8 Game-Changing PPC Trends to Use For Your 2023 Strategy

With ad clickers being 50% more likely to buy products than organic visitors, every marketer needs to keep up-to-date on the major PPC trends for 2023.

Ready for the newest PPC trends and updates in 2023? We’ve got you covered. Use the links below to jump to the trend you’re most interested in, or keep reading to explore all eight of our top picks for PPC in 2023!

1. Investing in first-party data
2. Revamping your martech stack
3. Experimenting with more ad formats
4. Taking advantage of PPC automation
5. Branching out to new platforms
6. Integrating more video ads
7. Optimizing for voice search
8. Building relationships through audience targeting

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1. Say goodbye to third-party cookies and hello to first-party data

Even though Google delayed saying goodbye to third-party cookies via its Chrome browser, it’s become apparent that third-party cookies are going away — making first-party data beyond valuable. That’s why businesses need to start investing in their first-party data now vs. later.

First-party data can come from several places, whether it’s business cards shared at a trade show or email sign-ups on your website. You can also use tools like Lusha, Clearbit, and Snitcher to help your business qualify and nurture traffic to its site.

Your company can even go further with MarketingCloudFX, which allows you to:

• Attribute marketing channel performance to bottom-line results
• Sync marketing and sales data
• Integrate data from third-party tools like Salesforce, Shopify, Marketo, and more
• Calculate return on investment (ROI) across marketing efforts
• And more

Either way, when it comes to PPC trends, first-party data is the leader.

Learn more about first-party data in our video on that topic

2. Revamp the company’s martech stack

Before you go powering your digital advertising campaigns with first-party vs. third-party data, though, it’s vital your business audits (and revamps, if needed) its martech stack. That’s because, with the move to first-party data, your company will likely introduce new tools, processes, and data routing.

When auditing your marketing technology stack, think about the following questions:

• Are there gaps in where we’re collecting first-party data?
• Where does data get stored or sent?
• Which tools integrate with one another?
• How does data get sent between platforms?

If you have an all-in-one platform like MarketingCloudFX, it’s easy to keep your martech stack organized and operating. Plus, you don’t have to worry about managing your setup — your dedicated account manager (and our in-house development team) take care of this step for you.

3. Experiment with ad formats only name-brands could afford

While digital advertising platforms like Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads make it possible for your business to promote its products, services, and brand across the web, other advertising mediums come with a high entry cost, limiting them to big brands.

That’s changing.

When it comes to PPC trends, the prediction is that more companies, like small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), will have access to new ad types at cost-effective rates. For example, your company could experiment with podcast, connected TV, and video ads.

Experimenting with these new ad types now versus later will help your business:

• Target users in all stages of the buying funnel, from awareness to consideration
• Evaluate how different ad formats, like podcasts and video, influence conversion rates
• Get ahead of competitors sticking with traditional search advertising campaigns

So, if you’re advertising and looking to improve your returns, think about embracing this PPC trend.

4. PPC automation and machine learning

Google’s been rolling out more automated bidding strategies for PPC advertising, and in 2019, Google actively encouraged advertisers to let automation manage their ad campaigns.

As a result, PPC automation makes it to the top of our list for PPC search trends for 2023.

Automation for PPC uses AI and machine learning to do anything from tracking and optimizing bids for keywords to testing ads.

You can also automate your work process by having machines do all the tedious, time-consuming tasks that are necessary but may not have as much impact on results. This process frees you up to focus on more intricate tasks.

In 2023, we’ll see a rise in first-party and third-party automation and evaluation systems to give advertisers more choices in their automation processes than what the big-name advertising platforms have to offer.

The trick for PPC advertisers will be to experiment with how to use these automated PPC strategies as effectively and as efficiently as possible.

Some ways you might see automation play into your PPC strategies include:

• Using scripts to automate your workflow
• Implementing automated recommendation software, whether through your ad platform’s native recommendations, or through third-party platforms
• Emphasizing responsive search ads (RSAs) over expanded text ads (ETAs), following the Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising decisions to sunset ETAs
• Experimenting with giving ad platforms like Google Ads more freedom to optimize your campaigns through features like Performance Max campaigns

With the increased amount of open-access machine learning algorithms (take Google’s BERT in 2019, for example), incorporating artificial intelligence into your PPC strategies will be easier than ever in 2023.

And with the increased optimization abilities of AI algorithms, you can build your automation processes that perfectly fit your audience and your paid advertising goals.

