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.
3 Tips to Get More Free Traffic from Google Ad Grants
By Joe Martinez | Jul 27, 2020

It is true that accounts using Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits have their limitations. Joe Martinez shares these three key workarounds that you can use to try to get as much free traffic as possible:
1. Use mobile app extensions to promote your apps
2. Try Dynamic Search Ads to broaden your reach
3. Set up automated bidding to get beyond CPC limits
9 Ways to Level Up Your Facebook Video Marketing
By Michelle Morgan | Jul 28, 2020

Facebook video marketing is effective and holds the attention of consumers. However, some marketers may find that video marketing is expensive, time-consuming, or expensive. Michelle Morgan has some recommendations to make video marketing more accessible. She offers some tips for the types of videos you can use in your ads, then runs through campaign creation and getting the most out of the users who have seen your video ads, including:
1. Choose the right type of video content
2. Make sure your video is formatted correctly—for mobile
3. Grab your viewer’s attention in the opening
4. Include a clear call to action
5. Always use captions
6. Video length
7. Create videos for all stages of the funnel
8. Choose the right objective for your Facebook video marketing campaign
9. Use the “aha” moment to segment your audience
Early LinkedIn Conversation Ads Results
By Connor Regan | Jul 29, 2020

Conversation Ads are a form of native advertising displayed to LinkedIn members that allow you to start conversations with professionals and business decision-makers via LinkedIn Messaging on both desktop and mobile devices. Connor Regan shares a test he has been running with a client account that has centered around presenting the target audience with ungated case studies to educate and intrigue the audience about their product offerings to the point where they want to talk to one of their product experts. The data suggests that conversation ads can be drivers of top-funnel engagement.
Will Google’s Latest Shopping Actions Changes Help It Better Compete with Amazon?
By Melissa Reilly | Jul 29, 2020

Melissa Reilly explores whether or not the latest changes Buy On Google offers advertisers will be enough to compete with Amazon. The current paid Shopping Actions program will be transitioning to Buy on Google, a 0% commission advertising opportunity. The new changes aim to improve cost, ease of entry, and advertiser control. More shoppers may be encouraged to begin their shopping journey on Google instead of Amazon with a greater selection. However, there are still major hurdles that could hinder Buy on Google’s growth as merchants selling on Buy on Google still need to have their own website adhering to Google Shopping policies.
15 Ways to Optimize a Paid Search Campaign
By Susan Wenograd | Jul 30, 2020

There is a lot of data to sift through in PPC, and it can be challenging to know where to start when a decision needs to be made. Susan Wenograd suggests that once you clearly define what your objectives are, these tips will help you optimize your campaign performance:
1. Channel & Campaign
2. Budget & Impression Share
3. Hour of Day & Day of Week
4. Location Bid Adjustments
5. Search Query Analysis & Negative Keywords
6. Search Partner Exclusion
7. Keyword
8. Landing Pages
9. Ad Copy
10. Device
11. Audiences
12. Conversion Counting
13. Match Type Strategy
14. Keyword Matching
15. Use Experiments
Google blows up ad headline font in new test
By Ginny Marvin | Jul 30, 2020

Google appears to be testing the first position ad’s first headline by making the font size noticeably bigger. It does not appear to be happening in the lower ad positions outside of the top four. It’s easy to see this treatment yielding higher click-through rates.
5 tips for starting international PPC
By Tim Jensen | Jul 31, 2020

Internationally expanding your marketing efforts requires much more strategy than merely copying your campaigns and setting geographic targeting. Tim Jensen warns, “Don’t rush into setting up international campaigns until you’ve thought out budgeting, channel allocation, account structure, localization, and unique regional concerns.” In this article, Jensen expands on each of these points to help you establish a framework for beginning to target other countries, including:
- Budget for different costs by country
- Research top channels by region
- Plan for account structure
- Include asset localization
- Identify unique regional concerns
The Most Underutilized Microsoft Advertising Features
By Danielle Strouther | Jul 31, 2020

While Google holds the market share in advertising, Microsoft Advertising can be a game-changer for some businesses. Microsoft Partner Development Manager, Anoushka Singh, exclusively tells PPCHero some of their best and most underutilized advertising features, including:
- In-depth targeting options
- LinkedIn Profile Targeting
- Microsoft Search Partners
- Competition & intelligent reporting
- Microsoft’s Universal Event Tracking (UET)
- Image Ad Extensions
- Small Budgets
- Google Import
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.