AI and machine learning-driven automations are responsible for big changes to how search marketers run their accounts. Make no mistake, smart marketers are those who leverage this new technology and operate at the forefront of where Google, Bing, Amazon, and Facebook are taking us.
Keeping control over PPC in an ever-more automated world is both the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for PPC pros this year. Let me share how we’re going to help you make 2020 your best year yet.
Automation Layering
Automation within the search engines poses a couple of inherent risks for PPC pros:
- Automation-fueled obsolescence for the PPC pro
- Commoditized marketing for the brand
Think about it: If Google automates seemingly everything, will the PPC pro have anything to actually do? And if everyone is using the same automated setup/bid/execute models, is everyone operating on a playing field that is just far too level????
You’re not wrong to have those fears but the team at Optmyzr takes a different view of platform automations – one of opportunity versus threat.
We see a new era for PPC pros to become indispensable through a concept we call Automation Layering.
Frederick Vallaeys, Cofounding CEO, Optmyzr
Simply stated, the search engines are continually automating specific tasks and functions associated with PPC. Automation layering is about the human PPC pro using those automations to morph from being task oriented to becoming a strategic marketing leader.
Google and the others are aggressively automating the repetitive and tedious side of PPC. Innovative PPC pros crave reducing manual tasks, which allows them to redefine their role and rightfully claim the mantle of marketing strategist.
For the past year and through 2020 and beyond, we are focused on empowering PPC pros to make sense of the platform-level automations and turn those automations into PPC gold.
Let me add a real-life example to illustrate what we’re talking about. We used the Rule Engine to find expensive keywords. Surprise, surprise, we almost instantly found some keywords using automated bidding from Google, spending nearly $2,000 in the last 30 days with 0 conversions.
To a big company like Google, this is peanuts and just a necessary part of teaching the machines how to do bidding. But to an advertiser, that is real money coming off their bottom-line that could have been better spent.
Bid automation is great because it saves advertisers a tremendous amount of time, but we have to use our own automations, like Optmyzr, to stay on top of the automations from the engines.
Data-Driven Ads
Saying a PPC campaign is data-driven is a bit like proclaiming that the sun rises in the east. It’s no surprise. PPC pros live in data all day, every day.
Reality is, data will continue to expand its already omnipresence in PPC pros’ lives. We see more structured data leading to more ads based on that structured data. From merchant feeds to inventory spreadsheets, product-level details get deeper and even MORE real-time than ever.
In 2020, we’ll focus much more intensely on the very powerful shopping ads in Google, Amazon, and Bing, in particular. Our expanding developer team will focus on many emerging advancements of shopping ads in 2020.
And we’ll also continue to enhance our new stand-alone software that turns business data into well-structured ad campaigns. It uses a highly customizable template controlled by the advertiser to create new ads on the fly and to remove ads that are no longer relevant (e.g. when a product goes out of stock).
Usability
Search marketers operate in multiple search platforms with varying functions, control, and reporting capabilities. While automation at the platform level helps streamline many of the in-channel tasks, working across disparate platforms can be challenging. As such, we are focusing on improving usability for marketers:
- Deciding where to even start. Let’s face it – from seasoned pros to those just starting their search marketing journey, we’ve gotten to a point there are so many options it can be paralyzing to get started. Our developers are refining how Optmyzr suggests what actions to take and highlight the most important things happening in your accounts.
- Knowing what actions can or should be taken based on the mind-boggling amount of data at a marketer’s disposal. From the moment a user logs in to Optmyzr, smart suggestions will help you create and follow your own workflow. We’ll also guide users directly to the actions that will provide the most immediate results, essentially highlighting “this is the most broken thing that must be addressed NOW.”
- Interacting with Optmyzr. Look for important user interface enhancements in the months ahead. We know that PPC pros spend a significant part of their day in the system, working their channels. Intuitive, customized – and customizable – workflows will help align the work being done to capture greater value in channel.
Staying on top of client needs and anticipating or adjusting to subtle changes deep within automated systems will be more critical than ever in 2020. Optmyzr Co-Founder Manas Garg summed this notion up eloquently in a recent discussion about automation and smart bidding. He noted
“While advertisers shift more and more to smart bidding, many will fall into a complacency trap with a ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ mindset. Optmyzr must help them see the signals so they avoid falling months behind a trend or opportunity.”
Manas Garg, Cofounding CTO, Optmyzr
Software that helps advertisers stay in control of the myriad automations from the engines is the key to success. We see 2020 as an opportune time to further empower PPC pros with essential tools and prebuilt recipes that maximize the native automations within the big engines.
2020 can be a year of empowerment and unprecedented opportunity for smart PPC pros. Make it your best year yet. Optmyzr is with you.
