PPC: What's the big deal?
PPC or pay-per-click is how modern businesses advertise their products and services online through search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. PPC has a unique pricing model, instead of paying for an ad placement on a search engine results page, like you would pay for a billboard placement along a highway, in PPC you are only charged when your ad is clicked by a browser. Businesses bid on specific keywords and set budgets for campaigns within their chosen advertising channel. PPC has permeated all aspects of the digital landscape, from Facebook and Instagram Ads, to Google and Bing. PPC is everywhere, and it provides businesses with powerful targeting, granular data, and significant returns on investment. There are many powerful PPC strategies that can be employed to boost your bottom line. As Q4 wraps up, it’s important for ambitious businesses to examine their PPC strategy and consider it’s areas of success and areas that could use some work. We’ve compiled five valuable PPC trends that can boost your business in 2023:
1. Visual Search
The term “visual search” may sound redundant as vision is a primary sense utilized during digital searches. However, “visual search” has a newfound meaning when it comes to PPC advertising. Search engines like Google and Bing, as well as social platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, have pioneered a new way to search for products online. These visual search features utilize artificial intelligence to analyze images provided by the user to determine their content and intended use. The visual search tool will then pull up related images and products. For example, If one of your friends has a handbag that you love, but they can’t remember where they ordered it from, you can simply snap a photo and use a visual search tool to find that specific handbag or one closely resembling it.
Pretty cool right? But how does this relate to PPC? In order to ensure your products are shown on visual searches, you should create a photo catalog of all your products. You should also verify that all of your uploaded images have the proper alt text and metadata so that search engines can properly index them and determine their context.
2. Don’t Forget About Bing
We all know that Google is the most popular search engine in the world. Many businesses choose to focus all of their efforts on Google, and while this can be an effective strategy if you have limited scope; you shouldn’t completely forego the other guys. Bing has rebranded itself as Microsoft ads, and with this revitalization, they’ve experienced considerable success. Although Bing’s market share is only 3.14%, a tiny fraction of Google’s 92%, they are still the second most popular search engine in the U.S, and they receive over a billion unique searches every month. Microsoft users also tend to be older and have higher household incomes, so depending on your brand’s target market, Bing users could be valuable prospects for your PPC strategy.
3. Amazon Advertising
Amazon wouldn’t be Amazon if they didn’t get a slice of the PPC pie. Amazon paid advertising is creeping up behind Facebook and Google for a top spot as the fastest growing paid advertiser. The best thing about advertising on Amazon is that users are already in a purchasing mindset. When on Google or Facebook, users may be looking for answers to questions or browsing for entertainment purposes. When on Amazon, users have already shown intent. Businesses also get the benefits of leveraging Amazon’s extensive knowledge about buyer behavior. By targeting specific keywords you can reach larger audiences, increase conversions, and improve ROAS. Amazon also uses the PPC payment model, so marketers can easily adopt this highly lucrative form of paid advertising.
4. Mobile Optimization
You’ve heard it before and you’ll probably hear it again. Mobile optimization is crucial to the success of any PPC strategy in 2023. Over ⅔ of all Google searches are conducted on mobile devices, and many consumers have expressed that they won’t even visit a site if it isn’t optimized for mobile traffic. You should always ensure that your PPC strategy is created with a mobile-first mindset to ensure your marketing dollars aren’t wasted. Consider developing a mobile app for your business or creating a mobile design for your website.
5. Diversification
Marketing is a simple term for what is such a multi-faceted and complex discipline. In order to have a robust and successful marketing strategy in 2023, businesses need to understand the importance of diversification. You can’t throw all of your efforts into one marketing tactic. If you have a winning PPC strategy, and lack in the technical aspects of SEO, your performance could fall flat. Likewise, if you have high-quality content, but no traffic and no visibility on search engines, the efforts in creating said content were wasted. Businesses should ensure they are investing equal or sufficient time and effort into both organic and paid strategies.
Consider working with a ppc agency
Balancing all the different aspects of your marketing mix can be laborious and challenging. And many companies aren’t sure where to start. If you have questions about what agencies can do for your PPC, or digital marketing strategy reach out to us at Fahrenheit Marketing! We offer content strategy creation, SEO services, and PPC expertise. We can work with you to grow your business and surpass your business goals.