FEATURED ARTICLE — August 7th, 2017

How 2017 has Changed PPC

By Tina Courtney

Every year, PPC advertising shifts in significant ways, offering advertisers new challenges and opportunities to deal with.

This year has been no different. In fact, this year might go down as exceptional for the vast number of changes that have transpired.

While the big news of last year revolved around Expanded Text Ads, this year has presented such a wide variety of changes that it is hard to pin down just one as the front runner.

The overarching theme for these changes, however, is quite clear: Google is focused on user intent and machine learning.

There’s lots for you to familiarize yourself with, so let’s dive in.

In-Market Audiences Hit Search

Most advertisers familiar with the AdWords platform are acquainted with in-market audiences as it has been available through the Display Network and YouTube for quite a while.

In-market audiences help advertisers to target prospective buyers who are nearing the end of their journey and are about ready to make a purchase.

In May, just before the Google Marketing Next event, the company shared via its blog that in-market audiences would be coming to Search. In the post, senior vice-president of ads and commerce, Sridhar Ramaswamy shared that:

“. . . If you’re a car dealership, you can increase your reach among users who have already searched for “SUVs with best gas mileage” and “spacious SUVs”.

He went on to state that, “. . . In-market audiences uses the power of machine learning to better understand purchase intent. It analyzes trillions of search queries and activity across millions of websites to help figure out when people are close to buying and surface ads that will be more relevant and interesting to them.”

While Google does... Read More