Google Ads is forever changing as Google continues to update and improve their tools and features. This can make Google Ads difficult to keep up with and stay on top of the newest trends.
Worry no more, as we have made it easier by breaking down the new trends that are currently making waves in Google Ads this year. Weâll also share the tips and predictions we think will be popular in 2019. Following these will help for a successful Google Ads campaign and may even beat your competitors who donât know about them!
Audiences over keywords
I know what youâre thinking, when you think of targeted audiences, Facebook springs to mind. But Google is catching up when it comes to audiences and if you are not using them for PPC, then youâre not using Google Ads to its full potential.
Audience targeting is going to be a big focus for Pay Per Click in 2019, marketers will be shifting away from keywords and thinking more about customer behaviour, interests and intent. Using in-market audiences can help you reach a whole other audience you may not have even thought about. You need to think about who your customers are and how they search for your product if you want to be ahead of the game.
We donât think the keyword is dead, just that using all audience types available is another way to find your customers. All different types of audiences can work together by testing which works best for your company, you will begin to see definite results!
Remarketing
The main question we get regarding Google Ads is âhow do I get my business found on Google by new customers?â Which we agree, is important, but what about those customers who have an interest in your brand, they browse your website but end their journey by clicking off your website and abandoning their basket? It doesnât have to finish there, when there is help with remarketing audiences. You can retarget your products to that already interested audience with remarketing ads and bring them back to make that purchase that they were thinking of making. Remarketing is becoming more popular amongst marketers, so itâs a good idea to get on board with this feature of Google Ads.
Another trend in 2019 will see brands looking at their customers journey and discovering that the customer journey isnât as simple as 3 easy steps to making a purchase but can be an up and down journey of clicks and views, abandoning their basket, browsing the site again, searching for reviews, before going back to the website and making a purchase. You need to focus on thinking of ways to get your different audiences to convert and remarketing will be a big part of that.
Working with Social Media
You may have heard about Paid Search and Social Media Advertising working together to achieve conversions already this year. Obviously, they work naturally together as Google and Facebook are where internet users spend most of their time and this is why marketers who use both platforms together in their marketing strategy get higher impressions and conversions.
One of the biggest advantages of using both platforms together is turning market segment audiences on Facebook into audiences on Google and targeting those people in Google campaigns. You can use both audiences on both platforms to your advantage and increase conversions.
Automation
Google Ads offers a lot of automated features but we predict more automation in 2019! Automation can currently help get results with less work, however, AI canât do a lot of what professional marketers can so we donât see automation taking over marketing experts. But will 2019 will be the year of automated PPC?
You may not be interested in automated campaigns and would rather manually create and edit campaigns, which is great too! But there are some things we can use that would benefit performance.
One of the latest automated tools on the rise is smart bidding. This is done by Googleâs machine learning which predicts which clicks will drive conversion, which can help when trying to work out what you need to put on bids. Among the smart bidding strategies are Target CPA, Enhanced CPC, and Target ROAS. Dynamic Search Ads are another automated targeting tool which targets ads to relevant queries with relevant ads.
These automated options are clever and an easy way to implement your Google Ads strategy but we do think manually checking ads and changing things around when needed can still help get better results rather than just trusting Googleâs automated ads to do all the work. It is good that Google gives us these options to test both automated and manual ads to get the best out of Google Ads.
Voice search and visual search
Could the future of Google Ads be voice and visual search? People think that 50% of search queries will be voice by 2020.
With the increase of voice assistants, from Siri to Amazon Echo, we are beginning to see a new way of searching the internet. It still has a long way to go before we see anything savvy for voice and paid search, but hopefully, in the near future, it may work by people asking their AI devices a question and Google would go through the top organic and paid results on the search page, reading them out to the user and then sending the links to the users phone. This would be an easier way to find what youâre looking for on Google and would revolutionize the way we use Pay Per Click. But would people really want to sit and listen through ads until they finally find the answer they are looking for?
Voice search will continue to develop more this year but we may not see Google Ads updating anything or offering new tools to accommodate voice search just yet. Something we may see this year though is marketers trying to target those who visually search. With visual search growing rapidly, Google will have to offer options to target images rather than keywords.
Image search on Google is a lot simpler and easier with users being able to upload an image to search for on Google and finding the source of the image or similar looking images. Google does have visual shopping ads but there are no targeting options at the moment. But Google could soon allow marketers to recommend items based on visual attributes of products searched for to their audiences, rather than products shown based on interest or purchases.
Video
Itâs time to start thinking about your Youtube Ad strategy this year! Video has mostly been seen as brand awareness content, but now, it empowers action and has emerged as the top type of mobile content. According to Google, 50% of shoppers say online video has helped them decide which specific brand or product to buy.
Video is becoming a better targeting option for Google Ads, people like to watch video content relevant to their interests and discover more about them through Youtube. This is a great way to target those with relevant interests to your business using In-Stream ads that play before the viewer watches the video they have found.
People are more open when watching videos around topics they want to learn more about, so if they see a product or watch an informative in-stream ad that offers to help them learn more about their goal, then they will be inspired to click and find out more about your business. Video ads should definitely be in your Google Ads strategy this year!
New Ads and Features
Google are rolling out new ads all the time and the latest is Responsive Ads, which we think will be popular amongst marketers this year. With this type of ad, you can have up to 15 images, five headlines and five descriptions. Another feature when creating these ads is Google will suggest headlines and descriptions from existing ads to use. Which can be helpful and saves time. Itâs always good to test Google Ads newest ads and features to find out what works best for your business.
Some of these trends may not come up in 2019 as we predict, but they are certainly in the background, developing and becoming increasingly better, ready to change the way we use Google Ads forever. By following some of the points made and keeping an eye out for what is to come, you will begin to see better results, be ready for the upcoming changes and succeed in PPC!
If you need help with your Google Ads, we can assist with this. Get in touch for a chat about how we can help your brand get ahead with Google Ads.
