If you’ve been following recent PPC-related news, then you know that almost everyone is talking about artificial intelligence. While some PPC management agencies fear the end of their profession, others realize that machines are still incapable of running day-to-day accounts. And this means that there are still a few areas in which human PPC companies will be able to offer value.
Bid Management
There’s hardly anything more tedious or repetitive than bid management. Why is this? Well, it requires the PPC pro to download data, put it in the proper format, and then run it through formulas to get the new bid. The problem is, given the dull nature of these tasks, PPC pros can easily become lacking in their analysis.
Artificial Intelligence Solution: Machines don’t get bored. And this means that these tasks can be done with more accuracy. Based on this knowledge, Bing and Google have developed automated bid management solutions. These programs are based on the best algorithms, have access to exclusive auction time signals, can set real-time bids based on these signals, and are completely free.
How Humans Can Offer Value: Machines tend to ignore elements that will impact a business’ conversion rates, which often leads to generic solutions. Many third-party bid management solutions are working to improve this, but until then, it requires human intervention. For instance, if conversions were slow on a certain day, the human will be able to pinpoint why and offer a little context. Also, they will be able to understand the elements which have an effect on each industry.
It’s this much-needed context, coupled with a bid management system, that can help advertisers to arrive at the perfect CPC. This way, Bing or Google can take your Enhanced CPC and calibrate information based on what their search engine understands about the auction.
This is why many pros use automation tools like Optmyzr–specifically its Rules-Based Optimisations. You can easily combine search engine data with your business data to create the ideal bid management system. This is especially ideal for a Singapore PPC agency that does not want to build its own complicated interface, as search engines like Bing and Google tend to go through a lot of updates.
Instead, they can rely on recipes that have been pre-built. Within a matter of seconds, they can be installed and help advertisers to target position, CPA, or ROAS. And the best part is, as the PPC experts learn more about the things that have an impact on performance, they can enhance the recipe–whether based on internal data or data from the search engines.
Shopping Ads
Google’s most recent algorithm change created a relatively significant problem for advertisers. It has made it much more difficult to target keywords for shopping ads because exact match no longer really means “exact.” So positive keywords are no longer as effective as they once were.
How Humans Can Offer Value:
Positive keywords may not be as effective, but negative keywords can be. Sure, shopping ads can be automatically targeted to the relevant queries which happen to match the product in the advertiser’s feed, however, PPC consultants can always add negative keywords.
This is what is referred to as “Query Sculpting,” created by Martin Roettgerding and further refined by companies like SmarterCommerce. This technique involves using negative keywords to weed out all of the traffic that does not apply to your ad. The awesome thing about this is that it allows you to be more precise with what you want and expect. Your keyword research will take advantage of exclusion rather than inclusion.
If you were to follow Martin’s technique to the tee, then you would maintain three parallel campaigns and add specific types of negative keywords. However, as you can imagine, adding on extra campaigns could take quite a bit of financing. Just as with our last strategy, Optmyzr can be a lifesaver in this case.
It has a feature called The Shopping Negatives Tool.
When it senses that the keywords could have performed better, it sculpts queries by using the recent performance data. It analyses the performance of the identical search queries across multiple ad groups. Once it locates the group in which it is suffering, it will recommend that you add it as a negative for an exact match. Whether PPC management companies want to manage multiple shopping campaigns or one at a time, Optmyzr can help to configure traffic that will lead to more sales.
Ad Tests
There’s no longer any need for PPC agencies to spend endless amounts of time analyzing which ads perform the best. Google has taken care of all of this with machine learning–even going so far as to create ad text challengers. So what can humans do to secure their place in A/B testing?
How Humans Can Offer Value
Though even underperforming ads can be advantageous to you at times, you should remove ads that generate little to no clicks. Not only that but PPC consulting firms should replace them with new ads. This can easily be done with AdWords Scripts, such as those in Optmyzr. Optmyzr can also highlight text that has performed well in the past and offer variations for text so that PPC pros can get ideas for the new ads and create them at lightning speed.
Ultimately, future PPC agencies will be those who offer a great process for testing. Sure, machines may be able to predict the losers and winners, but humans can offer insight that leads to conclusive results.
How To Use AI To Power Your PPC Campaigns
AI is increasingly becoming popular among online businesses for PPC management. However, this technology cannot fully replace human effort, as discussed earlier. Now let us shift our focus and discuss ways you can use AI to power your PPC campaigns.
How AI works
Google’s AI technology is intelligent. However, you must first give it information about your business to know where to begin and your objectives.
The type of information you want the AI to work with depends on your specific marketing goals. The information should also include other important aspects of your business, such as location and your niche.
After filling in information about your business, AI will gather additional information by looking at people’s purchasing behavior and browsing history to develop an effective PPC campaign.
AI can also identify other vital aspects like your consumers’ level of income that can help in enhancing your PPC campaign further.
