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.
Newly Updated PPC Benchmarks for 21 Industries [June 2020]
By Mark Irvine | Jun 2, 2020

“With a month of new data in hand, and even more change in the air, we decided to update these popular PPC benchmarks across 21 industries,” explains WordStream’s Mark Irvine. WordStream has tracked the benchmarks across both Google & Bing search and shopping campaigns to let you see how your ads are performing in comparison to your peers and how to ramp up your PPC accounts. A few key takeaways include:
- The coronavirus outbreak is changing our daily lives.
- Overall, CTRs are up nearly universally across Google and Bing.
- Although CVR is falling in many industries, CPC is mostly falling hand-in-hand at the same time.
LinkedIn Adds Engagement Remarketing for Video and Lead Ads
By Susan Wenograd | Jun 3, 2020

LinkedIn has announced engagement retargeting options, which will be rolling out into accounts over the next month. This new functionality allows advertisers to create retargeting audiences of users who have Video Ads or interacted with Lead Gen Forms. Susan Wenograd provides information for setting up engagement remarketing for lead ads and video in the new feature.
How to Customize Creative by Placement Type in Facebook & Instagram Ads
By Andrea Taylor | Jun 3, 2020

A relatively new feature in Facebook Ads allows advertisers to customize text, headlines, and links for the different Facebook and Instagram placements within the same ad set. The new feature is being gradually rolled out and may not be available in all accounts. Andrea Taylor reviews how to find and set up the new asset customization for placements feature.
4 Tips For Facebook Catalog Sales Campaigns Efficiency
By Bahador Jamshidi | Jun 3, 2020

Catalogs and product feeds play a key role in paid media advertising to promote an e-commerce business. Facebook’s Catalog Sales Campaigns enables advertisers to upload the inventory information of an online store and use it for dynamic retargeting with the ad information and creative being pulled from the product information uploaded or synced. Bahador Jamshidi offers the following tips for increasing Facebook Catalog Sales Campaigns efficiency:
- Clean Up the Product Feed
- Diversify the Creative
- QA the Tracking
- Leverage Dynamic Broad Audiences
Diagnose Google Ads’ Performance Changes Faster With Explanations
By Susan Wenograd | Jun 4, 2020

Google Ads has announced a beta for Explanations to help speed up the process of diagnosing changes in impressions, clicks, cost, and conversions. The feature will only be available for Search campaigns using manual bidding or enhanced CPC, and it will not be available for Display, Video, Shopping, auto-bid setups, or Dynamic Search Ads. It supports data for impressions, clicks, costs, and conversions, with data only available for up to a 90-day window. Susan Wenograd explains how to access the feature and what the different Explanations mean.
How To Set Up A Macro In Google Sheets
By Ryan Murphy | Jun 4, 2020

Ryan Murphy demonstrates how to set up the Google Sheets macro, hosted by Google Apps Script. Macros can be used to sort data, format sheets, and clean up reports. The App Scripts can do all that and more, from writing and using custom functions to interacting with Google Analytics and Google Ads.
Amazon Attribution Gives Advertisers a Fuller Picture of the Path-to-Purchase
By Melissa Reilly | Jun 4, 2020

Amazon Attribution (in beta) allows advertisers to add tracking to various campaigns to understand how users behave when they engage with other channels just before visiting Amazon. Tracking can be applied to search ads, display ads, video ads, email, and social. While this is a good step in the right direction, Melissa Reilly notes these limitations:
1. Incompatibility with Amazon advertising
2. No multi-touch attribution
3. Fourteen-day attribution window for all advertisers
4. Limitations for sellers
New Google Ads Retail Category Reporting
By Bethany Bey | Jun 8, 2020

Google’s new beta retail category reporting allows advertisers to see performance for pre-defined product categories across Search and Shopping campaigns in one report. Retail Category Reporting is only available for Google search results page, Google Shopping tab, and Google Images tab. Bethany Bey explains how the new feature works, where to find it, and how to set it up.
When To Test Google Ads Portfolio Bidding
By Mike Matta | Jun 8, 2020

“Portfolio bidding allows you to group campaigns together under one bidding strategy. This gives you the opportunity to feed more data into Google’s AI and ultimately drive better performance,” explains Mike Matta. He explains how to set up a portfolio bidding strategy and suggests testing these areas:
- Campaigns Segmented by Location
- Campaigns Segmented by Audience
- Campaigns Segmented by Match Type
- Campaigns Segmented by Theme
- Campaigns with Shared Budgets
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.