PPCChat | Paid Search in 2018 | 11 December, 2018

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This week’s PPCChat session was hosted by Julie F Bacchini and PPC experts discussed about how the year 2018 went by in the PPC space, the biggest change and worst change introduced, which change impacted them and their clients and more.

 

Q1: What, in your opinion, is the biggest thing that happened in paid search in 2018?

 

The whole privacy/political meddling thing across all the big platforms. Perception of online advertising has taken a huge hit. – @robert_brady

I have to cheat and give two. on Google, the biggest change was the new UI for better or worse (it’s worse). on Bing it was the advanced LI targeting & affinity audiences. Oh and Facebook sank into the sea. – @JuliaVyse

Macro level – the airing of how entities like Facebook and Google work, especially relative to data & privacy. In my everyday level – the new Google UI. The struggle is still real there for me. – @NeptuneMoon

The rise of RSA and “smart” campaigns just flexes the fact that no element of PPC is immune to automation – for better or worse – @MarkIrvine89

Google started aggressively opting accounts into features like extensions and smart bidding, with less and less notice. In soft verticals, this raises the floor on how bad your competition can be. And I think it really sets the stage for years to come. – @JasonStinnett

FB scandal – drastically impacted B2B targeting there. New Google UI. Google continuing to erode control for advertisers in favor of automation. – @Mel66

I’d say the visibility of the power of robots and humans together. The beginnings of adoption and embracement of machine learning, AI, and automation. – @LisaSanner

I’m going to say the new UI for Google AdWords. It’s been incredibly difficult for me to get around in it .. – @adwordsgirl

The new Google UI. A lot in dedicated management practice/habits changed, as well as available options. – @PPCKirk

Facebook ad targeting restrictions earlier this year, and Google new UI as well as move towards more automated settings. – @marksubel

Privacy is nothing new… just coming out of the shadows. Google’s people all pushing automation even when it doesn’t make sense. Just from a Google POV, their new UI is here for good. – @duanebrown

I think the shift from seeing search as a segmented channel is huge. I think some were using a multi-channel approach before, but this was the year that being a PPC specialist really graduated from just adjusting bids or audiences. – @markpgus

The new interface – At first it was horrible. – @digitallydan14

this is a bit of a tough one, but I am leaning on new Google UI because it slows my day to day life down – @JonKagan

The new Google Ads UI. Still getting used to some aspects of it, but the redesign/reskin has made it easier to find elements. – @marccxmedia

 

 

Q2: What is the best thing that happened in paid search in 2018?

 

More ad copy! – @SEMFlem

Xanax.  Honestly, I do love Microsoft’s play with LinkedIn integration. We keep saying “Search AND Social” and MSFT is the only player that natively integrates them  – @MarkIrvine89

Some automation has gotten better. DSA has come a long way… even in the last 18 months. Bing Ads has really kept up with changes in their system and things they copy from Google – @duanebrown

We agree with ! Our ppc team has been exploring how best to use the availability of more ad copy and it’s been exciting – @ClkContrl

this is a tough one for a complainer like me. I think the new types of responsive search ads, 3rd headline, new options. – @JuliaVyse

IMO 2 things: (1) Mobile conversions in terms of user behavior / site speed / site design finally, actually all came together to support the increased mobile traffic we’d seen for years. (2) Automation Algos getting better so we can start to trust them. – @PPCKirk

The increase in character limits has been pretty boss – @adwordsgirl

i think the new UI was the worst & the best. The change was very jarring to what we were used to with a lot of functionalities not being available. But it has made us work harder to ensure we are optimising more intelligently. It’s like changed merchandising. i also think RSA done properly could make writing/testing ad copy A LOT easier. – @mindswanppc

New options to build better audience strategies – audience data and ad formats. Keeping the customer/user front and center. – @LisaSanner

The added maturity of automation is wonderful. As more data goes in the better it gets! Also, all the new features… even the New UI… it’s easier on the eye – @markpgus

More characters available in Google Ads has been nice. I like the responsive display ads too – it makes deploying a new campaign a lot faster/easier than building every static image ad. – @NeptuneMoon

Also the new interface – Now I like it, a lot. – @digitallydan14

this is recent, and really for video, but the ability for targeting TV Screens for YouTube was big. Which also means it was kind of a lackluster year. – @JonKagan

Additional ad extensions and functions. They’ve certainly helped the campaigns we’ve been running this year. – @marccxmedia

 

 

Q3: What is the worst thing that happened in paid search in 2018?

