Key 7 PPC Trends To Follow In 2022

Pay-per-click (PPC) is one of the crucial parts of any brand’s digital marketing strategy, encompassing paid search, display, shopping, social marketing and so much more. While PPC could give a great boost to your business’s reach, for it to be impactful, your PPC strategy shouldn’t be static – PPC marketing rarely is. On the contrary, it’s extremely dynamic and prone to change.

With 2022 kicking off, it’s important to stay in the loop when it comes to the latest and most impactful news of the digital advertising world to keep your marketing strategy one step ahead.

In this article, we’ve outlined top seven PPC marketing trends to boost your PPC strategy in 2022. Let’s jump in!

1. Budget and ad spend increase

2021 was a big year for digital marketing and e-commerce, with around 62% of brands increasing their PPC budgets last year. A large influx of new customers opting for online shopping provided many brands with an opportunity for growth, enabling them to reach and convert new audiences. This, along with rising CPCs on the platform, pushed many businesses to up their spending to retain and expand their presence across digital.

The global ad spending for digital media in 2021 is estimated to be around $441.7 billion with a year-over-year increase of 31.3%. 2022 is projected to see even further growth of 13.5%.

2. Switch to mobile

70% of all paid search impressions and around 50% of paid clicks come from mobile.

As more and more people are switching to mobile browsing and shopping, integrating mobile device users into your marketing strategy – developing mobile-first creatives, optimizing landing pages and ads for mobile users is vital to engage and convert potential customers and foster the growth of your ad campaigns.

3. First-party data

Another trend of 2021 that is sure to continue into 2022 is a push for privacy and a switch from the usage of third-party data to the integration of first-party data with digital networks. With Apple’s roll-out of iOS 14 and iOS 15 updates last year, and Google announcing that it will stop the use of third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of 2023, brands and digital agencies will have to rethink their approach to data collection and consider how to adjust to the looming changes.

Ultimately, it means 2022 is the perfect time to strategize, test and tap into first-party data sources, applying the learnings throughout your marketing channels and platforms, as well as experimenting with solutions proposed by Google and Facebook such as “The Privacy Sandbox” or The Facebook Conversion API.

To collect even more valuable data, ensuring maximum exposure and reach, another tactic could be exploring affiliate marketing, diversifying current ad channels, including paid digital platforms you haven’t tested before, such as LinkedIn and Reddit or Yandex and Bing.

4. TikTok

On the subject of prospective platforms for expansion, in 2021 TikTok has seen significant growth both as a social media platform and as an advertising channel, becoming the second-biggest app in consumer spend. With a large base of regular users and engagement rates higher than in any other social media app, TikTok offers great opportunities for PPC marketing strategy.

Over 25% of consumers use social media apps to discover and shop for products and services – and this number is sure to grow even further as social commerces integrate the support of in-app purchases, creating a seamless shopping experience for users.

TikTok has also recently formed a partnership with Shopify, introducing TikTok Shopping, which allows users to make direct, in-app purchases, and lets brands optimize campaigns through the Shopify dashboard. Products can also be promoted and sold directly through livestreams.

With lines between content creation, entrepreneurship and consumption growing increasingly blurred, it’s hard to overestimate the impact of viral trends such as  #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, for example, which helped businesses boost their sales and revenues and advertise their business to engaged users.

TikTok holds a lot of promise as an advertising platform, allowing for plenty of creativity and opportunity for advertisers and businesses to engage and interact with their target audience. Take advantage of all the platform has to offer by creating video content native to the platform and running ad campaigns to create engagement and generate revenue.

5. Integrating voice search

As the use of voice search and smart speakers grows, around 50% of customers are expected to turn to voice shopping in 2022, which is projected to grow up to $40 billion this year.

Already, a billion voice searches are done every month, researching local businesses and services, and around 12% of US smart speaker owners, which makes up 5.5 million users, do shopping via voice search monthly.

This means we might see a shift in the language consumers use – from short-tail keywords to longer, natural or question-oriented queries.

Integrating similar search terms as keywords in your campaigns could help you extend the reach of your campaigns and capture a new audience of shoppers.

6. Automation & testing

While automation has been on the uprise for the last couple of years, it’s still yet to reach its peak.

Using smart technology, automation, and machine learning could play a crucial role in determining the right content for the right audiences and help deliver it at the right time, increasing the precision and the efficiency of your ad campaigns.

It also could be an incredible boost to your work process when it comes to data collection, consolidation and collation, especially when the information comes from multiple sources. Using the right automation tools and processes could help you gain more meaningful insights and take your analysis, strategy, and planning to the next level.

Google also continues to push automation across its advertising platform, including such features as smart bidding strategies and updates to keyword match types. While some of them do diminish the control advertisers and businesses have over the ad campaigns, in different cases it can either save you a lot of effort while adding to your growth or it may lead to wasted spend with little to show for it. It’s important to keep in mind that Googe’s automation features work best when the account has plenty of historical data to fall back on and for the algorithm to learn from – this way it can reinforce the delivery of your ads to the right audiences.

One example of such push for automation can be considered the upcoming end of Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) in favor of Responsive Seach Ads (RSAs). The best approach to the ongoing shifts and changes, with automation taking a leading role in strategy and optimization, is to test as long and as much as you can.

In the specific case of ETAs and RSAs, it’s vital to test ETAs to identify specific phrases and descriptions with the best performance; and to test RSAs with different messaging and concepts – to test pinning different parts of the ad as well to see what resonates best with your audience.

When it comes to general strategy, it’s crucial to find out which of the new solutions and updates could bring the most profit to your business – and if they can’t, how to navigate around them, finding strategies and tactics to help your business grow in an ever-changing digital landscape.

The same applies to Amazon advertisers and vendors. It’s important to ensure you’re continuously testing new ad types, placements, targeting options with different products, and, in some cases, use Amazon ads services.

7. Personalization

Another consumer trend that strongly impacts the PPC world, in particular, is that more often consumers are looking for personalized, relevant messaging from brands. Tailoring your ads to different audience segments can go a long way, increasing your CTR and ROAS.

This means, of course, investing time and effort into getting to know your user and customer base, implementing data-based audience segmentation in your ad campaign set-ups, and personalizing your ad content, landing pages, emails, offers and discounts for different categories of users.

Conclusion – Be Flexible

These days the digital landscape is constantly developing and changing at a rapid pace. 2022 is hardly the year when things will settle and become predictable – on the contrary, we’re likely in for a whirlwind of a ride.

With this said, both advertisers and businesses will have to be flexible, agile, and ready for anything. The key to great results is to be constantly on the lookout for new opportunities, anomalies, and changes that come your way, and be ready to adjust your PPC strategy and approach when the business demands it to get the winning edge.