Building a strong online presence is a basic pre-requisite for business growth in today’s market milieu. This strong online presence goes way beyond just creating a dynamic website. With the online space turning into an intensely competitive environment, businesses can no longer sit back and wait for potential customers to find them. You now need a proactive outlook to reach out to your target audience with campaigns compelling enough to drive them to you. With 4.4 billion Internet users worldwide, out of which 3.5 billion actively use different social media platforms, the virtual space has endless potential for growth. The key to leveraging this potential lies in a sound marketing strategy capable of cutting through the competition to reach potential customer base.
In 2019, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) alone isn’t enough to work that magic. If you want to establish a stronghold in the online market space, you must make room for PPC (pay-per-click) advertising in your marketing strategy. It involves placing paid advertisements to make your website – and in turn your business – visible to a cross-section of highly targeted user base. As per Google, businesses stand to earn over $2 for every $1 spent on these advertisements. However, achieving such returns requires an effective marketing strategy based on latest trends. Here is a lowdown on the top 10 trends you need to take into consideration when developing a PPC strategy for 2019.
Traffic Goes Mobile
Just like you, almost everyone today uses mobile devices for Internet searches. As a result, the volume of mobile searches far exceeds that of desktops. For any business running a digital marketing campaign, offering customized mobile ads experience can be a great way to reach higher number of potential customers. For devising a mobile-centric campaign, you can work with a PPC agency to assess keywords vis-a-vis mobile traffic and then re-allocate budget as per devices.
New Ad Avenues are Still Opening Up
When it comes to online advertising, most businesses aim for the more popular platforms such as Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like. The logic seems simple: your ads should be where most users are. However, this is where most of your competitors are too. There are still new avenues and opportunities, as long as you look in the right place. In terms of PPC campaigns, Quora present one such opportunity. With 300 million monthly active users and an ad platform still in its nascent stages, this unique channel for running PPC ads gives you unmissable targeting options.
Audience over Keywords
So far, keywords have dominated everything in the online space, right from content to advertising campaigns. However, this keyword-driven approach is now fading into the past. Today, any futuristic PPC agency would focus on audience targeting strategies that can bring more value to any campaign. It is not as simple as keyword targeting, as there are a lot of variables at play when you are targeting humans instead of search engines. However, if done right, an audience-centric PPC campaign can be far more rewarding in terms of ROI.
Automation is Here
Automation is no longer a futuristic concept. It is here and here to stay. The use of automation alongside human intelligence has entered the fray of online advertising as well. For example, Google is using automation for tracking users’ online activity for personalised ad placements. If you have the means for it, you must work with advertisers that use automation for tasks such as reporting, tracking and bid management, and reserve human skills for core tasks such as strategising, creative ad creation and more.
Voice Search is Gaining Traction
Use of voice search is continually on the rise. As per predictions, more than 50% of all online searches would be done by voice by 2020. This trend is significant for any PPC strategy, as voice searches are markedly different in character than typed searches. With an eye on the future, marketers must start devising PPC campaigns that cater to voice search requests.
Videos Grab Eyeballs
The attention span on the average online user is abysmally low. A target user may not have the patience to scroll through an entire ad copy but wouldn’t mind taking in all that information in a 30-sec video format. Videos are a great way to improve engagement, and for that reason alone, these must feature in your PPC campaign. In addition to better engagement, these also drive better ad placement, which makes them a fool-proof search engine marketing (SEM) strategy for securing high returns on low budget.
Amazon has an Amazing Run with Ads
The advertising revenues on Amazon have skyrocketed in a little over two year. According the Business Insider, the e-commerce giant’s ad based earnings grew 139% between 2016 and 2018. This leaves little room for doubt about Amazon’s potential in the PPC marketing space, which is why placing ads on Amazon must feature in any forward-thinking PPC strategy.
Building Brand Value
With so many e-retailers and online stores selling just about every conceivable item online, customers have started leaning in favour of platforms with an established brand value. So, PPC campaigns can no longer be just about ROI or sales of a particular product or service. Building up on brand recognition and brand value also needs to be a core part of a PPC strategy, as it brings in long-term gains.
Multi-Channel Campaigns
With over 150 marketing and content promotion channels in the online space today, a multi-channel approach to PPC advertising is inevitable. The most crucial factor here is to choose the most profitable platforms for running multi-channel PPC campaigns, so that you engage with target audience and gain visibility incurring losses or funnelling in exorbitant amounts of money.
Remarketing Remains Viable
Rehashing old campaigns or reintroducing ads is not a new phenomenon in the PPC marketing space, and it continues to hold ground even in 2019. It is a great way to maximize ROI on any PPC ad, and therefore, businesses must aim for timeless ad campaigns that can used, reused and then some, to derive optimum profits from a single investment.
The Bottom Line
PPC advertising will remain a key component of any online marketing strategy, at least for the foreseeable future. The focus should be on using this viable promotional tool to drive tangible results. Keeping up with the latest trends and tweaking PPC strategies accordingly is the way to go.