The following are the three aspects that make AI PPC marketing successful.
Attribution– Google uses attribution algorithms to credit the clicks that directed consumers to your website. Google Ads offers five attribution models: first click, position-based, time expiry, last click, and data-driven model, which is the most preferred.
The main reason people prefer the data-driven model is that it depicts the client’s search journey. On the other hand, the last-click model hides vital information to help you achieve higher conversion rates.
For instance, branded keywords lead to higher conversions in the last-click model. However, the model will not show you the generic terms that led your consumers to the branded keyword.
As you already know, it makes sense if you optimize your campaigns for both generic and branded if you want to increase your conversion rates. If you rely on the last-click model, you will not discover the generic terms.
Automation– Any time a new Google Ad version is released, it offers new automation options. Therefore, without AI, it would be impossible to automate your PPC ads.
Although a large part of sponsored search campaigns still requires manual administration. AI has enabled auto extensions, automatic keyword bidding, and dynamic search advertising. All these aspects improve PPC campaign management.
Audience– Before launching a PPC marketing campaign, you already have a rough idea of your target market. You can determine your target audience through personal experience with customers, Google Ads data, and keyword research.
While having a target audience in mind is necessary to develop a successful PPC strategy, using the human brain may not effectively identify your target audience. This is because human understanding depends on their previous experiences and world ideas, while AI does not.
Using AI in PPC helps you hyper-target those already looking for what you are offering and are most likely to buy.
Benefits of Using AI To Power Your PPC Campaigns
There are numerous advantages of using AI to power your PPC campaigns, as discussed below.
Enhances ROI
Most businesses face challenges when it comes to advertising since they may not get the outcomes they expected. This is because most advertisers are unsure where to put most of their efforts or the specific actions to take.
Using AI to power your PPC campaigns is an excellent idea since it gives you analytics. Analytics are essential since they will help you understand your target audience. These analytics will also help you know where to focus your energy. It will, in turn, help you increase your ROI and minimize wastage of resources.
Personalized User Experience
Personalizing user experience is essential for retaining customers. Personalization shows consumers you are after satisfying their needs and not making a profit. As a result, they will feel valued. It will also enable your customers to connect with your brand and enhance loyalty.
AI enables the personalization of PPC ads by collecting valuable information on consumers, including their income and purchasing patterns. As a result, you will be able to deliver the right message to the right audience.
Helps In Making Quicker and Better Judgments
Given the stiff competition in the market nowadays, businesses need to stay alert. Being alert gives you an upper hand in the competition. It also enables you to make decisions faster when it comes to marketing.
Marketers can only make fast and better decisions if they have the proper knowledge and information. It ensures the ads they post are relevant to the intended audience. Posting relevant ads will help you attract potential clients and retain the existing ones.
Optimizes Your PPC Campaigns
One of the benefits of using AI to power your PPC campaigns is optimization. AI helps collect valuable consumer data hidden in social media profiles, keyword searches, and online information. You can use this information to optimize your PPC campaigns for better results.
Other benefits of using AI to power PPC campaigns include:
- AI-powered ads are consistent and hardly change in response to updates in the search engine’s algorithm
- Offers numerous ways of ad targeting
- It uses a retargeting strategy to attract previous consumers and retains them
- Drives traffic to your website instantly
- It detects and locates potential leads for your website
Ways You Can Use AI To Power Your PPC Campaigns
Creating Dynamic Ads
AI enables you to create dynamic ads that modify their content to reach many people. As a result, you don’t need to worry about ad production since AI produces them while considering different platforms. Here are a few specifics:
Facebook ads– Most Facebook ads are AI-powered and are dynamic. As a result, they appear to people who have searched your business on Facebook or your website.
Facebook also uses broad audience targeting to show your ads to people who have not visited your website or used the app.
Facebook dynamic ads resemble regular ads, but you can customize them. Customising designs allows you to make the ad effective by displaying the actual item that the audience is looking for.
Google ads– Google’s dynamic ads create adverts that match consumers’ searches with items on your website.
AI-powered Google ads have lengthy headlines compared to traditional ads. Long headlines boost their visibility in the search engines.
They also have relevant keywords that most consumers use to find them. Google’s AI-powered ads are created to reach a larger audience. This is because there is little possibility of overlooking essential keywords.
These types of ads are suitable for users with well-established websites and a wide range of products.
Real-Time Consumer Behaviour Prediction
Machine learning is among the most significant branches of AI research. AI algorithms learn from past data, considering demographics, purchasing patterns, online activities, and device usage.
These algorithms can establish the link between campaigns and keywords. This way, you can identify search queries that are likely to spark a conversation. Furthermore, machines can accomplish it quickly than people.
