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 ongoing race between ad blockers and ad tech: Who’s winning?
By Ivan Guzenko | Jun 15, 2020
“U.S ad blocking penetration rate has grown from 15,7% to 26,4% over the past seven years,” explains Ivan Guzenko. He explores how advertisers and publishers can come to terms with ad-blocking while being able to safeguard revenues and ensure that their audiences stay happy. He examines why users use ad blockers, Google’s part in the adblocking movement, and how advertisers can still reach their target audiences.
The Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting a Content Audit in 2020
By Alina Petrova | Jun 16, 2020
Regular content audits can help you identify content that needs to be improved or that can be repurposed into other formats. Alina Petrova defines a content audit as “the process of systematically analyzing and assessing all the content on your website. The final objective is to reveal strengths and weaknesses in your content strategy, and adapt your content plan to your current marketing goals.” She offers five essential steps on how to audit your content in her guide, including:
- Step 1: Define Your Goals and Metrics
- Step 2: Take An Inventory of Your Content
- Step 3: Collect and Analyze Data
- Step 4: Draw Up An Action Plan
- Step 5: Adjust Your Content Marketing Strategy
How to track free Shopping traffic from Surfaces across Google [Video]
By George Nguyen | Jun 18, 2020
In this video, Kirk Williams and Mike Ryan discussed how to track free product listing traffic in Google Analytics. You can combine UTM parameters and Google Analytics to see how shoppers behave after they click through on your Shopping listings. George Nguyen explains why this is helpful by saying, “Although clicks for unpaid Shopping listings are already tracked in Google Merchant Center, routing this information through Google Analytics enables merchants to track user behavior after the click. This provides merchants with more data on how users are interacting with their sites, which can be used to inform their marketing strategies.”
How To Maximize eCommerce Revenue When Demand Skyrockets
By Stephanie White | Jun 18, 2020
The current pandemic has changed search behavior as more people shift to buying online – some e-commerce companies are seeing record revenue months. More e-commerce businesses have experienced an increase in conversion rate performance, especially in the DIY sector. Stephanie White reviews some examples of e-commerce businesses that carry DIY products and the impacts on their business from the stay-at-home period and how any advertiser can maximize revenue for similar DIY product brands during this unprecedented time, including:
1. Increase Paid Media Budgets To Meet Increased Demand
2. Run Additional Promotions
3. Increase or Decrease Bids Based On The New Data
4. Perform A Search Query Analysis And Adjust According To The Insights
Here’s how to use the new Microsoft Ads Audience Network Planner
By Joe Martinez | Jun 18, 2020
If you’re looking to expand reach for your Microsoft Audience Ads, the Audience Network Planner can provide you with more information and data about who the audience is. Joe Martinez shows you how you can research your targeting audience on the Microsoft Audience Network to use in your campaigns. He reviews where to find the tool, researching your targeting options for Audience Ads estimates, reviewing the estimated performance, and applying your audience to your Microsoft Ads account.
Why Google Ads Might Not Be Working for You
By Susan Wenograd | Jun 18, 2020
“When a Google Ads account struggles, there are usually some go-to areas to check out first,” explains Susan Wenograd. Here are seven common issues she recommends looking at and how to fix them, including:
1. Not Understanding Match Types
2. Trying to Interrupt the Search
3. ROI Doesn’t Align with Profits
4. Landing Pages Do Not Convert
5. Price or Other Competitive Factors
6. No Optimizations of the Account
7. No Audience Observations & Adjustments
Youtube brings products to YouTube for action ads
By Ginny Marvin | Jun 18, 2020
YouTube is continuing to make more ads more shoppable by allowing e-commerce advertisers to show products in their TrueView for action ads. A selection of products appears below the video when the users click on the expansion arrow in a TrueView for action banner.
What Does It Mean to Create Engaging Content?
By Jessica Foster | Jun 18, 2020
Jessica Foster discusses what “engaging” content means and how you can create content that drives engagement. She reviews what determines engagement, KPIs for engagement, why we want engaging content, and how to drive engagement.
Cross-Platform Lead-Gen Strategy That Lowers CPL
By Tanner Schroeder | Jun 22, 2020
Tanner Schroeder shares a recent cross-platform strategy between LinkedIn and Facebook he has implemented. The strategy allows him to gain qualified users higher up in the funnel on Linkedin and then remarket to bottom-funnel leads on Facebook for a cheaper overall cost and a more qualified audience that makes its way to the sales team.
Google Gives Businesses Free Ads in Google Maps
By Matt Southern | Jun 22, 2020
Google is giving businesses the opportunity to promote themselves for free in Google Maps, from now until September 2020. Smart campaign advertisers with a Google My Business listing will not be charged for clicks, calls, or sales generated from promoted pins to assist small businesses that are now in the process of reopening after lockdown.
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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