PPC Still Important to Marketers in 2019

In May this year, 500 marketers with big advertising budgets (69% with $1-9 million, 31% spending $10M-49M) were asked to participate in a survey about the way they are spending them this year and whether they’re thinking ahead yet. The survey revealed some interesting insights into the way these marketers are thinking.

Paid search came out a clear winner with an average of 40% of these big budgets. There is then a significant gap before the next contenders – social ads and omnichannel marketing at 20%. This shows that paid ads are still important as a priority for budget spending for the rest of the year. 

Many respondents said that they either already use or plan to use responsive search this year or in 2020. Interestingly, mobile and in-app ads come in lower than social. One of the challenges of ads is increasingly data privacy regulations, which have tightened up security significantly since the release of the EU’s GDPR. Some industry professionals think that this may be currently why mobile and in-app ads have not appeared to do so well. With mobile search still on the increase year-on-year, this may be a future opportunity to look out for.

Opportunities and challenges in paid search

We’ve touched on GDPR, but data privacy is proving challenging for marketers. This includes data tracking, which has previously been automatic or assumed but now specific consent must be given. Cookies usage guidelines have been unclear and challenging and rules about ad blocking are all contributing to the challenges faced. Failure to meet compliance can be potentially expensive with large fines promised, so it is even more important for marketers to stay up-to-date to protect their clients.

Other challenges cited in the report were:

• Video advertising
• Influencer marketing
• Messaging bots and other apps
• Online ad fraud
• Brand safety 

That said, the opportunities can outweigh the challenges if you’re prepared.

How J&L see it

As we see paid search not going away but getting potentially larger and fast, it has never been more important to make sure you’re ready to embrace the opportunities. Regardless of the size of your business or the size of your budget, careful planning and consistent evaluation can pay off. 

J&L understands that no everyone has the budget of the survey respondents nor their own marketing department. We take the time to first understand your goals, your identity and your values so that we can help determine the best way to deliver them. Working together, we can help you harness the opportunities that a growing paid search market can deliver.

Talk to us about paid search on (0044) (0)1293 127128 today. 
 

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