Easy Ad Scripting
Since AI controls the ads, it becomes easier to manage JavaScript. As a result, you can modify the script and take advantage of the PPC campaign benefits. Utilizing things like Split testing and bidding also becomes much easier based on modified scripts in your smart adverts.
Changing the script on your ads might help you reach a larger audience. This will help you get more benefits from your AI-powered advertisement. Bid modifiers, third-party data, display networks, ad texts, and tools are examples of the scripts you may use in your smart ads.
Pause Keywords and Ads Performing Poorly
All keywords have different levels of performance depending on their strength. If your ads contain weak or irrelevant keywords, you may not receive the expected results. Furthermore, your ads are unlikely to succeed if the content is unrelated to your niche.
Continuing to use keywords and ads that are not adding any value to your ROI is a waste of time and resources. Therefore, it is advisable to get rid of them and get new ones with better performance.
However, it may be tiring and time-consuming to track these ads and keywords manually. If your ads are AI-powered, it will pause them.
Automated Optimization
The primary objective of every campaign is for the ads to reach the target audience. However, getting the ads to reach your intended audience can be challenging at times. Therefore, use the “Optimisation for Ad Delivery” option for your ads to reach the target audience.
Facebook offers various ad delivery alternatives, as discussed below.
Response on events– AI-powered Facebook ads help in optimizing event-related post comments. Therefore, your event-related Facebook adverts will reach many people. Also, enabling responses on your PPC ads will help you establish a strong relationship with your customers.
Impression– If a Facebook ad receives a high number of impressions, it will succeed. Facebook is constantly interested in seeing how many impressions its paid adverts generate.
Daily Reach– Daily Reach is one of the strategies for optimizing AI-powered Facebook ads. If your daily reach remains strong, consider expanding your ad to reach more individuals.
Click on links– Your AI-powered Facebook adverts can give data on the number of times people clicked your ad on a given day. AI optimizes the ad click-wise to provide you with accurate figures.
Automatically Adjust PPC Bids
When AI is in charge of your advertising, you can modify the code to improve the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns. For example, you can automatically modify PPC bids using AI. As a result, won’t make a low bid on advert offer quality leads. This will also help you to avoid overbidding and, in turn, boost your ROI.
Sometimes it may be necessary to create your own AI algorithm to handle your bids. Therefore, you need to hire a reputable software development firm. Hiring a software development firm can be expensive and may financially drain your business.
Fortunately, there are several free tools such as Bing solutions and Google Ads that can assist you. Amazon also offers an hourly bidding system that automatically allows advertisers to modify their bids based on prevailing market conditions.
When utilizing bidding automation, you should remember there are different levels of automation. They include Enhanced CPC and completely automated methods such as Maximise Clicks, Maximise Conversions, Target CPA, and Target ROAS.
Although each method has its advantages and disadvantages, it is not advisable to set it up and leave it to run independently. You need to keep an eye on the operations since automatic bids may exceed your set budget or fail to reach your ROI objectives.
What Google’s algorithm deems to be optimum may not be necessarily effective for your business. Therefore, you can utilize automatic bidding but watch it closely.
Disables Retargeting for Offline Conversions
As a marketer, you can use call analytics software such as Invoca to establish links between leads created by your offline operations and specific campaigns. Analyzing your offline rates of conversion can help you improve your retargeting strategies.
Moreover, Invoca signals assist you in detecting conversions in real-time. This helps you stop retargeting consumers who have already converted or completed their offline transactions.
Retargeting consumers who have already converted can be a turnoff, and the last thing you would want is to annoy your customers. Furthermore, allocating PPC ads to someone highly unlikely to buy from your business soon is a waste of resources.
Easy Bidding
If you’re planning an ad campaign soon, ensure the AI technology is activated correctly. A properly activated AI technology improves the keyword bidding process and may save a lot of time since selecting the appropriate keywords takes a shorter time.
However, before you begin the process of keyword selection, you must have set objectives. These goals will benefit you at all stages of paid ad campaigns. They allow you to determine which areas to spend in and to what degrees.
Here are some of the most effective keyword bidding strategies.
Improving conversions– When your ad campaign becomes a success, AI boosts conversions and increases CTR rates. You can always obtain the most accurate information and carry out your marketing campaign on schedule.
Keep track of impressions and shares– You need to track the impressions of your posts’ shares frequently.
Increasing site visits– With AI’s assistance, you may increase the number of site visitors while running a campaign.
Improves Ad Creativity
Although AI is considerably more effective at dealing with numerous repetitive tasks, its algorithms still experience creativity issues.
When it comes to creativity, machines will never be able to surpass the human brain. However, they can provide tremendous results when used together. For example, Google’s Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) demonstrates how AI assists marketers in writing better PPC ad content.
First of all, you need to give a maximum of 15 headlines, and Google will in turn display RSAs that match your consumer’s search queries. It will then generate numerous RSAs depending on your headlines, allowing you to maximize your investment. The more AI technology advances, the more opportunities for marketers to produce creative ads.
