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.
How Crisis Changes Buyer Behavior – Aimclear’s Fireside Chat
By Lea Scudamore | May 26, 2020
Aimclear’s Susan Wenograd and Marty Weintraub have a video discussion about how the crisis has changed user’s search and buying behaviors. They examine how paid social behavior is changing, how ad revenues are changing, and how spend is changing. They look at some areas where search demand has dropped off, while in other areas it has taken off, and what the data looks like around that situation. They also discuss how to account for those people that may not have been your core demographic in the past, and then what you can do, moving forward, to make sure that you continue to service them.
Building a Foundation for Success with Upper-Funnel Search Formats
By Carolyn Dixon | May 26, 2020
Carolyn Dixon offers a review of Google’s Upper-Funnel ad formats. She showcases the differences between Discovery, Gmail, Local Campaign Ads, and Showcase ads. For each, she explains the format, how they are served, and the bidding options. To set yourself up for success with these formats, she recommends establishing clear KPI targets and measurement methodology, targeting the right audience, and building compelling creative, and emphasizes the importance of testing.
Create Google Display Countdown Ads Using Rules: Getting Creative With Ad Customizers
By Steph Jimenez | May 26, 2020
With the help of countdown customizers and some creativity, Google can automatically edit your ads to inform your customers about your upcoming sale. While countdown ads have been around for a while and are limited to expanded text ads (ETAs), you can use rules to replicate the same idea in Display as well. Countdown ads create a sense of urgency or exclusivity, where you can prompt customers to purchase sooner. Steph Jimenez walks you through how to set up a Display Countdown ad and how to use rules based on labels, as well as where to put ads and recording conversions.
5 Common Google Analytics Misconceptions
By Tim Jensen | May 26, 2020
“Every digital marketer should prioritize learning Google Analytics. The amount of free data you can gather about user activity on your site provides incredible value,” writes Tim Jensen. However, he argues that because digital marketers misunderstand how metrics are calculated, that can lead to faulty decisions. He reviews five common Google Analytics misconceptions to help improve your reporting and data decision making, including:
1. Google Analytics Tracks Everyone Who Visits
2. A User Is a Person
3. Average Session Duration Equals Actual Time on Site
4. Bounce Rate Measures Instant Exits
5. The Source/Medium Report Shows All Conversions By Source
Google Ads Incorporates Retail Category Reporting
By Susan Wenograd | May 26, 2020
Google Ads has announced Retail Category Reporting for e-commerce advertisers that allows them to see performance by retail category between search and social. Susan Wenograd reviews how to build a Retail Category Report. The new feature enables advertisers to leverage all of Google’s channels for the products they sell, make faster decisions on budget allocation, and quickly identify new category performance, or highlight issues in one campaign type that isn’t being experienced in another.
Audit Google Display Placements Like a Boss
By Madison Feldhake | May 27, 2020
Diligently auditing your display campaigns helps you to reduce wasted spend, gather quality data, and narrow down your target audiences to create new audiences for remarketing or other display campaigns. Madison Feldhake offers advice on how to do a quick but effective display campaign audit. First, check your Content and Website Exclusion settings to make sure you’re not showing up in places that could damage your brand. Next, look at your placements and sort through this data to refine your exclusions, since Google doesn’t guarantee that all exclusions from the content settings will not house our ad. Then, sort your data based on performance metrics. You can also exclude themes, website domains, and languages that don’t contribute to your brand.
The Step-by-Step Guide to Facebook Ads Recovery
By Kristina Simonson | May 27, 2020
“With more people online, and data suggesting that PPC accounts are rebounding after the initial impact of COVID-19, it’s time to start thinking about your strategy for reactivating Facebook advertising,” writes Kristina Simonson. She outlines how to prepare your Facebook Ads accounts to respond to the current state and then how to ramp back up, including:
- How to prioritize your spend for ROI today
- Tips to audit your existing Facebook ads account
- Steps to scale your account back up
- What to keep in mind as you scale
Don’t Miss YouTube Video Builder Beta
By Joe Martinez | May 28, 2020
YouTube’s new video builder tool is now in beta. Using this tool, you can create video content, upload it to your YouTube channels, and then immediately start creating video campaigns in Google Ads with your new videos. Joe Martinez reviews how to sign up for the beta account, the builder templates available, how to create a video with the tool, and how to promote your video with Google Ads.
Google Extends Customer Match to the Display Network
By Mark Irvine | May 28, 2020
Recently, Google enabled Customer Match on the Google Display Network. GDN advertisers can now use existing Customer Match audiences or create new audiences to target their ads across all of search, display, discovery, Gmail, and YouTube. Mark Irvine covers what Customer Match is, eligibility for use, and how to get started with the feature.
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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