State Of PPC – Where Are We Now?

February 23, 2016 By BJ Cook,

We can learn a lot from Justin Bieber, “Where are you now” with your knowledge of PPC Updates. As we’re approaching the end of February, it’s crazy to think about all the major changes in the PPC industry. Between Paid Search and Social Commerce, it’s hard to stay up on all of the trends and changes in the pay-per-click space. Luckily, we’ll be walking you through some of the biggest adjustments – and what each of them means for your digital marketing efforts.

Adwords

4 Top Ads – No Sidebar Ads

One of Google’s flagship products, it’s expected for the landscape to continuously change to meet advertiser’s demands. One of the biggest changes that was announced is that there will now be 4 top ads, and 0 ads on the right sidebar. As reported, Google hasn’t publicly stated this is the case, but multiple reps have confirmed.

What does this mean for advertisers?

It depends which side of the search you’re on. SEO campaign managers cannot be happy pushing their organic results farther down the page. Additionally, PPC experts are split as well. For advertisers with a smaller budget, bids will have to be increased to be in the top 4 positions to really play in the space. However, if you traditionally have an average position of between 3-4, this could give you a bump in impressions/clicks (Hopefully conversions) without having increasing average position, although bids will likely be increased by other advertisers.

Drafts Feature Now Available

We’ve been reading about this feature coming to Adwords for a while, and finally saw it pop up in our MCC a few days ago. Basically, the new “Drafts” element acts as the Adwords Editor in the MCC interface. You can now create campaigns and experiments offline, without pushing the changes live. This lends you the ability to show clients, managers or executives the changes you’re proposing in the actual UI (For all of the visual learners who need to really “see” what you’re proposing). The Adwords editor is still easier for advertisers who are making bulk changes, but this new Drafts feature is an awesome new tool!

Bing

End of “Yahoo Bing Network”

As of February 16th, the Yahoo Bing Network is now simply the Bing Network. Bing will continue to serve a percentage of Yahoo’s search results, the impact falls on the advertisers. Ad sales and Account Management will fall back to each respective company, with the Yahoo team handling the Gemini placements, and the Microsoft team handling the Bing placements.

Facebook

Lead Ads Inventory Available On Desktop

We’ve enjoyed a great deal of success with multiple clients with the new lead ads technology. The only difficulty was we weren’t able to scale as much as we’d like due to the functionality only working on mobile devices. There’s been a recent roll-out for the technology to be rolled out to desktop newsfeeds, and we’re expecting similar results on mobile and desktop. Additionally, two features have been added to the lead ads to help entice users submit. There are now carousel ads available, which allow advertisers the ability to show up to five images and headlines. The ability to tell consumers more about your company or offer before they submit is now available in the form of “context cards.” Context cards and carousel ads provide additional real estate to highlight your value proposition to show what the user will get by submitting. As the digital space continues to evolve, we must too, to evolve our marketing mix. Gone are the days of “set it and forget it,” and keeping up with industry trends is the only way to stay ahead of the curve. Have a great week everyone. Need help with your digital marketing efforts? Feel free to contact us at any time. We look forward to chatting.