How I Managed PPC During The Coronavirus Outbreak?

The advertising landscape has reformed virtually almost instantaneously with the spread of the COVID-19.

As a result, the majority of trades shutting down across the world.

This will require advertisers to be more courageous, creative, and patient with our ever-changing situation.

Here are five tips to help you manage your paid search ad campaigns during this pandemic as unofficially it's not over yet.

1. Plan to intact business value props

In many cases, businesses have shifted to promote different products or services that have more demand in the current scenario.

Check if your product or service be considered essential now?

If your product or service can be fit into or can be modified to fit into a necessity, shift into a temporary plan to promote these initiatives.

Also, explore possibilities of providing complete online solutions.

Review the current campaigns and determine if the messaging (in ads and/or on landing pages) is still a good fit and what should be added/edited to accommodate the shifting landscape, for example:

• Revise CTAs like “Visit us in-store”
• Review images with people in groups or close-contacts
• Add curbside pickup information
• Edit shipping information with revised delivery timeline etc.
• Review hours of operation and any deviation from the normal operation hours
• Messaging on your company’s response to the present crisis

Some of these can be used in the primary ad copy and on the landing page, but don’t forget to utilize ad extensions such as site links and call-outs to convey the information optimally.

Be sure to match messaging clearly between the ad copies and the corresponding landing page.

Keep the brand’s value proposition and continue to embrace the challenges because users are now picky more than ever.

It is advisable to recognize the severity of the current crisis and take a custom marketing approach.

Don’t make it difficult for you to recover the lost ground later.

2. Match budget with spend

Now is a good time to reconcile your allotted budget and actual spend on ads.

You may want to shift budgets into those products or services that have more chance to succeed during this global emergency.

At the same time, you definitely do not want to hamper the performance of the best campaigns to maximize results.

So make some smart moves to manage PPC on a small budget optimally.

To do that, first, take the time out to analyze the budget and actual spend simultaneously to find out whether the budget has been distributed and utilized throughout the campaigns optimally or not.

Depending on the ROI, instead of adjusting the ad budget too much, consider improving conversions to beat campaign spend.

This will help you run campaigns successfully with limited ad budgets and aim for other critical campaign management tasks.

Smart Bidding is a feature available inside Google Ads that will help you automate the process and other platforms offer automated bidding features too to maximize conversions.

This allows the platforms to automatically adjust CPC bids based on historical search behavior and contextual data in real-time to match the advertiser’s goals.

This automation feature powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence can help you be the most agile as customers’ behaviors quickly change.

Do check your maximum CPC, target CPA, and target ROAS while using these features.

3. Research on search behavior

While people are maintaining social distancing, they will still be browsing, and pay for stuff online.

For example, many are searching for solutions that can be obtained virtually and turn-around times for delivery of solutions is pretty much normal.

So if we craft ad copy or ad extensions along with a landing page to showcase benefits like free delivery, fast delivery, curbside pick-up, porch drop-off, etc., then we will have a fair chance over others to get the business.

Another example, depending on your industry, will likely see minor or major changes in search queries triggering your ads.

This will require a two-pronged strategy:

• Reactive: Reviewing CTR and conversion rate on search terms and ads.
• Proactive: Forecasting searches that may trigger your ads and create negative keyword lists (to keep Quality Scores as high as possible) that can be applied and easily manageable across campaigns. A great tool to do research on search behavior for building an effective list of negative keywords is Google Trends.

4. Diversify channels

People staying at home will be consuming more content digitally and using more online communication tools than ever before.

Facebook reports a 50% increase in utilization, with voice and video calling more than doubling on Messenger and WhatsApp respectively.

With a large percentage of users centered on and around messaging, groups, and live streams, Facebook says many of these features are not commercialized yet, so they are seeing a decrease in ad revenue.

Despite this, overall, many people are returning to Facebook who had previously abandoned the platform over privacy concerns.

The decline in revenue in many digital ad platforms means there is an opportunity for advertisers to face less competition and increase market share without incurring extra costs.

The chance to reach more prospects through PPC and paid social ads is now in full swing.

Opportunities worth exploring now as opportunists can think about:

• Expansion to the Google Display Network and Microsoft Audience Network
• YouTube and in-video ad placement options
• Pinterest for consumers discovering products for buying
• Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn Ads, but with a strong yet custom campaign management approach

5. Back to basics

At some point, the quarantine will be lifted - in whole or in part.

When that happens, buyers will be ready to get outside and re-engage.

Whether that will be with the same level of enthusiasm as pre-virus is yet to be seen.

But it’s not good to feel worried unnecessarily about any and all future changes.

When we talk about getting back to basics, we suggest that people have become too concerned with complicated imaginary details or new theories and should concentrate on simple, important ideas or activities. Nurtured carefully, the businesses can once again get back to basics.

Stay safe.