 

Easily close variant matching. Such a pain and a waste of time and money! – @digitallydan14

the New UI – @mindswanppc

Like I said, the new Adwords UI. And changing the name to Google Ads. Everyone still calls it Adwords. Fake exact match is up there too. – @Mel66

The rhetoric around everyone starting their product searches on Amazon and we should all move our money over. They use to say similar things about moving money to Facebook. We need to stop the one channel mindset. – @duanebrown

RIP EXACT MATCH. Almost forgot about this one…. yep WTF with Customer Match GOOGLE!!! – @markpgus

Ending of Exact Match meaning, matching exactly to the term. WHY???????? Runner up – Google Ads taking away Customer Match from practically everyone. – @NeptuneMoon

New Google Ads interface – @jstatad

1. The UI 2. Close variance matching, but more so on the end that although they’ll do close variance for keywords we bid on, it’s not extended to the negative keyword list which is such a pain in my behind. – @adwordsgirl

Blanket data protections are rough – GDPR may not have hit us hard, but Article 13 or other regulations may be serious steps back for us  – @MarkIrvine89

Take your pick. My top 2 are new UI and making exact match not exact  – @JonKagan

What have they done with average position/competitive metrics as well?? Has anyone really been able to get around that one yet?? – @mindswanppc

Losing the meaning of Exact Match. I’d have preferred an Exact Modified Match, because I see the value in what Google has suggested, but also insist on Exact remaining Exact. A combination of BMM + Exact would be awesome, let’s say [+buy +widget] so we could do both.  – @PPCKirk

The new UI Data Studio (boo) RIP Exact Match All of Facebook no more customer match (mostly) the loss of ‘run ads evenly’ for testing the auto-opt-in of lots of automated services. All of Facebook. – @JuliaVyse

While it’s great for users, advertisers are having a difficult time with Facebook’s new stance on paid posts.

While it’s great for users, advertisers are having a difficult time with Facebook’s new stance on paid posts. – @ClkContrl

Exact match ≠ Exact match – @atjoshnelson

The new Google Ads UI. And the name change from AdWords to Ads. – @marccxmedia

 

 

Q4: What is something that you were sure would happen in 2018 that never materialized?

 

making promoted pins a streamlined goto effort – @JonKagan

I really thought Amazon would buy SNAP. did. not. happen. – @JuliaVyse

I thought they’d just kill exact match as a name and call it “Smart Match” or something dumb – @robert_brady

I feel like Voice Search is still not the major thing we keep being told it is/will be and despite it being a major topic of conversation, posts and conference sessions & keynotes. I don’t find this super surprising, but it is interesting. – @NeptuneMoon

The “Facebook-just-making it up” video crisis. I pivoted to video for nothing! – @MarkIrvine89

I think I expected “exact match” to be long gone. – @adwordsgirl

I never try to predict the future… waste of time. I look to build my knowledge and see how the ride goes. If I knew what would happen, I would win the lottery – @duanebrown

Much like your answer, , the push toward voice search. Yes, we’ve had some success with “near me” related searches for some of our hospitality client’s restaurant accounts, but Ads could embrace voice a little more next year. – @marccxmedia

 

 

Q5: What is the most surprising or unexpected thing that happened in paid search in 2018?

 

exact match really took me by surprise. – @JuliaVyse

Google seems to not have been affected on the revenue side despite all the controversy. Facebook took a hit, but not GOOG. – @robert_brady

Tested Yahoo and it was a great channel for a B2B client. Just interesting to watch Amazon as a business. – @duanebrown

Google being able to overspend on a daily budget cap by 100% – @JonKagan

Not really a technical development. I kinda thought search ads were not in demand in 2017. Our 2018 sales definitely proved otherwise – @jstatad

Exact match change. – @mindswanppc

data & privacy being something that’s top of mind for me in my day to day as a digital marketer, not just outside of work as a user. – @JasonStinnett

The AdWords/Ads name change – @marccxmedia

 

 

Q6: What change had the biggest impact on your or your clients and why?

 

this may be surprising but Google shuttering remarketing to YouTube viewers via GDN was a big one. – @Mel66

google being able to spend up to 2x of budget. We had an unpleasant surprise of that over black friday/cyber monday days. – @mindswanppc

I would say the close variance change. It’s made us have to be incredibly on top of the negative keyword list. – @adwordsgirl

Facebook as a B2B platform disappeared after the scandals took away the targeting – @jstatad

Exact match, for the worse. Responsive Ads and DSA for the better.  – @JuliaVyse

One change we noticed was the crack down on anything medical or drug related on Google. this is great for customers, but hard when our clients have products or services that lean into those domains. – @ClkContrl

he over spending ability on Google has forced us to relook at our daily budget caps, as they work off IO’s and we only get credited off the total spent, not the speed it depletes – @JonKagan

:Seems we all agree the new Google Ads UI can be a productivity drain, but can we get real about the hot mess that Facebook Ads Manager is? I have lost count of campaigns I could not launch for weeks due to backend issues on FB. Clients get sick of hearing “it’s down”. – 

Isoteric answer, but APIs are a disaster. Google introduced a second API (Google Ads vs AdWords), Facebook updates its API with no notice, MSFT has un-universallized its API. 3rd party supports are struggling to build against unstable platforms – @MarkIrvine89

Surprised that still, in 2019, any user can see any MCC shared negative keyword sets our agency develops, even if they only have child-account view credentials. – @scottclark

Likely some changes with keyword match types. As a result, we’ve worked to fine-tune campaigns more to anticipate various searches. – @marccxmedia

 

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