PPC Trends for 2022: How to Get Noticed

Updating Your PPC Campaigns for 2022: The PPC Trends to Watch

Ad campaigns need to be consistently monitored and updated due to the ever-changing rules and recommendations around PPC marketing in general. It’s often said that PPC advertisers who fail to effectively A/B test their ad formats will be unlikely to make significant moves in the PPC world, but the same goes for those who don’t keep up with what is trending in the industry.

If you’re looking for insights into some of the broader digital marketing trends for the new year, take a look at our other recent blog post. But for now, here are 5 PPC trends you definitely don’t want to miss.

1. Potential New Platforms For PPC Ad Campaigns

As we will all be aware, Facebook and Google Ads have been the largest players in the digital advertising game for several years, but could this be about to change in 2022? Other social media platforms such as LinkedIn are increasingly being used for advertising (with LinkedIn being particularly prominent in the B2B sector), allowing marketers to reach users across 200+ countries, and other platforms like Bing and Amazon are also seeing increased usage.

To reach these users who are not making themselves accessible through Facebook and Google Ads, businesses may need to approach their marketing strategy in a new way. It’s no longer enough to focus all of your paid advertising efforts on one default search engine. To truly connect with your target audience through your ads, you must first analyse where they’re spending their time online and match where your ads are appearing to their digital habits.

2. Mobile Friendly PPC Ads

It’s no surprise that optimising ads for mobile devices is one of the stand-out PPC trends to watch in 2022. With mobile-first marketing prompting huge waves of change this past year across website content, PPC campaigns must now follow suit. As mobile shopping continues to rise, a successful PPC campaign must be readily optimised to cater to these mobile users.

In doing this, you may also find opportunities to get more creative with your ad formats or ad copy. When considering mobile-first parameters, think about the customer journey as a whole – what does the user want to gain from your Google shopping, video or responsive search ads? Will they be more likely to consider voice search when using mobile devices?

Since mobile usage now exceeds desktop usage, it will most likely be the case that interactive elements of digital advertising, such as more enticing visuals, video ads and voice search, will be the PPC trend that stands the test of time – this is because people will generally be less inclined to read lengthy pieces of content on a smaller screen. Being on-the-go will also encourage people to watch clips and use voice search more regularly as it requires less hands-on effort from the user.
Of course, the more variety you can include in your mobile-first PPC campaigns, the better. Just make sure everything is completely optimised and working smoothly so that you don’t get caught out.

Voice Search On Mobile

Voice search is available on most devices, but is most commonly used on mobile. Most voice searches will be question based, so long-tail, question oriented keywords will likely work best for your PPC campaigns if you’re optimising for voice search. As well as evaluating keywords, you will also need to do the following:

• Remove negative keywords
• Consider the marketing funnel – are your buyers at the awareness stage, the consideration stage or the decision stage?
• Focus on Google and Bing – other ad platforms will be less helpful for voice search, as Google and Bing are the default search engines for Google/Apple assistant products, and Alexa.

3. PPC Automation: Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

Machine learning and artificial intelligence will no doubt be a significant PPC trend in 2022. Using machine learning for Google and Bing ads is nothing new to any PPC marketing strategy, however it is set to see even greater usage in the coming year thanks to its increasing accessibility.

With automation, PPC experts can complete tasks far more efficiently. AI can assist performance tracking, optimising a bidding strategy, testing ads and monitoring keywords. In short, PPC campaigns using automation are sure to see better and faster results.

Marketers taking advantage of the benefits of machine learning will be able to quickly determine where they are seeing less success across their PPC strategies, and adapt accordingly.

With automation insights, PPC specialists can:

• Stop wasting budget on low-performing ads and generate more results from those that are already performing well
• Create automated bidding strategies, or ‘smart bidding’ strategies, for a number of key objectives
• Automate bids for both short and long tail keywords, and ensure you are exclusively searching for ad bids that will likely produce conversions
• Find data issues quickly and resolve them before they damage the performance of future ads
• Produce targeted ad content using data insights on client behaviour and information from ad performance reports

In 2022, the key to getting the most out of PPC automation will be making sure you are using it for even the smallest of tasks across all of your ad platforms. With machine learning and AI becoming increasingly accessible, nothing is stopping you from getting clued up on how it works and automating the majority of your PPC workflow. Over time, you can build your automation processes so that they’re in line with your target audience and goals of your overall digital marketing campaign.

