After the turkey is eaten and you have watched enough bowl games to make your head
spin, it’s time the think about the New Year.
The holidays are
a time where we enjoy being with friends and family, and reflecting on the
year. It’s also a time to think about new resolves – things we would like to do
differently in 2016.
Whether it’s
embarking on a new fitness campaign or trying to spend less time playing Candy
Crush. It’s all about being better, and making a fresh start.
With paid search, the New Year is also a great time to
reflect on the things to improve in your campaigns.
Below are four
easy resolutions that you should not have trouble keeping:
1) Look closer at extensions
Are you taking
full advantage of ad extensions?
The latest,
structured snippet extensions, is the latest addition. Structured snippets
allow you to determine the type of information that your potential customers
would find more useful.
It allows
potential customers to see a header that you specify (such as styles, brand and
models). This gives people a preview of your products to help in their buying
decision journey.
When using extensions,
it’s important to develop a solid extension strategy for your accounts. Know
which extensions make the most sense for your business, and be sure to monitor
performance to be aware of what is and isn’t working.
Extensions
provide customers with more relevant information about your ads. Also, since
extensions do play a factor in Quality Score, it should be part of your
resolution to test out different ones.
Google had a lot
of updates and additions to extensions in 2015, and it’s reasonable to assume
to expect the same in the New Year.
2) Account clean-up time
This is the
perfect time to do some campaign cleanup. But it’s important to know what to
keep and what to pause.
Before you start,
pull reports for the last 3-6 months and carefully look at keywords, ads, ad
groups and campaigns. Then it's time to pause keywords that are not performing,
as well as adding new opportunity ad groups or campaigns.
As for labels –
while they can be effective in organizing your campaign, don’t get too carried
away with them. Develop a simple structure for naming your labels, and use them
to monitor new campaigns or ad A/B testing.
3) Mobile paid search
If 2015 was the
year of mobile, 2016 will be the year of mobile advertising.
According to
eMarketer, mobile ad spend was more than $100
billion in 2015. And with more than 80%
of searches being performed on smart phones, mobile paid search is a
resolution for the New Year.
Keep in mind
mobile has different challenges, but can be a great way to target people on the
go. Check out these great mobile tips to
get your mobile campaigns off to a great start.
4) Ramp up remarketing
2016 will be the
year of predictive marketing. Knowing where you customers are, and providing
ads that are based on what they are looking for.
Remarketing is a
great tool to retarget customers that have been to your website, as well as
bringing in new potential visitors. And with dynamic remarketing, you have the
ability to create dynamic ads based on a visitor’s search history.
Setting up
remarketing is much easier now than ever before. And once you set up your
remarketing campaign, you have the ability to use
your audience data to develop targeted marketing strategies for your
customers.
These resolutions
will help get you motivated to revisit your paid search campaigns, and take
them to the next level for the New Year. Here’s to a great 2016 for PPC!
