10 Important PPC Trends to Watch in 2021

What will be the big trends in PPC marketing and paid social in 2021? Here are 10 trends you need to know, according to 32 top experts.

In a normal year, PPC marketing is fairly unpredictable. But 2020 was anything but a normal year. Last year, nobody could have or would have predicted we’d be dealing with the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic throughout 2020.

Instead, our PPC experts were busy talking about trends like automation, audience targeting, and privacy.

Hopefully, 2021 won’t throw quite as many curveballs at those of you doing PPC advertising and paid social.

So what will be the most important PPC trends in 2021?

As part of my fourth annual look at PPC Trends here on Search Engine Journal, I asked some of the top PPC experts for their insights.

Here are the top 10 PPC trends you need to know for 2021 – from paid search, to paid social, to remarketing, and beyond – according to 32 experts.

Want all the trends now? Download our new ebook: PPC Trends 2021.

1. Goodbye, Data

Obfuscation of data, unfortunately, will be a continuing trend in 2021, according to Julie F. Bacchini, President & Founder, Neptune Moon.

“Between Google Ads limiting access to search query data to the coming obliteration of tracking cookies as we know it, digital marketers are going to have to adapt in a pretty major way again in 2021,” Bacchini said. “The bottom line for 2021: be ready to be flexible.”

Amy Hebdon, Founder, Paid Search Magic, said similar.

“It’s been a slow burn for years, but this is Google Ads’ worst year on record for shifting away from transparency and limiting the data we have to make the best decisions for our accounts,” Hebdon said. “Barring any regulatory interference, we can expect Google to continue on this path indefinitely as it maximizes its own revenue and earnings.”

Brad Geddes, Co-Founder, AdAlysis, also expects Google to continue hiding data as it relies more on machine learning.

“I expect that trend to continue where Google forces advertisers to rely more on Google’s machine learning and data than on their own expertise,” Geddes said. “While this trend may help the small advertiser, Google will continue to hurt the larger and more sophisticated advertisers with these changes.”

So what can PPC marketers do to succeed in this environment?

“Imperfect data is no one’s favorite, but wise marketers will need to use incomplete data to see the signal from the noise,” said Mark Irvine, Director of Paid Media, SearchLab. “Rather than focus on the loss, wise marketers will still need to see what’s working best with the 80% of information they have and learn how to guide their campaigns to target more of that audience.”

According to Irvine, that means:

• Writing more “good” ads than “bad” ads with responsive ad assets.
• Reviewing patterns of search queries, rather than individual search terms.
• Guiding automated bidding, rather than controlling bidding directly.

And, according to Michelle Morgan, Director of Client Services, Clix Marketing, it also means doing more with less.

“Companies are going to rely on PPC to drive larger portions of their revenue, while at the same time the channels are taking away functionality and data transparency,” Morgan said. “So we literally need to have a bigger impact for our clients with less control and insights into performance.”

Ben Wood, Strategy Director, Hallam, added that the erosion of hyper-specific user-level targeting will push more advertisers back to contextual targeting methods and raise the importance of compelling creative.

“The importance of effective persuasion techniques to sit alongside the precision targeting most of us PPC marketers have become more familiar with will be emphasized,” Wood said.

2. Understand Your Audience & the Buyer Journey

As Aaron Levy, Group Director, SEM, Tinuiti, puts it: the days of PPC marketers controlling every ad and every bid based on words alone.

What’s this mean?

“We’ll be forced to look at the whole picture of the audience we’re aiming for,” Levy said. “While I mourn the loss of data we were so used to from our friends at Google and Microsoft, I for one welcome the opportunity to be a better marketer, moving beyond just language-driven ads.”

In 2021, the most successful PPC marketers will be strategists focused on their target audience, said Kristopher Jones, Founder & CEO, LSEO.com.

“In an era where there is less control due to automation and AI, what matters is who sees your ads to ensure you’re driving qualified clicks,” Jones said.

Therefore, advertisers who align PPC marketing efforts with the buyer journey will come out ahead of the pack in 2021, according to Melissa Mackey, Search Supervisor, gyro.

“As an advertiser, expect to spend time thinking about your customer and how they decide to buy from you.

• How long does the process take?
• Where do they interact?
• What information do they need?
• What might they be searching for?
• How do you measure success at each step?”

And many other PPC experts agreed, including Jonathan A. Kagan, VP of Search, 9RoofTops.

“The number one thing for everyone to do is get control of your audiences,” Kagan said. “Know who your target audience is. Know who is worth prospecting versus who is most likely to convert. Separate them, and manage them independently.”

With less information being available related to the intent of a potential customer, marketers will need to evolve their approach and think more about engaging the right audiences, said Justin Freid, Chief Growth and Innovation Officer, CMI/Compas.

“A tactical example of this is how we have seen high adoption of Bing’s ability to integrate LinkedIn data into their targeting,” Freid said. “Yes, intent is important, but knowing you are targeting a qualified lead/customer is of equal value. This will also help us begin to look at the LTV (Lifetime Value) of customer vs. a single sale driven through paid search.”

Purna Virji, Senior Manager, Global Engagement, Microsoft Advertising, believes that in 2021, PPC will go back to basics, which means putting customers and communities first and marketing with purpose.

She highlighted two areas that are important for reaching your customers:

• Keywords: The goal here is to target potential customers based on their unique needs that map to the keywords they use to satisfy their unique dimension of diversity.
• Images: Choosing imagery is an important part of the process of constructing a meaningful and inclusive customer experience.

What does it all mean?

Here’s how Kirk Williams, Owner, ZATO, put it:

“The business that invests well into learning:

• Who their audience is.
• What they care about.
• Where they spend their time.
• What they want to hear.

…can then build a PPC campaign strategy targeting those audiences (social) and how they are searching (search).

This will inform:

• Landing page creation and content.
• Ad creative.
• Various Google Ads targeting metrics such as audiences, keywords, location, devices, and more.”

3. Even More…

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