A paid media plan is similar to a recipe in that it must be followed exactly as written. You have the ability to adjust individual elements to your preferences, but omitting one essential ingredient may affect the entire output...
I'll go through the six crucial things you'll need in your paid media plan this year if you want to avoid failure in this piece. They are as follows:
1. Benchmarks should be reviewed and reset.
2. Create a strategy that prioritizes the first-party experience.
3. Keep up with the latest tracking technologies.
4. Experiment with more paid media platforms.
5. As a steward of automation, you can make a difference.
6. Learn how to create responsive search advertising.
If 2020 was the start of what feels like an eternity of "extraordinary times," and 2021 was the year of major upheavals, who knows what 2022 may bring. However, based on current marketing trends, we believe you'll require the following six essentials.
1. Re-evaluate and re-set benchmarks
Sure, reviewing benchmarks and setting goals on a regular basis is a good idea. But it's time to go beyond the routine research we undertake to track campaign performance and look at it from a global perspective.
As I previously stated, 2020 marked the start of what appears to be an endless period of "unprecedented times," in the sense that most things have yet to return to normal. To borrow another cliché, most of us have found a "new normal," and advertising have forged forward, but many companies' purchasing habits have shifted in recent years.
With new varieties on the increase, we might be in for another one-of-a-kind year, or we could see tendencies that mirror previous years, whether it's 2021 or pre-COVID. The truth is that most of us have no idea what to anticipate, so we rely on the information we have and examine it regularly.
Advertisers should look for sturdier, more established trends this year. This year will be spent comparing what we thought we knew to what we saw in 2020 and 2021, as well as adding external annotations, in order to forecast what to anticipate in the future.
How to Go About It
· Review your progress every three months. This isn't to say you're not responsible for PPC reporting on a weekly basis. That is something you should be doing as well. However, at the conclusion of each quarter, you should assess the wider trends in your performance and discover anything you can enhance, harness, or eliminate for the next quarter.
· Make a visual representation of your data. Google Data Studio, for example, may assist you in gaining a deeper and more actionable knowledge of your performance. Pre-made templates are available in Google Data Studio, and more may be found in our roundup of free Google Ads tools.
· Make use of benchmarks. Check your performance against industry benchmarks to ensure you're keeping competitive, in addition to your own benchmarks.
2. Create a strategy that prioritizes the first-party experience.
The objective of eliminating third-party cookies across all browsers is obvious, which means major tracking and targeting changes are on the way. As a result, there's no denying that first-party data commands a high price.
How to Go About It
Follow these guidelines to obtain additional first-party data from your audience:
· Make a lead magnet. On your website, provide free guides, free tools, and free consultations—anything of sufficient value to entice your target audience to fill out a form.
· Make use of lead form adverts. Use Facebook lead advertisements or Google lead form extensions to generate leads. You may also tailor your queries to get the data you require.
· Have a plan for your material. Not only can useful content be repurposed into a variety of lead magnets (guides, webinars, checklists, and so on), but consistently being the go-to resource for your audience builds trust, and the more trust you have, the more personal information your audience members will be willing to share with you.
3. Keep up with the latest tracking technologies.
Increasing your investment in tracking technology—technology that allows you access to the data you need to fuel your ad tactics and report on their efficacy while also protecting the privacy of the prospects being targeted—is also critical for similar reasons.
In partnership with other organizations such as the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and the World Federation of Advertisers, Facebook launched a multi-year program centered on privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) (WFA). Private lift measurement is one such tool that it has been developing and intends to roll out to marketers this year.
Facebook is urging the sector to collaborate and work together, emphasizing that this can only happen if there is a common set of standards. It has made its private computing architecture open-source, allowing any developer to construct privacy-focused measuring solutions.
I tend to agree with Facebook that having a common set of standards rather than a plethora of various monitoring technologies and standards amongst different devices, browsers, and ad platforms would benefit most parties. The intersection of those three sectors soon becomes tangled, especially given the disparities in legislation based on region.
Of course, Facebook isn't the only major corporation conducting due diligence. It's also happening with Google's Topics API and Microsoft's Parakeet.
Other firms, I expect, will be doing their own tests. It will be fascinating to see what this front has in store for us.
How to Go About It
There's hardly much to do here unless you're a Facebook or Google Developer, other than keep up with what's being created. You may, however, begin using the tools that have already been made available to us.
· Implement the Facebook Conversions API: The Facebook Pixel's effectiveness is waning. To avoid reporting gaps, start utilizing the Facebook CAPI right now.
· Import your offline conversions: Google's OCI aid tool helps you through the process of importing your offline conversion data into Google Ads so you can get high-quality leads that are comparable. Give it your information, and it will create a personalized implementation plan for you, complete with a progress dashboard and everything.
· Set up Google Ads improved conversions: This is Google's approach of monitoring conversions across devices without using cookies. You may use Google Tag Manager or sitewide tagging to set it up manually, or you can use an API. In our coverage, we explain how it works.
