Few areas of digital marketing are as rapidly evolving as Google Ad trends and PPC advertisements. With changes at the speed of light, it can be difficult to keep up. As 2022 rounds the corner, brace yourself for new trends that will reshape what constitutes a successful ad – and make-or-break your campaign.
In order to guarantee success, agencies, startups, and advertisers alike need to lean into new Google Ad Trends. Competitors will be keeping abreast of trends, and so should you. Broadly speaking, your target audience is the consumer and they go to Google - the second most visited website in the world under TikTok - to consume. When we search, we often don’t get past the first few results and your audience is no different. Your job is to give them what they want and keep their interests at the forefront of your marketing efforts, all the while keeping in mind the changing landscape of the search engine.
These trends are changing the face of the marketing world, and you need to know what they are. As you plan your ad strategy and hire a PPC contractor, here are the trends you’re going to want to be mindful of:
In the past, a company’s main focus has been to be efficient and spend the least amount of money possible. Today and in the foreseeable future, businesses will be turning their attention to being effective – at whatever price that comes at.
2022 is the year to focus on what a consumer does after they click on your ad.The initial click can be achieved effortlessly these days through data, talent, experience, and no money at all. What businesses are going to be striving for with their ads isn’t a click – it’s the closeout or closing the deal. More and more campaigns are going to be distinguishing the consumer who simply passes through and the one that becomes a customer. Having a lead isn’t going to cut it. It’s all about revenue.
Success of the Google Ad measured by revenue requires a technique. This may involve training algorithms to determine what conversions result in a new customer. There are two methods to do this:
Money talks and if you’re willing to put more in, you have a greater chance of getting more out. If you don’t pay more, you are going to have to think smarter and harder to stay in the race because low bids in 2022 will land you at the bottom of the results page.
The need for digital privacy and security is at the forefront. This comes after several scandals, including the 2018 Facebook scandal in which a data analytics firm stole data from tens of millions of Facebook users for the purpose of ad targeting.
Incidents such as these have given rise to an overall change in privacy expectations. The new standard is for data and privacy to be protected at all times. In accordance with these new expectations, Google announced that by 2023, third-party cookies on Chrome browser will be phased out.
Browsers have long permitted third-party cookies to intrusively track individuals searching the web for clues for their marketing campaign. As a result, websites have learned to rely on this data heavily to ensure their campaign’s success. Now, the tool that has been depended on for audience targeting is becoming obsolete.
This isn’t the first change of it’s kind – with Apple’s iOS 14 update requiring apps to be granted permission to to track – and it won’t be the last. With cookie-based data as the most commonly used data in marketing, this change will pose a significant obstacle for generating effective and tailored ads. In fact, 41% of marketers believe that their biggest challenge will be their inability to track the right data. A study by Google also demonstrated the top 500 global publishers losing 52% of their revenue from the loss of data.
This change appears to pose a threat, but it does not mean that your campaign is doomed. The good news is that it’s possible to protect your user’s privacy while still delivering results. It suggests that the future may hold for us a greater reliance on first-party data. There are various ways to turn towards methods of obtaining first-party data:
Moving forward, it will be critical to extract first-party data through your market campaigns and channel it into your CRM. Lead generation forms are the most common, but you can also use Google Ads and email signup lists. Yes, the data you rely on will be harder to come by, but adapting to the change in climate will increase your reputation and clientele support. People prefer vendors that respect their privacy and protect their data, and so we encourage you to embrace the transition to first-party data and to amp up your techniques!
AI has made advancements in nearly every field of work, and digital advertising is no exception. AI can do the work that we, as people, can’t. Arguably, the greatest advantage of using AI with digital ads is with processing data. With data becoming harder to collect, now more than ever, AI can make all of the difference between leaving everything up to chance and constructing a campaign with confidence and predictive validity.
The competitive edge that using AI provides doesn’t stop there. AI technology can support your digital advertisement by:
The benefits to incorporating AI technology is bountiful, but at the end of the day there are certain jobs that only humans perform. People know the way people work. We know what motivates, influences, and challenges consumers. We have unique insights into the minds of people just like ourselves. We can communicate effectively and define unique selling points.
Moral of the story – don’t resist leaning into AI technology because you’re afraid of being replaced. By passing up on AI, you’re letting a valuable tool go to waste and passing up on giving yourself a competitive advantage. Let the advertisers do what they do best and machines do what they do best, respectively.
More and more people are using their phones to browse and shop. As a generation that is always on the go, most people are accessing google from places other than a desktop. In 2021, approximately 70% of Google Ads were accessed through mobile devices.
This means that ads have to be tailored to the consumer who is on a mobile device. Content needs to work on all screens - tablet, laptop, monitor, phone - and that includes landing pages, signup forms, and pop-ups. If not, the clicks are meaningless and the payment is wasted.
The other implications for a generation that is largely on their phones are ad-blockers and voice search integration. As Apple, Android, and Samsung develop more and more ad blockers, advertisers need to be one step ahead with creatively circumventing these blocks so that customers can reach their content.
Also, what comes with using a mobile phone as the primary device is more voice searches. To make mobile devices even more attuned to a life of convenience, people are increasingly speaking their searches into the microphone rather than spending time and attention on typing. It’s predicted that nearly a half of all shoppers will be using voice searches for online shopping in 2022.
Subsequently, advertisements will need to be targeted to the natural voice of spoken language instead of the condensed phrases used in typing. By not accounting this into your advertisement, you may be looking at financial losses and the bottom list of a search. You may also want to include question-centric words - what, where, why, how - to increase SEO. These words will appear more often as voice search increases. So, all in all, anticipate some strategic planning that is less heavy on automation to adopt these considerations into your 2022 ad campaign planning.
As AI and machine learning become more prevalent in digital ad campaigns, the role of keyword research often gets called into question. Nevertheless, with data availability and targeting techniques diminishing, keyword research remains pivotal for Google Ads. After all, a clever SEO strategy and user-centric mindset is what gets your website recognized.
This is why we will be seeing a renewed focus on keeping your audience’s interests in mind in 2022. With the goal of creating content that is easily found and meets the needs of consumers, keywords remain the best source of information for producing content that will get noticed.
Technology will help with Google algorithms, but when it comes to getting into the mind of your audience and predicting what they will be searching, that is up to you conducting research, digging into consumer behavior, and developing messaging strategies.
In summary, keyword research is just as important for Google Ads in 2022 as it has been in the past. Advertisers need to be up-to-date on keyword strategies that drive appointments or you run the risk of your content not being found. This means that a couple of words isn’t going to make the cut. With advances in Google’s algorithms, you need to be specific and precise in your keywords.
There are multiple strategies to developing the right keywords to propel traffic:
The overarching theme here is that all of these strategies involve listening to your audience thoughtfully and intentionally. The only way to be the best provider and gain traction is by getting to know your audience and what their needs are. In short, keep your audience at the center of your Google Ad campaign. If you do this, the rest will be easy.
Now that you have a better idea of the Google Ad landscape for the following year, you can begin to tighten up on strategies you’ve already been using - SEO, Keyword research - and adapt to meet new demands (e.g., data collection and demand for privacy). Even if it comes at a cost, showing your audience you care about their wants and needs and share their values pays off in the long run.
It’s a marathon not a race, so step back and look at the bigger picture. It may take some time to adjust to the rapidly developing Google Ad trends, but if you keep doing your research, embrace the change, and pay attention to your audience, the rest will fall into place.
