Whatever you can say about 2022 so far, nobody can claim it’s been uneventful. Businesses, markets, economies – they’ve all been on a rollercoaster ride in the months since the clock struck midnight, the fireworks went off, and this year began. And the world of pay-per-click (PPC) marketing hasn’t been sitting still either. As a digital marketing executive at Fifty Five and Five, I’ve been closely monitoring recent changes in the paid media world and evaluating how the PPC trends in 2022 have had an impact on the marketing landscape and how new developments allow us to better serve our clients. In this blog, you’ll learn my discoveries and what they mean for your business. Let’s explore the top 5 PPC trends in 2022 so far.
1. The rise of automation
Although some marketers have regarded automation with suspicion – and others have outright rejected it – it’s becoming a reality we can’t avoid. And one that’s starting to show significant benefits.
More and more marketers are adopting Google’s responsive ads and Facebook’s automated ads. Facebook’s offering hasn’t yet delivered the results we’re looking for in our tests, but the format is still young, so time will tell if they will improve PPC performance in future.
Google’s responsive ads achieved a click-through rate (CTR) of 5.69% in a recent PPC campaign – compared to a 4.32% CTR via the expanded text ad format. It’s a promising start, which might owe something to the fact the Google’s responsive ads were launched earlier (May ‘18) than Facebook’s (Dec ‘18).
In any case, it’s clear that automation is definitely the way the wind’s blowing. Here are three of the biggest benefits of getting on board with the trend:
- Higher CTRs: Google’s responsive ads performed 5.75% better than expanded and converted 8.5% better.
- Easier to understand: the Google Ads interface allows users to see whether their ad’s quality is good enough or need improvement.
- Saves time: Optimise your ads and achieve better results with less manual tweaking and experimentation.
Now I’ll run through some top tips for making the most of PPC automation:
> Be smart when building ads
Now you have a smart tool that tells you whether your ads are good or bad and whether you’ve inserted the keyword enough in the text. Be smart and select the best-performing keywords to implement in the copy so your ads will perform even better.
> You’ve got time now. Use it well!
I’ve often faced the challenge of not being able to optimise negative keywords because I don’t have time. In the past, monitoring ads often required going through worse performing ads, analysing what isn’t working and talking to the writing team to improve them. That’s over now, so we can focus on other more important matters like keywords and improving audience targeting. For example, Google Ads provides the option to target a specific audience sector and it offers stats that help you see whether those audiences are performing. Marketers are also able to tweak the bid for each audience, which is an excellent way to use the time that automation is helping you save.
2. SEO and PPC are now a team
This year has also seen search engine optimisation (SEO) and PPC working increasingly closely together. These two disciplines are indispensable to a digital marketer’s toolbox, and their new convergence means that together they offer even more value. This PPC trend introduced is a victory for joined-up digital marketing: when all the elements fit together and work perfectly.
Here’s how SEO can help to improve PPC performance:
> Increased visibility
By running a PPC campaign along with SEO, you’re ensuring your website’s traffic increases considerably and also you’ll give the impression that you are a permanent presence in your market.
> More keyword data to analyse
Running SEO and PPC campaigns together means you can see and analyse a wealth of additional data that will enable you to make more informed decisions in your global marketing strategy.
> Best-performing PPC ad copy informs organic content strategy
It’s useful to see which of your ads work well and lead to maximum conversions. You can then create title tags, meta descriptions and content using these as your basis, learning from what has worked for PPC.
3. Audience targeting is getting better
More and more businesses are realising the importance of accurate targeting of their digital marketing, and of offering potential customers valuable content. At Fifty Five and Five, we’re already long-time devotees of the art of content marketing, so it’s good to see others are reaching the same conclusions we have.
Here are the most effective ways to reach your target audience via PPC:
> Define your audience via personas
Defining your audience involves more than selecting the right keywords or targeting the correct audience in Facebook ads. By creating our own consumer personas, you’ll be able to be more specific and accurate with your targeting and ensure you’re building the right audience across all the different channels.
> Offer useful and relevant content
Content isn’t just about getting the client’s offering out there and waiting for leads to come. Don’t just try to trigger clicks: provide content that responds to their needs at that moment. Using the right tone and expressing the intention to help will reach your audience and encourage them not just to click on the ad but go further, completing a lead form or visiting the website the ad links to.
> Build a relevant audience in each platform
Each platform is different and they’re continually changing. It’s recommended to stay up to date with the latest news, so you can be a useful, credible authority for your audience. They have questions, and you want to be the one with the answers. For instance, if they’re following you for digital marketing news and insights, they may ask: “should we use hashtags in Twitter ad copy?” Or “should we build an audience on LinkedIn based on skills or job titles?” Keeping up with new announcements means you can provide the information they’re looking for.
4. ¡Viva el video!
Video is one of the most engaging types of content available to marketers, and we love to work with the format because of the amazing results it can deliver. The better optimised the video is, the better results you can get. For example, our latest video campaign on LinkedIn reached a view rate of 34.25% – which is higher than the benchmark provided by LinkedIn.
So how can we make the most of video content to create very successful campaigns? Here are our tips for the fundamentals:
- Briefer is often better. Usually a short length of around 30 seconds is best.
- Focusing on the content is the key. Be dynamic and get straight to the point.
- Music matters. Don’t annoy your audience with a distracting background track.
5. It’s time for portfolio bidding
This is really clever and useful stuff, and a topic I’m fascinated with – it could be one of the most exciting PPC trends in 2022. I could write an entire blog on the subject, and perhaps one day I will. But for now, let’s take a look at what portfolio bidding is and what it offers.
The PPC bidding portfolio is a library where you can store different bidding strategies used across campaigns and ad groups, as well as keywords, to help you reach your goals.
Here’s why I think the bidding portfolio is very cool:
- It helps you to ensure all your campaigns are fully optimized at all times, giving you the best chance that they will succeed.
- It saves lots of time in managing each campaign’s budget and it also gives you more control over what you spend.
- Its new seasonality feature lets you tweak bids for specific periods of time. This means you can align them better with other activity.
I think you’ll be hearing the words ‘bidding portfolio’ more and more in digital marketing conversations as time goes by, so my advice is to get acquainted with it sooner rather than later. My prediction: it’ll get to the point where you wonder how you managed without it – like all the best developments.
Will there be more PPC trends in 2022?
I hope this article has been useful and that you’re finding these PPC trends in 2022 as interesting as I am. The year’s not over yet, and there’s still time for new trends to emerge before we usher in 2021. It’s a fast-moving world – let’s see what’s up next.