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.
Google Discovery Ads Now Available to All Advertisers
By Mark Irvine | Jun 9, 2020

Google Discovery ads are now available to all advertisers globally. The ads are designed to help advertisers get their products discovered by potential audiences on Google’s Discover feed and at the top of YouTube and Gmail. Mark Irvine reviews what Discovery Ads are, their formats, the unique assets required, Discovery Carousel ads, targeting, bidding and budgets, and how to create an ad.
6 Steps to Attracting Paid Traffic That Converts
By Darina Andronova | Jun 9, 2020

Marketers looking for fast results use paid traffic as a strategy, as SEO and content marketing tends to take longer to see ROI. Creating and implementing a calculated paid traffic strategy that relies on a combination of manual planning and AI automation will help your paid traffic efforts. Darina Andronova discusses how you can make paid traffic more effective with a comprehensive approach, including:
- Create a Smart Paid Traffic Roadmap
- Plan Your Budget Wisely
- Create Winning Ad Copy
- Launch an Effective Landing Page
- Utilize All the Platforms
- Introduce Automation
4 things we learned about automated bidding during the pandemic
By Frederick Vallaeys | Jun 9, 2020

“The coronavirus pandemic has caused quite a bit of volatility leading to many paused PPC campaigns and an unexpected side effect is that this has given us new insights into how automated bidding works,” writes Frederick Vallaeys. He shares what he has recently learned from expert PPC professionals about automated bidding during the pandemic, including:
- Smart Bidding quickly adapts to changes
- Reduce budgets instead of pausing campaigns
- Take advantage of all bid automations
- A high Impression Share can be bad for automated bids
9 Productivity Tips to Save Time Content Marketing
By Brittany Berger | Jun 10, 2020

When you don’t have the bandwidth to take on fewer projects, you can find ways to complete those projects in less time. Brittany Berger shares how to save time on your content marketing campaigns by streamlining and optimizing your systems – from content planning to distribution. Her productivity tips include:
1. Brainstorm Content Ideas in Batches
2. Learn to Capture Ideas as You Have Them
3. Plan Out Promotion Before You Create
4. Use an Outline as a Skeleton
5. Separate Research From Writing
6. Create Long-Form Content in Short Sessions
7. Create a Repeatable Process
8. Reuse Copy from Base Content
9. Build-in Future Buffer Time
What You Need to Know About Parallel Tracking in Microsoft Ads
By Kristin Palmer | Jun 10, 2020

Microsoft Ads recently added the parallel tracking capability in ad accounts. Kristin Palmer reviews the advantages of parallel tracking and what you need to do to enable it in Microsoft Ads. She covers what parallel tracking is, the Microsoft Ads requirements, and how to enable it.
An Analysis of the 6 Google Shopping Bidding Models in 2020
By Kirk Williams | Jun 10, 2020

If you are running Shopping campaigns for your e-commerce site, it’s important to stay current on bidding models. Kirk Williams provides a brief look at each of the bidding models in Google Shopping Ads so you can have an idea of which to utilize for your own needs. The six models he analyzes include:
- Smart Shopping
- Standard Shopping – Target ROAS (TROAS)
- Standard Shopping – Maximize Clicks
- Standard Shopping – Maximize Conversion Value
- Standard Shopping – Enhanced Cost-Per-Click (ECPC)
- Standard Shopping – Manual Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
Google Merchant Center tips: Supplemental feeds and feed rules [Video]
By George Nguyen | Jun 11, 2020

Learn how to maximize your visibility in Google Shopping by using the supplemental feeds and feed rules tools to augment and optimize your product feeds. Kirk Williams shares a few ways to increase your products’ visibility on the Google Merchant Center platform in this video. He recommends that marketers focus on optimizing product titles using feed rules and experimenting with product descriptions.
4 Tips for Better Display Advertising During COVID-19
By Joe Martinez | Jun 12, 2020

Advertisers have shifted their use of the Google Display Network to help them implement their evolving marketing strategies during the pandemic. Joe Martinez shares some of the tactics he has implemented the most since COVID-19 started impacting his clients’ accounts. Those tactics include:
1. Test pay-per-conversion bid strategies
2. Monitor your placement reports more frequently
3. Get proactive with your exclusion strategy
4. Work on your managed placement campaigns
8 Simple Google Ads Tips That Will Make You More Money
By Susan Wenograd | Jun 12, 2020

“A well-executed PPC campaign can be crucial to an advertiser’s overall conversions and revenue,” writes Susan Wenograd. She shares these eight tips to streamlining and boosting your paid traffic strategy:
1. Make Your Landing Page Relevant
2. Optimize Negative Keywords
3. Use the Right Keyword Match-Types
4. Alter Keyword Match Type Over Time
5. Fill Out All Available Ad Content
6. Use Every Relevant Ad Extension
7. Adjust Bids for Geotargeting
8. Look for Opportunities to Drive Budget to Mobile
3 Forecasting Strategies For PPC Data Anomalies
By Lara Lowery | Jun 15, 2020

The pandemic has drastically shifted our digital priorities and budgets, impacting marketing budgets in the immediate future and for the rest of the year and into next year. Lara Lowery shares these forecasting strategies to help you plan future budgets:
- Strategy One – Projections Without Adjustments
- Strategy Two – Accounting For Fluctuations
- Strategy Three – Excluding The Anomaly
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.