Pay per click advertising is an important strategy but it requires a monetary investment. That’s why it’s important to understand what works, what doesn’t and what to change about your strategy in order to make a positive return on your investment. Today we’re laying out 2019’s most important pay per click trends and showing you how to make them a part of your Google Ads strategy.

Pay Per Click Trends 2019

It’s early in the year, so these are our predictions for what will blow up in 2019. No matter what, these are solid strategies that will likely boost conversions. As with all recommendations roundups, we never suggest trying everything at once. Find the one that you think your Google Ads strategy is missing and learn everything you can about it. Start there. If it’s working, and gets to be natural, think about adding another. Quality over quantity. Always!

Responsive Search Ads

Launched in 2018, these ads with up to four headlines and 15 descriptions should be a part of any solid Google Ads strategy. Google will essentially A/B test various combinations of these to see which do best in front of which audiences. Speaking of audiences…

Get to Know Your Audience

We don’t believe the hype that the keyword will die in 2019 (how long have people been heralding the death of SEO? It’s not going to happen, folks.), but we do think keywords have morphed to include both context and audience and that Google is going to find this far more important. And it’s not just us who believes this.

Christi Olson, Head of Evangelism for Search at Microsoft said, “What will continue to separate the best in class search marketers from the average Joes will be how audience data is segmented and implemented via an audience targeting strategy. The key to success in 2019 and beyond will be to create a detailed strategy of the various audience types and audiences lists and how you can layer them (with positive and negative bid types) to shape your paid search strategy.” (www.wordstream.com)

It’s time to stop just picking general keywords and long tail keywords. Instead, it’s important to understand who searches how. We’ve talked about this in the context of social media and search before and now it’s time to put that knowledge to use. Go back and bookmark this post!

Video Killed The Radio Star

We’re still not willing to hold our breaths for the voice search tide. But we are well aware of the fact that video is huge. And has made its way into the PPC arena. We anticipate one of the biggest pay per click trends will be more play buttons. Why? It could have something to do with the fact that email open rates increase by 20% when the word “video” appears in the subject line. And don’t forget the fact that YouTube is officially the web’s second largest search engine.

Finally, video grew to occupy 25% of digital ad spending in the U.S. in 2018.

I Feel Pretty

A pay per click trend we imagine many will ignore is one that will be a lot of fun for many: focusing on the aesthetics. Formatting, wit and creativity will matter in a more competitive landscape when competing for clicks. It’s time to get away from the same old, same old and venture toward the daring and bold. How to do this without risking too much investment? A/B test and use the Responsive Search Ads discussed above.

I LIke To Move It Move It

We hope you find these song title headings as clever as we do! Internet behavior is an interesting part of the psychology of marketing. There are two things that are clear about how people approach both content and devices: they move around. That means cross-channel and -device attribution is going to be even more important in 2019 as users bounce between search engines and social and view things on their different devices.

Bold Branding

Narrative and branding continue to make ads stand out and must be included in a sound Google Ads strategy. That doesn’t mean it’s time for a rebrand, it just means it’s important to make sure that your brand is obvious from the start of every ad.

Retargeting

Have you ever needed a gentle reminder to do something? Of course not, but you probably have someone in your life who does. That’s the idea behind retargeting. Sometimes a user will see an ad that meets their need but not have the time to click. Chances are they’re not going to open it and save it for later or scribble it down. Instead, retargeting puts ads in front of the same people and increases the chances of clicks on those ads.

Need Help?

If it sounds like there’s a lot to think about when it comes to PPC, it’s because there is. But have no fear, the PPC experts at Digital Firefly Marketing are here to help. From our blog and social to hiring our services, we can help develop, structure and organize a Google Ad strategy that fits your biz and your budget. Get a free PPC audit from us today.