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Amol Ghemud Published: September 13, 2019
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Marketing is the tip of the spear of any business effort. Client interaction is a huge part of every marketing plan. As the client’s behavior and their preferred medium of communication change. So do the marketing strategies and plans.
Google PPC 2021 advertising at its very core is just like any other marketing channel. And just like any other marketing channel Google PPC advertising is not immune to change. If anything it is prone to change faster when compared to others.
So as a marketer working in Google ads it’s paramount to know what is beyond the horizon. What possible changes you may have to face when it comes to the future of Google ads. The one change that has already started to take over is “Automation”.
Yes, automation the bane of human labor. It is an age-old tale new technology making old labor obsolete. But that doesn’t have to be the case for us. You can either drown under the wave of change or you can ride it to get to even greater heights.
So here we present you with a glimpse into the future of Google ads automation.
Adding Negative Keywords
Adding negatives is one of the fundamental practices in Google ads. The more the better. But the research part is quite lengthy. You have to identify terms either from your search term report or do research and find them yourself.
What if this process could be automated? As you add keywords in your ad groups there will be a list of recommended negatives based on keywords you just entered.
This is how the set-up looks right now:
Keywords
Image: Adding Negative Keywords Now
And this is how it may look in the future:
Keywords
Image: Adding Negative Keywords in future
Also when you download the search term report potential negatives will already be marked.
Recommended Match types & Landing pages
Right now while adding keywords it is up to us to choose the best keyword match type according to our needs. But what if just after adding our keywords we would get match type recommendation. Google can easily implement this based on the data it has on bid value and search volume.
An image to clarify how and where you may find this option in the future:
Another future automation will be the selection of a landing page for your ads. Right now it is up to us to select the most appropriate landing page for our ads but in near future, Google will be able to suggest or directly implement the page it thinks would be best as a landing page.
Option to create search campaigns directly from shopping search report
The shopping search report is a treasure trove of opportunity keywords. Soon you will be able to utilize this treasure trove to form a search campaign directly. Everything you need for a search campaign is readily available and the opportunities are much larger.
AD – Copies
Have you had the pleasure of writing an Ad copy for your ads? Have you ever done it in a bulk? Then you must know how repetitive and boring this task becomes. But what if Google automates this task.
We already have proof in the form of the ad strength feature in a responsive search ad. In the future, you won’t have to write ad copy all you will have to do is enter the keywords and your site and google will write the best Ad copy for you.
This automation feature will not only reduce the amount of effort that goes into creating ad copies for different audience types. This will also increase the relevance of the ad and also make it more targeted. Google claims that the Ad strength feature helps increase clicks by 15% just imagine what will an ad created completely by Google can do.
Reporting
As mentioned earlier downloading search term reports weekly or bi-weekly and going through them to search for negatives and opportunities is one of the fundamental and best practices of Google ads. But what if this process becomes more automated?
You can automate this process to some extent even now. You can create a setup that sends the search term report to you weekly through the mail. You can set the filters for keywords that have no conversions but have a high cost this how you will find your negatives.
Combine these with the future negative keyword suggestion feature and you almost won’t have to anything related to negatives. This will be a huge advantage.
Bidding
“The future is here old man”. Don’t believe us? Then head to the automated bidding section of Google ads and witness for yourself. There is a bidding strategy for everything. It doesn’t matter if its clicks, conversions, impressions, ROAS and now even conversion value.
Google will go even one step further and suggest automated bid strategies best suited to your goals. For now, you can only select the most you are willing to spend for a click or conversion. Then google will increase or decrease the bid based on the probability of achieving the target set by you.
This only allows you to put a cap on the spend but in the future, you can expect a total loss of manual control on bidding. All you could do is add a budget and Google will decide which keywords are worth betting on. You trade control for efficiency.
Smart Campaigns
Now we talk about the biggest step taken by Google towards Automation. A nifty little service called Google Ads Express. This service’s feature was directly imported into Google ads and renamed as smart campaigns.
So what is so special about this smart campaign? Well, it lives up to its name. All you have to do is enter your website, a few lines about your business some ad copy and voila it’s done. No more weekly maintenance, no bid-adjustments, no keywords.
