The future of PPC publishing
Website design By BotEap.comThere are two main ways I see the future of pay-per-click advertising progressing from where it is now. Currently, PPC is heavily focused on computers, such as desktops and laptops, and businesses have been more focused on getting clicks than converting those visitors into conversions. Going forward, PPC will continue to move towards mobile platforms, as businesses refine their marketing messages to focus more on conversion rates.
Website design By BotEap.comGoogle has seen this trend and is helping to promote it with its new and improved AdWords Campaigns. Previously, tablets were bundled with mobile devices when choosing which type of devices to target. Now, with tablets like the iPad, Kindle Fire and others increasingly closer to miniature computers than mobile phones, it’s increasingly difficult to tell the difference between them.
Website design By BotEap.comAdditionally, about 20% of internet searches already have a local intent, where people are looking for addresses, local restaurants, or goods and services provided by someone close to home. Searches conducted on mobile devices like smartphones have approximately 60% local intent, opening up entirely new avenues for targeting pay-per-click ads to these search engines.
Website design By BotEap.comThis isn’t just for local businesses, either. With one in four Americans located within the top 10 cities, even national ad campaigns can target search engines with a message tailored to that area of the country. Cultural trends in one city or another can target people based on their location and the type of device they use.
Website design By BotEap.comAnother trend that will grow over time is the use of metrics so that advertising campaigns do not focus on clicks but on conversions. This is primarily a problem with large businesses, which can have thousands of ad groups and millions of keywords in a given corporate account. With so much advertising, clicks are pretty much guaranteed, but conversion rates can suffer with so much data to analyze.
Website design By BotEap.comIn fact, most businesses don’t have a problem with traffic. They have a problem converting that traffic into sales. Looking at data from AdWords and AdCenter is valuable, but tweaking different aspects of landing pages and doing more A/B testing will increasingly consume the time of PPC marketers and web designers.
Website design By BotEap.comTherefore, the future of PPC will be more focused on mobile devices and local intent searchers. Both small and large businesses will compete to get their messages across to consumers based on their geographic locations and the types of devices they use. Additionally, companies will start to take a closer look at the data they collect from all pay-per-click advertising and start testing the best way to convert their marketing dollars into sales.