As the world becomes more digital, online advertising has become a major part of a company’s overall marketing strategy. Online advertising uses the internet to attract customers and prospects to your company/ brand and consists of several types of crucial trends, including: display advertising, search engine marketing and optimization, social media, native advertising, remarketing, affiliate marketing, video ads, and PPC.
Pay Per Click advertising, or PPC, allows marketers to place ads on an ad platform. The marketer pays the host of the platform each time the ad is clicked. The objective of the ad is to lead the viewer clicking the ad back to the marketer’s website or app so the viewer can complete an action, such as purchasing a product or service. PPC is popular with advertisers because it allows for quick entry, provides results which are easy to measure and track, and offers a treasure-trove of useful data.
Trends in advertising are always evolving and it’s important to know the latest trends to create the most effective marketing strategy for your company and brand. If you are looking to incorporate PPC advertising or have been integrating it into your online advertising campaign, here are five trends for PPC that you should watch.
- Diversifying PPC Platforms
Google and Facebook have continue to trend as the top platforms used by advertisers with regards to PPC. Google currently holds 37.2% of the digital advertising market, and Facebook holds 19.6%. But people are spending more time on niche platforms such as LinkedIn or Amazon which caters to a specific type of visitor. For instance, an individual looking to increase his/her business connections would spend more time on LinkedIn and an individual looking for a “how to” video would spend time on YouTube.
The internet holds plenty of trending alternative PPC platforms that can be incorporated with your online advertising strategy such as:
LinkedIn – With 630 million users on LinkedIn, it’s the best advertising platform for B2B companies.
Quora – Advertisers can reach more that 300 million monthly active users, and can target their content based on users’ behaviors and activity.
Bing – Bing is responsible for 36.2% and 11.2 billion monthly searches. Also, according to Microsoft, Bing connects you with 49.4 million more searchers than Google.
Amazon – Amazon is one of the best sites for eCommerce businesses to incorporate advertising. With over 197 million visitors monthly, it’s truly America’s top marketplace. Whether or not you’re a seller on Amazon, you can still advertise with them. You can use your ad on Amazon to redirect your customers to your website.
- Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is slowly creeping its way into every facet of our society, including the way we market our businesses and products. The appeal of AI automation is that it takes care of repetitive daily takes, which allows more time for a small business to focus on strategy and testing. A few of the current benefits of AI for PPC include:
- The aptitude to predict the click-through-rate of future ads and the impact it will have on quality scores
- The ability to use historic data to predict the likelihood of a conversion
- Helps advertisers identify the bids that drive the most traffic
- Optimize keywords, ads or campaigns when a certain event happens
- Optimize ad campaigns for long-tail keywords
- Provide detailed diagnostic information for active keywords at once
- Smart Bidding
Smart Bidding assists with bidding for Google Ads by using machine learning to optimize your ads for conversion based on your goals. Once you tell Google your advertising goal, Smart Bidding figures how to achieve your goals within your budget. Smart Bidding can help advertisers:
- Generate new leads and customers for your desired cost per acquisition
- Receive the best ROI on what you have spent
- Increase your conversion rate
- Improve ad performance
- Virtual Reality Ads
Depending on your age virtual reality ads sounds like something from “Blade Runner,” but if your target audience is Millennials and Gen Zers, then VR ads are the way to go. Virtual Reality Ads allow viewers to try a product before they purchase it. VR ads uses eye-tracking technology to activate an ad. After the user gazes at for a few seconds, the ad starts. 360-degree-video will aid consumers with interacting with the products, helping to educate the customers before they buy the product.
- Video Ads
Video killed the radio star, and it is also becoming the content star because more people view their content on mobile devices. Forbes stated the average user will spend 88% more time on a website with video than one without. Videos allow a brand to show their personality through very compelling storytelling. If the thought of high production costs is keeping you from integrating this into your PPC advertising, do not fret, bumper machine can help you to offset the cost of a video production. Bumper Machine can convert videos shorter than 90 seconds into a selection of 6-second bumper ads to display throughout YouTube.
The conclusion, online advertising is an ever-evolving medium with new features being introduced as fast as an eye can blink. In order to stay ahead of your competition, you must stay in the know of new developments, adapt and experiment. Integrating these trends will help take your digital marketing to a new level.