4. Experiment with more paid media platforms.
The events of 2020 and 2021 resulted in occasions where some platforms failed or outperformed the majority of benchmarks. When such possibilities or challenges come, the advertisers that have been testing different channels proactively will be ready to take charge of their situation.
Single-platform advertisers, on the other hand, or those that put all of their eggs in one basket, have a hard time being nimble. It's difficult to aggressively reinvest elsewhere until you've had an opportunity to test and acquire data if that platform isn't doing as well as it once did.
Similarly, if another platform begins to perform very well, it is difficult for marketers to fully capitalize on it without first determining which targeting choices would be most effective.
For example, while many advertisers cut down spending in the aftermath of COVID in 2020, although social usage grew at the same time, CPMs for advertisers that stuck it out declined dramatically. Because they didn't have a baseline, it was difficult for marketers who hadn't previously had a social presence to decide if they should migrate budget or stick with their present channels.
How to Go About It
Here's how you put together a solid cross-channel marketing plan.
· Experiment with different marketing channels on a regular basis. You don't have to spend a lot of money on them, but you should understand how they function for your company, which offerings perform best on them, and what your standards are so that if you need to fall back on them, you won't have to fight your way upstream.
· Make use of a combination of paid and organic tactics. You should be covered if you look at our list of the 19 greatest marketing tactics for 2022.
· Don't advertise the same deal across all channels. This is an example of one of our cross-channel marketing blunders. Discover which offers perform well on certain channels and use that information to inform your strategy.
5. Be an automation steward.
There has been a clear and intentional push to pull marketers into greater automation, similar to tracking changes. This is illustrated by the launch of Performance Max, a continuous drive toward automated bidding, and a push from both Google and Bing toward auto-applied account adjustments, where the platforms will make improvements unless advertisers opt out.
Not to mention changes to Google Partner standards that require premier partners to achieve a minimum of a 70% optimization score, which is a well-intentioned-but-mostly-meaningless score that essentially only measures whether or not you mindlessly implement Google's (often self-serving) recommendations. This update was supposed to happen in 2020, but it was pushed back due to COVID, and it's now planned to happen in 2022.
How to Go About It
· Test. When implemented in the proper situations and at the correct times, automated bidding tactics and Performance Max campaigns have shown to be effective. You must try them and give them time because they may not always work straight away.
· Become an automation steward. Automation might feel like a power struggle at times. Furthermore, the lack of sight makes it difficult to believe that anything is operating at its best. However, it can be beneficial in a variety of situations. Find areas where automation excels and use it there to save up time for tasks that must be handled manually.
· Make an effort to educate oneself. Of course, familiarize yourself with Google Ads' automated tools if you haven't already.
· Take a look at AI. Automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence all go hand in hand.
6. Get a handle on responsive search advertisements (RSAs)
Last but not least, RSAs must be included in your Google Ads paid marketing plan. Advertisers can continue to utilize existing expanded text advertisements (ETAs) until June 2022, including stopping and reactivating them, but no new ETAs can be produced.
Many advertisers saw Google favoring RSAs over ETAs during the 2021 auction, so it was no surprise when Google stated that RSAs will be the sole choice for new advertising in the future.
This is also linked to the tendency toward increasing automation in 2021 (particularly by Google). Some advertisers have expressed dissatisfaction with RSAs' performance, so it's no wonder that some have resisted completely embracing them. However, because the move is unavoidable at this time, marketers would be wise to focus their efforts on developing and upgrading RSAs to ensure that they are putting their best foot forward.
How to go about it:
Of sure, start making RSAs! Follow these techniques and use our responsive search ad guide:
· Now is the time to set RSA benchmarks: Although RSAs have greater click-through rates than ETAs, conversion rates vary. Make sure RSAs are active in every ad group now so you know what to anticipate after June.
· Diversify your copy: Each headline and description should be unique so that Google can combine them. At least two headlines should contain keywords, while at least three should not.
· Don't give up on ETAs! Your existing ETAs will continue to function after June 30, 2022; however, you will no longer be able to update them. So, now is the time to test and generate ETAs that you may use to pause or unpause in the future.
Make your paid media approach future-proof.
These paid media trends shouldn't come as a surprise if you've been paying attention over the last year or two. Surprises, on the other hand, appear to be a trend in and of itself, so be alert!
Finally, let's go through the six important components of a successful paid media strategy:
1. Benchmarks should be reviewed and reset.
2. Create a strategy that prioritizes the first-party experience.
3. Keep up with the latest tracking technologies.
4. More sponsored media outlets should be tried.
5. As a steward of automation, you can make a difference.
6. Learn how to create responsive search advertising. ___________________
Salty Red Dog Marketing, LLC is a marketing agency in Red Bank, NJ, Westport, CT, and everywhere in between. We service businesses with marketing strategies, digital marketing, social media, and consultations.
Contact: info@saltyreddogmarketing.com
Phone: NJ: (732) 802-6205 // CT: (203) 429-9671