2023 was a year full of changes - and the world of digital marketing was no exception. With budgets up in the air, machines taking over, and the cookie apocalypse upon us, 2023 sounded like the plot of a horror movie. However, things weren’t necessarily as dire as they seemed at first glance. At the end of the day, with change comes new opportunities - and the success of PPC can be a testament to that.
Here are the top three changes we witnessed in PPC in 2023.
Creativity took center stage
As automation and limited targeting takes over the digital marketing space, the focus turns to the creatives. In 2023, we have returned to the origins of early advertising, bidding farewell to the laborious task of targeting a specific audience and embracing a more expansive approach. However, there's a crucial twist to this strategy. Broad targeting is only effective if your advertisement is a true showstopper that captures attention and touches the heart. Gone are the days of relying on a mundane advertisement simply because it reached the correct viewers. In today's competitive landscape, your ad must possess the power to enchant and draw in the perfect audience through the power of your creativity.
When talking about creatives, it isn’t just about having a great and eye-catching design - it’s about doing market research and truly understanding exactly what your audience wants to see and what will make them click through. To tackle this challenge, seize the opportunity to improve your designs by teaming up with a creative PPC advertising agency. Teaming up with an agency can breathe life into your ideas, as seasoned professionals dedicate their expertise to aligning your brand with the latest trends. They bring a wealth of experience and creative insight to fully optimise your PPC efforts and help you reach your business goals.
The automation takeover
Automation really hit the ground running for digital advertisement in 2023. As more campaign elements became increasingly automated, there appeared to be a general shift from needing to be less exceptional and more tactical and strategic. With this change, marketers were able to shift their focus towards allowing the machines to do the mundane, repetitive tasks and allowed them to explore the ‘why’s’ and ‘hows’ in a lot more detail - focusing more on the end goal with a well-thought-out and researched strategy in place.
Manual tasks no longer bog down marketing agencies and businesses; instead, they are able to focus on optimisation, A/B testing, creativity and data analysis. So, whilst initially, the change felt as though the control of the campaigns was taken away, it actually opened the doors to more opportunities to build stronger campaigns that drove the conversations needed - with a good strategy in place.
The uncertainty of budgets
It may not come as a surprise, but 2023 made every business sit back and reflect on their budgets. Every marketing agency became very familiar with the question of ‘but how much will this cost me?’ - rightly so. With the cost of living crisis and general recession, many platforms had to up their prices, affecting campaign budgets and results. That’s where expectation management became crucial, to better prepare businesses, clients and stakeholders of the challenges and the need for an increased budget in order to get the same results as the previous year.
Overall, there’s no denying that 2023 was a challenging year for digital advertising, with changes impacting the approach towards PPC. Change certainly did mean new opportunities, though - allowing you to truly focus on what matters most, which is knowing what your audience wants for effective marketing.
Copyright 2024. Featured post made possible by Tom Welbourne of The Good Marketer, a marketing agency in London which drives more traffic, generates conversions and increases sales for small- to medium-sized businesses.