them better to be able to anticipate their next need. Using empathy to discover ‘why’ they purchase will give you a competitive edge.
Can “Test & Learn” Guide Marketers Through a Crisis? It’s the Only Thing That Will.
By Jerome Crochat | Apr 13, 2020
During the current, unprecedented times, testing & learning through marketing experiments might initially seem like a luxury for most in PPC. Jerome Crochat explains that “historical data won’t be really worth that much to anyone. There’s just nothing in our recent past that is like today’s environment. Directionally? Maybe. But true navigation to what is and isn’t working requires real insight.” Because of the loss of insight with historical data, right now is the time to lean into testing and learning to guide marketing performance decisions.
How To Build Scalable PPC Tools
By Rachael Law | Apr 13, 2020
Being able to scale your PPC tools becomes increasingly more important as your accounts grow. Rachael Law advises on how to start planning to scale your tools from the beginning, as well as some ways to optimize scaling, including:
- Locate any slow-downs or breakages
- Reduce Opportunity for Human Errors
- Look into optimizing one of the following: data import, storage, manipulation, visualization
Why Non-Retailers Must Consider Advertising Through Amazon
By Melissa Reilly | Apr 13, 2020
Mostly thought of for physical products, Amazon also offers a robust set of advertising opportunities for brands in financial services, travel, and other verticals that don’t include the physical exchange of products. Non-retail brands should consider advertising through Amazon for two key reasons: Amazon’s reach of over 125 million Prime users, and interacts with customers on multiple platforms, including Amazon.com, Prime Video, Kindle, and more. The second reason is audience data – advertisers can use rich data to reach the right people with their advertising. Melissa Reilly discusses In-home advertising with Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP) and Over-the-Top (OTT), as well as Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising.
9 Retention Strategies for Digital Marketing Agencies During COVID-19
By Akvile DeFazio | Apr 13, 2020
The global crisis is affecting everyone, including marketing agencies and freelancers. There are options to consider to keep business retention afloat during this time. Akvile DeFazio recommends these strategies for agencies and freelancers during COVID-19:
1. Save and survive
2. Be lenient and understanding
3. Forego pricing increases
4. Think outside the box
5. Go back up the funnel
6. Shift the focus
7. Communicate with clients proactively
8. Support your employees for working remotely
9. Look into federal relief options
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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