Every year, we hear new stories about how artificial intelligence technology is becoming more integral to the marketing profession. In 2022, one of the biggest breakthroughs ever was the emergence of AI art.
However, there are other benefits of AI in marketing that get less publicity. One of them is the use of AI in PPC marketing. As we have stated in the past, AI has led to both new opportunities and complications in the field of PPC advertising. So, how can marketers use AI strategically to get the most bang for their buck?
How Can You Use AI in PPC Advertising, and Why is it Important to Do So?
AI technology is the backbone of many modern marketing strategies. As AI continues to change the marketing landscape, marketers will keep looking for new ways to automate various processes, reduce the scope of human error and lower costs.
One of the ways that marketers can benefit from AI is by using it to improve their PPC marketing campaigns. However, marketers that are not familiar with PPC should learn about the fundamentals first. We will discuss the basics of PPC in general, before delving into more detail on the benefits of utilizing AI in PPC marketing campaigns.
Basics of PPC Marketing
Every business owner knows that getting organic traffic is ideal. After all, it can mean their search engine optimization (SEO) techniques are working. However, it may not be the ideal choice for all business entities. SEO efforts can take time. If you need to gain traffic and boost your sales, doing ads can help attract audiences, gain website traffic, and convert leads.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an online marketing strategy that involves paying for ad space on search engine results pages (SERPs) and other websites. It’s a common practice for marketers to pay for keywords that lead to their website, but you can also advertise on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter.
PPC ads are essential because they give you access to more customers than traditional forms of marketing like email or direct mail. It allows you to reach more people at lower costs per click than if you were using traditional methods.
PPC ads can be even more useful when used in conjunction with AI. Let’s get into the meat of this topic.
Best Practices for Using AI for PPC Advertising
PPC advertising is a great way to drive traffic and sales for your business. The trick is getting the most out of each PPC advertisement, which can be difficult in today’s fast-paced digital world.
Here are five best practices you should employ with AI.
1. Stay Updated on the Latest Trends in AI and Other Forms of Technology
The first thing you’ll want to do is stay up-to-date on the latest trends in the industry, especially regarding the ways that AI affects marketing. Find out what ticks your audiences.
Amazon, Google and Microsoft are all leveraging AI technology in their PPC practices. One of the ways that AI is becoming more useful with their PPC platforms is by enabling automated targeting and helping marketers reach users with relevant keywords that they didn’t think to target.
AI can also help with third-party apps that can help your PPC strategy. For example, many marketers use third-party tools like SEMRush and Keyword Chef for finding keywords. AI helps make these processes easier.
There are also important trends in mobile technology to monitor. For example, it’s worth noting that 60% of mobile users click on a PPC ad once weekly. Given this information, you can adjust your strategies based on when these users are more likely to be more welcome to ads.
You should also know what your target audience consumes at a given time. Look at trends so you can include these keywords in your ads. You can use tools to determine what and how often people are searching for these keywords.
2. Reviewing and Adjusting Budget
A budget review is one of the most overlooked aspects of running a PPC ad campaign. Audit the budget periodically and see if you’re still on track based on the outcomes of your marketing campaigns. A budget review allows you to measure the effectiveness of your strategy. Say you’re still far from your targets, and you’ve already used up your budget. This misalignment means it’s time for you to adjust your actions.
Consider your return on investment (ROI) when adjusting—factor in all potential variables. For example, look at the current market that may have influenced the effectiveness of your ads.
AI technology is also making it easier for marketers to optimize their advertising budgets. They can use AI to automate marketing strategies and track spending over time. They can also use predictive analytics to gauge changes based on seasonal patterns to predict traffic patterns and the number of clicks they will get on future months. Ahrefs, SEMRush and other PPC tools use AI for these purposes.
3. Explore Additional Platforms Using AI Capabilities
Don’t hesitate to look beyond Google AdWords. Google is a great place to start and will give you access to millions of people who have shown interest in your product or service. However, other platforms can also help boost your PPC campaign performance.
Explore social media PPC ads. In 2021, the market earned $153 billion in revenue, with Facebook getting 21.5% of the social media PPC ad market. When it comes to the business-to-business (B2B) market, it will be best to focus on LinkedIn.
You will want to do your due diligence when using these platforms because it is important to make sure that they can help you leverage AI technology wisely.
4. Automate Processes
Automation is a great way to save time and boost efficiency. This is possibly the most important benefit of using AI for PPC advertising. However, ensure that you aren’t sacrificing quality in the process. Automating repetitive tasks can help you save time and money. For example, it would be best not to automate creative decisions or the entire PPC advertising process.
Automate those that are predictable and repeatable. If there’s one thing most advertisers know how to do well, it is knowing which keywords perform well on search engines so they can optimize their ads accordingly. This knowledge lends itself nicely to automation.
5. Curate Content
You have to know your audience and the content they want. Refrain from spamming them with irrelevant or uninteresting content. Use curated lists instead of broad-topic keywords that include many unrelated products and services.
For example, contracting companies can use a specific PPC advertising campaign that brings value to their audience, such as repairs, tools, and contracting services.
When curating content for your PPC campaigns, think about what your customers search for in search engines. These searches serve as a guide when creating new ad copy so that it remains relevant.
AI technology can help with content curation. There are a lot of effective ways to leverage AI to find the best performing content, which involves monitoring user engagement. Neil Patel has a great post on using AI to write PPC copy, which is just one of the many benefits it offers.
AI Offers Huge Benefits with PPC Marketing
PPC advertising is a great way to get your message heard. It’s also the most effective form of online marketing that brings bang for your buck. You can get even more value from your PPC strategies by using AI to your advantage.
- Know the latest market trends
- Audit and review budget
- Try other ad platforms
- Leverage automation
- Make ad copy personal
AI technology can help immensely with all of these factors.
