PPC Search Engine Marketing - Panel Discussion with Sterling Rice Group
by Michal Matyjasik
1. What are common pitfalls in PPC campaigns and how can they be avoided?
- Blindly using Google/Meta suggested recommendations and AI optimizations
- Using broad match keywords without strict filtering with negative keywords
- Using keywords that aren’t specific enough to your product or service
2. How do you integrate PPC with other digital marketing efforts to enhance overall campaign results?
PPC is part of a full-funnel, holistic marketing strategy that requires each of these components for optimal performance:
A quality product that fills an important need
Good brand awareness, through grassroots, `organic SEO, organic social, and paid channels
A compelling and streamlined landing page that minimizes distractions and funnels prospects to take action (buy your product)
An effortless lead gen/buying experience
A prompted and incentivized review process to improve social proof
3. How is AI being used and how is Google’s AI shifting results?
AI is being used to automate every step of the PPC process, from setting up ad campaigns and writing ad copy to generating images and “optimizing” PPC algorithm parameters.
While this appears to be a convenience for clients who are inexperienced with paid search, it creates a conflict of interest where AI tries to force settings that lead to increased spend (and increased profit for the search platform), but decreased efficiency for the client.
Generative AI promises to reduce workload by generating product images and ad copy for ads, but this technology is not yet mature enough to be customer-facing without heavy editing and human review.
The main benefits that AI promises are convenience and automation. However, we have to watch AI-generated outputs carefully because AI is prone to producing inaccurate results (hallucinations).
There is significant potential for disruption in the paid search space as some platforms experiment with generative, rather than original, search content.
4. How are voice and visual searches shifting your clients’ approaches?
The increased volume of visual searches requires a little more work to optimize e-commerce for visuals, including:
Indexing images
Syncing product data
Including USPs in the product description
Optimizing image sizes for fast load times
Using descriptive file names and alt-text
Voice search requires a different keyword and phrasing strategy
Focusing on natural language and question-format long-tail keywords
Optimizing for local search queries
Including the right ad extensions, including call extensions, for voice searches
Optimizing sites for mobile
5. How do you see PPC shifting?
PPC continues to move towards rich multimedia formats, including text, image, and visual search. The increased popularity of AR (Augmented Reality) headsets will increase the importance of product placement in increasingly visual search formats.
As more search engines experiment with AI-generated content and results, PPC experts will have to stay future-facing on ways to leverage new formats and new technology to optimize performance for clients.
