PPC Trends 2024: A(nother) year of Change

PPC has always been a fast evolving discipline and those among us who were able to adapt to change faster, oftentimes have emerged as winners. Embracing privacy-centric advertising, leaning into GA4, seeking out audiences on new platforms like TikTok and speaking to them with new formats will be crucial to succeed in 2024 and beyond. If you can pivot faster and better (through early adoption and testing), you will have the opportunity to shine.

AI-Automation: Redefining Efficiency and (possibly) Precision

2023 was the year of AI exuberance in all disciplines, including PPC: Google continues to roll out and push nearly fully automated campaign types like Performance Max and, most recently, Demand Gen. Broad match keywords combined with automated bidding gain more importance, platform-integrated tools allow for automated and AI-generated ad creation, and machine learning algorithms become ever more sophisticated.

From smart bidding algorithms that optimise bids in real-time to AI-driven ad creation and audience segmentation, AI-driven automation is allowing marketers to make faster, more accurate decisions based on data - or so it seems.

But slowly the dust of the 2023 AI-frenzy is settling and more nuanced opinions, cautionary words and the importance of the human factor are also emerging:

• Lack of real data impacting precise decision making – while machine learning algorithms have over the last few years immensely facilitated data analysis, ad personalisation, predictive targeting and A/B testing, and have no doubt allowed for increased precision in decision making, we cannot ignore the fact that Google’s and other advertising platform’s efforts recently focus more on retaining the status quo rather than advancing it. With the end of the cookie-era looming, consent-issues and ad blockers galore, real data input is dwindling and advertising platforms are increasingly relying on modelled data. Whether the well established belief that AI allows advertisers to make more precise decisions still rings true in 2024 remains to be seen.
• Copyright issues and infringement liability – do advertisers have the rights to use all the data these AI tools use to produce content or creatives? Can you claim it as your own? Who is liable in case of accidental copyright infringement - the companies behind LLMs and other generative AI tools, or the advertisers? These are all questions that need to be answered in 2024 and topics advertisers need to be aware of to not fall foul of potential legal issues.
• Generic feature-based ads – relying completely on AI-generated creatives may result in ads that your target audience won’t notice; you’ll lose in the attention-economy as users tune out homogenous advertising. Instead leverage human insight and perspective. Google is already doing so with the “perspectives” feature within Search Generative Experience (SGE); it’s only a matter of time until this bleeds into advertising as well.

Privacy-Centric Advertising: Navigating in a Post-Cookie Era

The threat of the cookieless era has been hanging over advertisers since 2020 and for some browsers like Safari and Firefox it has already started, but 2024 is the year it (finally?) becomes reality also for the biggest of all browsers: Google Chrome.

Starting in January Google is initiating a test phase with 1% of users who will no longer be tracked via 3rd party cookies – throughout the year this will be rolled out to all users.

For advertisers the ban on 3rd party cookies means:

• Data becomes less accurate (the effectiveness of marketing campaigns can no longer be tracked as accurately).
• Conversion tracking and attribution measurement becomes more difficult.
• Targeting advertising becomes cohort-based (rather than user-based) via the Protected Audience API (part of Google’s Privacy Sandbox).

If you are not doing so already, 2024 is the year you will have to start leaning into your 1st and zero party data, develop a new strategy for user tracking and targeting, and consider contextual advertising.

Our tips:

• Improve your First-Party Data Collection: If you haven’t already done so, implement server-side tracking now. This will allow you to use first-party cookies to continue tracking user behaviour and sending this data via a destination server to your Google Ads, Microsoft Ads andMeta Business Manager, or analytics sites like GA4 or Adobe.
• Strengthen your Contextual Advertising: Contextual advertising doesn’t rely on user behaviour or profiles but instead ads are displayed based on the page content the user is viewing. Advertisers don’t have to rely on cookies to target relevant users.
• Consider alternate Tracking: With iOS, cookie consent and ad blockers limiting almost every tracking technology it is worth looking at alternate (and GDPR compliant) tracking methods such as AI powered tracking.
• Establish Incrementality Testing: Incrementality testing allows you to find out whether your customers are converting because they have seen an ad or whether they would have converted anyways – it allows you to ensure your campaigns are effective without relying on 3rd party cookies. 
• Use Google’s Privacy Sandbox: This set of technologies and tools aimed at improving user’s privacy across the web is continually evolving and still under development. It is worth keeping an eye on and testing any relevant features early on.

Need support with tracking, analytics and your data strategy? Our team of experts can help, give us a shout today!

Beyond Search: Video killed the radio star

Video and image ads as well as interactive advertising such as shoppable content make the advertising experience more interactive and memorable for users. With an average of 17 hours online video consumption per person it is only natural that Google is pushing campaign types such as Performance Max and Demand Gen to stay relevant for users and allow advertisers to reach their target audience in an engaging manner.

If you haven’t already tested it, 2024 should definitely be the year to look at other ad formats in your PPC strategy.

Beyond the Google cosmos: TikTok Search Ads

With 1.5 billion monthly active users globally in 2023, roughly 240 million of which in Europe, TikTok is a force to be reckoned with. Especially (but not) only among the tech-savvy Gen Z the social platform is becoming a serious competition for search traffic to traditional search engines like Google – data from a US Google study showed that more than 40% of Gen Z prefer TikTok or Instagram to Google as they get more relatable and personalised answers. 

And these TikTok users don’t just search on the social platform, they also shop there. Especially products and services within beauty/​skincare, fitness and sports and home improvement/​DIY.

#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt

Source

TikTok search ads are created from existing ads you are already using, they will be marked as sponsored and can appear on different positions on their SERP, depending on the user’s intent based on their search query, ad relevancy and broader insights on the user’s past behaviour. Negative keywords can be added to the campaign, giving advertisers some control over where their ads appear.

“70% of ad groups with the Search Ads Toggle ‘on’ see more efficient performance when compared to not, as a result of more efficient conversions coming from search ads,” according to TikTok’s internal data.

If you’re already running social media ads on TikTok testing the search ads feature is only a quick switch of a toggle away!

CPC-Inflation: Does it matter?

Inflation has been one of the most discussed topics in 2023 with world inflation rates hitting close to 7%. Unsurprisingly perhaps, that we have also seen costs inflating in advertising, specifically CPCs.

Google ads auctions have reserve prices and minimum thresholds, which mean there is a minimum price that an advertiser must pay to have his ad shown in the SERP. Over time Google has raised these minimum thresholds to boost their own revenue figures, making costs rise for advertisers.

While it remains important to ensure you have your quality score factors in order, we at Proficio always reassess our priorities and make sure our time is spent in the most efficient way possible. We believe advertisers will often be more successful focusing their energy on business relevant outcomes, basically extracting as much value as possible from their clicks, rather than chasing cheaper click options. By this we mean that it’s wasted energy to obsess over CPC inflation, we cannot control or stop Google from raising their minimum threshold. Instead make the higher cost worth it by ensuring your campaigns and tracking are set up in the best possible way, you are targeting an ultra-relevant audience with tailored ads that convert.

Marketers who leverage these trends adeptly will not only navigate the evolving PPC landscape successfully but also drive impactful, targeted campaigns that resonate with their audience while respecting their privacy.

The journey ahead in PPC marketing is exciting and challenging, but it is the perfect time for marketers to seize the opportunities offered by these transformative trends and pave the way for a successful new era in advertising.