4.  First Party Data

There’s no question that data has become easier to collect with the accelerating changes in technology and the accessibility of ads data hub, but it’s not all good news for marketers. Automatic data collection naturally leads to a rise in awareness around data privacy protection, and in fact The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) outlines guidelines that all businesses have to follow when it comes to collecting third party and first party data. Search engines like Google are continuously making changes to data regulations, and over the last few years (along with tech giant Apple) have taken steps away from using third party cookies.

Where a PPC campaign is concerned, these changes to data collection can have a serious impact – on not only ad spend, but overall conversions. Ads data hub will connect your campaign manager with your customer data, but without data automatically being collected via third party sources, there is more pressure on companies to have measures in place to collect more information directly from their customers (first party data).

This data can assist the overall targeting capabilities of the ad message for optimal conversions. The more information you have about your target audience and their online habits, the easier it is for you to segment ad groups and focus your marketing campaigns on specific prospects.

Using first party data is without doubt one of the key PPC trends, and indeed digital marketing trends, of 2022, and to collect it safely you will need to add a pixel to your website, which will collect and record user information – for example, their buying behaviours. From there, you can determine the best bidding strategy, ad format and messaging type for each target group, monitor performance and eventually see great results.

5. Video Ads

As previously mentioned, interactive content is fast becoming the most sought-after trick in the marketer’s tool box. Plenty of stats reveal that brands are not only perceived as more memorable and trustworthy when they use video ads, but also that they reach more potential customers.

Brand awareness is one of the first hurdles marketers face when they first launch a campaign, but with video ads, brands can stand out from their competitors and will have more chance of being shared by users across social platforms, via email or even word of mouth.

Last year, Google caught onto the growing demand for video content, and made it simpler for PPC experts to create highly-targeted video ads with their YouTube content. These YouTube ads consist of 3-4 second clips of longer video content, and are costed depending on the length of the content and ad placement (video ads can be PPC or PPV – Pay Per View). So, if you haven’t already, look into how your brand could use YouTube campaigns to maximise conversions!

The Role Of Social Media

While search engine video ads are becoming more popular, videos are having just as much traction (if not more) on social media. Integrating video into your Instagram and Facebook ads is a sure-fire way of getting more engagement and generating leads via multiple PPC platforms – particularly if you are willing to invest big.

• Instagram stories and reels are already starting to dominate, but this will only accelerate in the coming year. Videos and product links using Instagram and Facebook ads will surely see your brand dominating too.
• Virtual reality is predicted to play a significant part in 2022’s video trends, with many brands already demonstrating how they can provide the ultimate immersive experience for their prospects.

Consult With Our Award-Winning Google Ads Specialists

With practice and perseverance, a smart bidding strategy and ad testing across various channels, businesses can generate exceptional results from PPC advertising. However, with various rules to abide by, metrics to consider and countless flexible search ad formats to choose from, getting started can be quite overwhelming for some marketers.

At The Brains, our award-winning PPC team can offer consultancy as well as hands-on assistance with both paid search and paid social advertising, helping you to keep on top of the latest trends while still maintaining great results across your channels. We’ll help you set up, manage and track your campaigns and can even provide you with guidance in terms of which channels will be most likely to help you reach your business goals. Get in touch with us today and make a real difference to your marketing efforts with powerful PPC.

PPC advertising is one of the most impactful digital marketing strategies to have in your toolbox. Whether you’re leveraging Google, Facebook, Twitter or another channel, the PPC model is a great way of reaching more prospects and customers no matter your budget restraints. So, if you aren’t already exploring the scalability and reach of PPC advertising, 2022 is the perfect time to get started! Take these PPC trends on board as you update your strategy in the new year, and you’ll be sure to get noticed even amongst the savviest of your competitors.