A fully automated campaign that’s the future. Right now smart campaigns have not reached the desirable levels of optimizations but with time and Google’s massive machine learning capabilities, a fully working campaign can be created in under 15 minutes.
Conclusion
Change is painful but necessary, the same is true for Google ads marketers. Like it or not automation is the future and that future is not very far now. So either we can adapt or perish. It’s better to shift towards a more strategic approach.
The reason humans worry about automation created by the system is that we can’t escape these. Given how busy the typical PPC manager is, this extra work is not something to look forward to. On one hand, automation saves the extra time while on the other it increases precision in operation.
The biggest disadvantage of automation in PPC is that AI is taking over the jobs of humans. Automation in PPC campaigns is great in some cases, but when you’re working with a smaller account, it’s really best for you to just stick with manually adjusting those PPC works. You’ll be building smart habits and learning the ins and out of the automation process and increasing your optimization skills in the long run.
There are many digital marketing agencies who work only on Google Ads. In the past, their company growth has significantly expanded. But, data says that with the advent of automation their growth is gradually declining. No wonder, we might see the reduction in the number of Google Ads marketing agencies in the near future. To avoid going into anonymity, such agencies must start acting on the following principles:
Start doing automation in day-to-day activity
Put less focus on tactics and let automation handle it
Concentrate more on the ‘strategic’ level
Work on the creative side (of ad copy)
Automation can either be a bane or boon for you depending on circumstances. All we can do is adapt and prepare for the inevitable.
What is core benefits of using Google ads automated bidding?
Google ads automation is becoming more common these days. The main benefit of automated bidding is that it takes the guesswork out of setting bids to meet your performance goals.
Each automated bid strategy is designed to help you achieve a specific goal for your business. Using AI, you can automatically adjust your bids based on the objectives you are seeking to achieve. The idea is that with the right data, AI will make a better decision for you as compared to a human decision.
This boosts the efficiency of your advertising dollars and saves time as well. The only issue that may occur is when there isn’t enough data for AI to make a calculated bid.
What are some of the benefits of leveraging Google ads automated bidding strategies?
Google ads automation is a great way to make the most of your advertising dollars. Two core benefits you can leverage include: Auction time bidding: The algorithms tailor bids to each user’s context, using relevant signals present at the time of the auction.
Machine learning: The use of machine learning to use algorithms to set the appropriate bid at every auction. Automated bidding uses machine learning to evaluate performance over time and optimize for your specific goal. Automated bidding takes guesswork out of the equation and will likely make a better decision for you. It also saves you much time.
How does automating your bid vs using manual bidding contribute to a successful Google ads campaign?
Google ads automation is an efficient way to run your campaign. But one question that’s often asked is whether you should opt for manual bidding or automated bidding. There are many benefits of using the automated bidding model.
The thing is, if you don’t bid efficiently, you could stand to lose valuable conversions. Google ads automated bidding is the best way to efficiently account for all available signals to help improve your overall performance.
In addition, automated bidding is likely to be more accurate and saves time. Compared to manual bidding, automated bidding is a better way to take your campaign forward and boost conversions.
What are smart campaigns?
Smart campaigns are an ad offering from Google. Smart campaigns automatically show ads to locals in your geographic area to drive traffic to your website, online sales, as well as in-store visits.
The benefit of smart campaigns is that they help you highlight the selling points of your business and attract more customers. You have the option to create a single campaign for your business, or run multiple campaigns to showcase different products and services on offer.
Each will come with its own set of keywords and themes. Using Smart Campaigns, you can showcase ads for your business on the search network, mobile device targeting, Google Maps, and even Google website partners.
What are smart display campaigns?
A Smart Display campaign automates and then optimizes targeting, bidding, and ads. It is powered by Google’s machine learning.
It can automatically find new and existing customers, set the right bids, and create engaging ads that adapt to any screen or ad space across the web and apps. It allows you to show your ads in a variety of formats across Google’s display network.
It allows advertisers to target their ads to audiences and placements that are most likely to drive conversions for their business without requiring any set targeting. All advertisers need to do is select a CPA goal and upload some ad assets and then Google handles the rest.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
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