Top 5 Paid Search Marketing Trends of 2022

In recent years, digital marketing has evolved to be the most powerful tool for businesses to reach their target audience. We are all online all the time. Digital marketing taps that potential. Paid search efficiently speeds up the process of reaching the target group, generating qualified leads and conversions. About 74% of marketers agree that PPC is an important driving force for their business. The investment in PPC is gradually increasing. In 2020, the global ad spending was around $587 billion and is estimated to reach a whopping $652 billion in 2022. 

Paid Search marketing is not a choice anymore, it is a necessity. But keeping a track of all the changes and trends can be challenging as the world of paid search is in a constant state of metamorphosis. In 2021, Google Ads released at least ten updates. The technology, preferences of the users, communication channels, etc. are changing every day. It is essential for businesses to be attentive and responsive to these changes and make the right decisions at the right time. 

Below are the top 5 paid search marketing trends of 2022 that will keep you ahead of the game:

Superpower of Automation

Now is the best time to harness the power of automation in paid search. It basically means automating labor-intensive processes which do not need a lot of human intervention. Artificial intelligence and machine learning is its core. Currently, about 51% of companies have employed marketing automation tools. By 2027, the global marketing automation market size is estimated to reach USD 8.42 billion. These statistics say something! Automation is the present and future of paid search marketing.

“Automation has been picking up speed and momentum for a couple of years now, but it feels like it is about to enter hyperdrive.”
Julie Friedman Bacchini, President - Neptune Moon

There are numerous ways in which it can help your business. You can cut short the time spent on tedious processes and let automation do the heavy lifting. Various stages of ad testing can be automated. Statistical significance calculators can help you in discarding losing ads. Best ads can also be identified using automation. N-grams and aggregated reporting can help you find the best call-to-action. 

There are many other ways automation can reinforce your marketing efforts like it can support you in calculating the best strategy for different objectives, improving CPC by hunting for ad auctions that are favorable for generating conversions, fishing out performance issues within an ad account, optimizing ad copies using Google scripts, etc.

Andrea Atzori, Co-Founder and Director, Ambire agrees that automation will assist marketers in making informed decisions fuelled by data. 

First-Party Data – The Savior

Governments all around the globe have started taking data privacy seriously. GDPR or European General Data Protection Regulation was one of the most significant steps taken by any government to protect the consumers’ data privacy. Gradually, the same regulations will spread to other regions. It only makes sense for global companies to comply with the standards. By 2023, Google plans to remove third-party cookies entirely. Similarly, in 2021, iOS rolled out iOS14 which controlled how mobile users are tracked. 

Hence, this year, third-party cookies will take a back seat and the value of first-party cookies or data will increase. It will help businesses to track the users coming on their website. They can use this data to build campaigns that are personalized to suit their customers’ preferences. It will also give them a competitive edge. Google targeting options levels the playing field for all the brands. However, marketers have understood that first-party data is the game-changer in paid search marketing

Move Beyond Google

In 2019, 73% of the paid search market belonged to Google. However, people have started spending time on niche platforms like Amazon for browsing and shopping, LinkedIn for interacting with professionals, Instagram for sharing pictures and videos, etc. In fact, Amazon is the third-largest advertising platform behind Google and Facebook.

If you are an e-commerce retailer it makes sense to invest in Amazon product search as the platform receives 197 million people every month. Marketers now have the option to explore different marketing channels to fit in their marketing funnel. Earlier, paid search was applied at all phases that to on a limited number of platforms. But as the digital ad industry is maturing, marketers are willing to explore different channels for different stages of the funnel. Social commerce has also bought a significant change in paid search marketing as now conversions are also taking place on social media platforms.

“Many of us grew comfortable and reliant on what certain channels like Facebook offered and how it impacted the bottom line. If you haven’t yet, see what other ad platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Quora, Pinterest, and others can offer, as they too, have grown and can be lucrative.”
Akville DeFazio, President - AKvertise

Responsive Search Ads for the Win

This year, we will bid adieu to Google’s Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) as Google announced that ETAs will be depreciated and Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) will be the only option for the marketers starting June 30, 2022. Since the inception of paid search, it is one of the major changes for good. Responsive ads are more engaging as they have an average of 12% click-through rate (CTR) as compared to 8% average CTR on basic text ads. Basically, RSAs garner 50% more clicks than standard ads. The cost-per-click (CPC) of RSAs ($0.95) is also lower than text ads ($1.10). This year, the marketers will be ahead of the curve and create new RSAs not just because of the deadline but also because they work so well. 

Videos are Trending

Video content and video ads are here to stay. The platforms and users have adopted videos at a fast pace. YouTube is the second most visited website in the world right after its parent company, Google. Reels by Instagram too has seen immense success. It only indicates that video content will rule the Internet in the near future. It is a sign for marketers to invest in video-based ads or video platforms for placing search ads. Google’s vertical video ads are a great option to test the waters. In 2022, Instagram stories will continue to be popular for video marketing.

Google has introduced a new tool known as Bumper Machine for YouTube. It allows marketers to convert their videos to 90 seconds bumper ads for displaying on the platform. The consumption of videos on TV through YouTube has also increased. Marketers can leverage this space by investing in YouTube Masthead. It’s a video banner on YouTube’s homepage which automatically plays on compatible devices. As per the statistics, people remember up to 95% of communication in the form of a video as compared to text. This year is the right time to jump on the bandwagon.

The list of trends in paid search marketing is endless but these top 5 will help you outshine the noise on the Internet for reaching your target group. Or you can get in touch with our team of digital marketing experts who are well-versed with these trends and more to make your paid search marketing endeavors a success.