In the upcoming year, automating smaller tasks with AI and machine learning will help you stay competitive and at the top of your game. When you can find a good balance of automation in your PPC strategy, you’ll spend less time tweaking your bids and more time focusing on the overall results of your campaign.

5. Branching out with PPC

When it comes to PPC advertising, you aren’t limited to search engines like Google or Bing. You have options to branch out onto other platforms. If you want to drive success with PPC in 2023, you must consider alternative platforms. Some platforms to consider for paid advertising include:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Reddit
• Amazon*
• Walmart Marketplace*
• Sears Marketplace*

*Platforms exclusive for ecommerce businesses

Branching out to other ad platforms in 2023 doesn’t mean targeting every platform. It means understanding where your audience spends time online and using paid advertising to reach them.

Spend some time discovering where your audience likes to be (and if they’re likely to shift to another platform in 2023), and then test your ads on those platforms to see how they perform and if that platform will work for your brand.

6. Video ads

Video ads are one of the biggest paid search trends in 2023 that you’ll want to watch. In fact, 90% of people say videos help them make purchase decisions. Check out these interesting video marketing statistics:

• 139% is how much brand association increases after watching a video
• 88% is how much more time users spend on pages with videos
• 86% is the amount conversion rates improve by adding video
• 83% of marketers that use video believes it delivers a good ROI
• 80% is the amount conversions improve by adding videos on landing pages
• 80% of people say they typically switch between online search and video when researching products to buy

When you see the impact of video on consumers, you know you need to integrate more videos for PPC in 2023.

Luckily, Google has made it easier for you to create ads with your YouTube content over the last few years. With Bumper Machine, machine learning will dynamically create three or four 6-second editable bumper ads for videos longer than 90 seconds on YouTube.

CTV advertising on other platforms is also becoming more accessible, allowing more SMBs to roll out on video ads on streaming services like Hulu. Plus, get ready for advertising to come to Netflix, since the streaming giant announced plans for a new ad-supported tier last year.

And don’t forget about the role videos play in social media advertising, with one in three users who watch videos on social media platforms watching videos from brands. Many brands might want to pay special attention to TikTok, the video-only giant that saw a 77% increase in consumer spending in 2021.

If these developments suggest anything, it’s that incorporating video ads is a vital PPC trend in 2023 to consider as you plan next year’s strategy.

7. Voice search for PPC

Voice search is another of the biggest PPC trends in 2023, and it provides a big opportunity for advertisers to target voice searches with PPC ads.

In 2022, sales from voice search are expected to reach $40 billion, with 50% of shoppers expected to use voice shopping. That could be due in part to the ever-growing trend of digital voice assistants — predictions indicate that 8 billion of them might be in use by 2023. Moreover, more than 50% of voice-enabled speaker owners want to receive updates about deals, promotions, and sales from brands.

So, in 2023, get ready to create your PPC campaigns by:

• Optimizing for mobile devices: 20% of searches on mobile devices are voice-based, so if you’re optimizing for voice search, you should also be optimizing for mobile. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, then you’ll miss out on valuable conversions since people are 52% less likely to engage with a company if they have a bad mobile experience.
• Integrating long-tail keywords for local searches: With more than 55% of consumers performing voice searches to find a local business, consider optimizing your content for local keywords.
• Optimizing for conversational and question-based keywords: Did you know that 65% of all voice search queries are conversational? When adapting for voice search, target conversational keywords to help you hit those voice search queries — and since most conversational keywords are question-based (who, what, when, where, etc.), you can optimize for those key terms too.

8. Brand affinity using audience targeting

PPC trends in 2023 will focus on more than just increasing awareness. To have a successful PPC campaign this year, you must build strong relationships with your audience. The very best marketers will not only familiarize their audience with their brand but inspire people to feel good about their brand. If you want to capitalize on this paid search trend in 2023, focus on:

• Providing customers with the very best experience
• Speaking to people in the appropriate time and manner
• Helping customers learn and grow
• Promoting conversation among your audience

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Take advantage of these PPC trends in 2023 with WebFX!

If you want to stay competitive with PPC, you’ll need to keep an eye on the top PPC predictions each year. With so many paid search trends for 2023, you have a lot of optimizations you’ll want to integrate into your campaign.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t worry! WebFX is here to help! Our team of over 500 leading PPC experts can make your PPC campaign ready to take on this year! As a Google Premier Partner, we provide some of the best PPC management services in the business.

Contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359 to learn how WebFX can supercharge your PPC campaign for 2023!