We’ve entered a new year and some of you may have been wondering, like me, what the rest of the PPC Advertising industry is thinking will be the trends for 2015. So, I’ve done some digging and pulled together a list of the top 5 trends, as I see them, which I found.
1. Conversion Optimization #1
Mark Casey, Hanapin Marketing
http://www.momentology.com/2469-paid-search-trends-2015-top-ppc-predictions-from-the-experts/
“In 2013, our survey showed a surging interest in conversion rate optimization (CRO), specifically landing page optimization, and that certainly proved to be true this year. CRO was still reported to be the biggest area of focus for 2015, and that coupled with the higher interest in automation should result in a great year for software companies and A/B testing tools like Unbounce or Optimizely.”
Neil Patel, QuickSprout
http://www.quicksprout.com/2015/01/05/10-marketing-predictions-you-should-prepare-for-in-2015/
“It’s how they (companies) are going to combat the increases in advertising costs. Everyone knows they are going up, and the only solution is to increase your conversion rate.”
2. Top 2 Positions Ramp Up Heated Battle
Andrew Goodman, PageZero Media
http://www.momentology.com/2469-paid-search-trends-2015-top-ppc-predictions-from-the-experts/
“Partly by design, partly by evolution, Google in particular has built in a lot of incentive to gun for top spots. They take up more screen real estate than ever, and have the potential to convey significant trust cues based on the growing variety of appealing ad extensions that advertisers can qualify for. If you can afford it, that’s great; it’s a barrier to entry. If you fall short, you’re on the wrong side of the moat.”
3. The Rise of Shopping Campaigns
Practical eCommerce
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/78127-3-PPC-Advertising-Trends-in-2015-for-Ecommerce
“This was the top story in ecommerce PPC in 2014. Google initially called these Product Listing Ads. Google renamed, to “Shopping Campaigns,” in October. These ads greatly impacted search engine result pages.” “In 2015, we will likely continue to see improvements and refinements from AdWords and Bing Ads around product listings — yes, Bing Ads also offers “Product Ads.””
4. Remarketing Ads Will Grow
Practical eCommerce
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/78127-3-PPC-Advertising-Trends-in-2015-for-Ecommerce
“Remarketing ads are spreading like wildfire. That product on Amazon you were viewing could follow you on Facebook and around the web for days in the form of ads. The product will be right there in the ad unit and will reflect the current price, which frequently is lower than you remember.”
5. Mobile Advertising Continues Growth
Justin Freid, CMI/Compas
http://www.momentology.com/2469-paid-search-trends-2015-top-ppc-predictions-from-the-experts/
“Not only will we begin seeing the share of ad spend and clicks hedging toward mobile even more than before but we’ll learn even more information about our audience on mobile devices. By leveraging location data, we can get a deeper understanding of who the searcher is, where they shop, where they linger, how far they travel for certain products and services and hopefully, we can leverage behavioral and location-based data for search programs.”
I’d say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Remarketing and mobile have been trending up for some years and don’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
Shopping campaigns, if you have products that need to be sold online, are very important. With the real estate at the top of the SERP’s at an all-time importance you can draw attention to your products in a very real way with Shopping Campaigns. Your competitors are going to do them. Don’t be left wondering why your text ads are trending down.
Lastly, my top two go hand in hand. Conversion rates skyrocket when your ads show in the top two positions. All our client data agrees with these top 2 trends. There’s more to getting in the top 2 than just throwing money at it. Likewise, there’s more to conversion than being in the top positions. But, make no mistake, as CPC’s go up, and the cost of marketing goes up, it’s going to be more important than ever to focus on Conversion Optimization.
Do you have questions? Do you need assistance with strategy or execution of your PPC efforts? We’d love to talk.