Nowadays, many businesses are experimenting with AI-powered chatbots to improve the engagement of their PPC ads. These AI-powered tools help in boosting your conversion rates and minimize the bounce rates by offering high-quality support. Furthermore, you can utilize chatbots to learn more about your consumers by listening to their discussions.
As technology keeps advancing, marketers are likely to start using virtual agents in the future. These virtual agents use natural language and can perform all tasks of a human sales agent, including answering your customers’ questions.
However, virtual assistants need a high emotional quotient to engage and satisfy your customers fully. What is an Emotional quotient? It’s the ability to recognize and respond to a person’s search query according to their emotional condition.
Predicts CTR
AI helps predict your ads’ CTR when shown for specific keywords regardless of their SERP rank, addons, or other ad formats affecting the visibility of your ad. Depending on the keyword’s previous performance, AI efficiently predicts the CTR.
During prediction, AI is likely to give you three statuses. Average, below average, or above average.
When the prediction is average or above average, it means your keyword is likely to perform better. However, if the prediction is below average, consider changing the keywords and use those that perform better.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that your expected CTR is just a prediction. Therefore, don’t confuse it with the actual CTRs in your Google Ads account. Confusing the two will not give you a clear picture of the performance of your ads.
Voice Search
Consumers’ search behavior is increasingly becoming complex. Consumers are constantly changing the devices they use for searches and also how they do the actual searches.
Nowadays, most consumers have abandoned traditional keyboard searches and prefer using voice searches. Therefore, consider optimizing your PPC campaigns for voice search if you want your PPC campaign to be effective. With AI, it is possible to optimize your PPC campaigns for voice searches.
Here are some of the ways you can use to optimize your PPC campaigns for voice search.
Consider The Most Recent Search Terms
It’s critical to understand how people are searching for your business online. Finding these keywords is essential for optimizing for voice search. You can know the precise search keywords people use to view your ad using Google Ads.
Since most of the searches are phrase-based questions, most voice searches entail long-tail keywords of about five to six words. Voice searches are usually long because, ideally, people don’t type the same way they talk. Therefore, when researching your search terms, Look for long-tail keywords.
Also, consider looking for searches that begin with the following phrases.
- Where do I
- Where does
- Hey Siri
- Alexa
For instance, if you notice most search phrases contain Alexa, keep in mind that Alexa utilizes Bing as its default search engine. Therefore, if you don’t have paid Bing adverts and you see lots of these searches, think about generating some to target this demographic.
Also, if you think any of the terms mentioned earlier are relevant, include them in the long-tail keywords. Your sort of business will determine what customers are looking for and what works best for you.
It is important to note that the keywords you choose should be relevant to your business.
Consider Adding or Removing Negative Keywords
To optimize your PPC campaigns for voice search, you need to evaluate your search terms to determine if you need to add or remove negative keywords.
You are likely to come across certain words that aren’t appropriate for your marketing initiatives during your search. Negative keywords enable your advertisements to only appear for searches that are related to them.
If you want to optimize for voice search, you need to remove the negative keywords from your search phrases. Such keywords include “where do I” and “when does.”
If you own a retail store, these phrases may come in handy for queries like “where do I go for beautiful sandals?” or, “Alexa, what time does the clothing store close?” It ensures the negative keywords don’t prevent your advertising from appearing in relevant voice searches.
Create or Modify PPC Campaigns for Voice Search
After identifying the relevant search phrases for your business, create a list of phrases your consumers use for voice search. Start a new campaign or improve the existing one depending on the number of voice search phrases you discover. It’s simple to compare quality scores for advertisements in the current campaign’s ad group to see what’s working.
To optimize your PPC campaign for voice search, add long-tail keywords to the relevant search phrases. Use keyword research tools like Moz, Google Ads Keyword Planner, and SEMRush to help you create a list of keywords with high search traffic statistics for new terms.
Creating a list of new keywords for voice optimization may reveal your consumer’s position in the purchasing cycle. Their queries and search terms report will show you if your clients are in the awareness or buy stage.
Knowing your consumer’s position in the buyer cycle is essential since it will help determine which terms your consumers use the most. Such terms include “what,” “who,” “when,” and “where.” It will also help you focus on the long-tail keywords to increase purchase intent and conversions.
Conclusion
For some, the evolution of artificial intelligence is intriguing and for others, it can be an unwelcome change. But still, the need for human intelligence in the workplace becomes more of a question with each passing day. And it begs the question, how will the seemingly inevitable take over by machines affect us?
As we transition, it’s important that we understand how crucial our input is. It’s one of the best ways to get them to work for us and towards our goals of improvements in PPC performance. It is essential that PPC pros look at this era as an opportunity to create a solid foundation for their SEM marketing career in artificial intelligence.
