The folks at Fire Team put together a March Madness bracket competition for digital marketing (sponsored by Triple Whale) and with their permission, I wanted to capture all of the great PPC tactics that were shared in the event:
You might find some great new Twitter follows too! I know I did.
First Up – PPC
From Fred Vallaeys (@siliconvallaeys):
The Daily Profit –
Report margins (not revenue) in conversion tracking after using target ROAS to emulate profits. In a campaign where the typical product has a 50% margin, this means you break even at 100% tROAS instead of 200%.
From Amalia Fowler (@AmaliaEFowler):
Talk To An SEO Dammit –
Cross reference your Google Ads Search Query Report with Google Search Console and trade query info with your friendly neighbourhood SEO👂. You get keyword ideas, they get excellent higher funnel content ideas. Win-win.
From Kirk Williams (@PPCKirk):
The Golden Starting Point –
New account? Here is the Golden Campaign Template
1 Brand [Ex+Phr].
1 Core Terms Generic [Exact]
1 Top 25 Prods [Ex+Phr]
1 DSA+Audiences+TROAS.
3 Stndrd Shopping: BR, CORE, NB.
1 Pmax of 25 Top Products.
1 Discovery Rmrkting
From Susan Wenograd (@SusanEDub):
Tough Turf –
You love to hate Impression Share bidding, you think it’s wasteful, but its efficiency can’t be denied on branded search in Google. 👀
Made the switch and saw CPC ⬇️ 5%, CVR ⬆️ 13%, and ROAS ⬆️ 21%.
The only thing you’re wasting is revenue.
From Aaron Levy (@bigalittlea):
Test Broad Match in PPC –
Yep, I said it. Nope, Google’s not paying me.
The new “broad” is closer to “intent match” than keyword matching of yesteryear.
Leaning into an audience-driven targeting strategy may lead to an upset of your old blueblood campaigns.
From Duane Brown (@duanebrown):
Doing the Google As You Scale –
Leverage the In-Market Segment audiences in Google Ads to build ad creative that matches these audiences. Then scale up YouTube, Snap and Discovery ads as you target these types of audiences with your prospecting campaigns.
From Azeem Ahmad (@AzeemDigital):
Use every RSA headline! –
Maximize EVERY headline when you are using new RSA’s, and try not to pin any, so combinations are maximized. Some of my best performers in the past have been H14/15 that i’ve included at the last minute.
From Anu Adegbola (@TheMarketingAnu):
RSA Ninja –
Put price points in your ad copy. Then create remarketing lists of those who saw that ad and didn’t purchase highlighting quality features (but NOT price again).
Next Up – Paid Social
From Nick Shackleford (@iamshackelford):
Old Flame New Fire –
Past top performers (creatives) just die? Relight at reengagement level. CBO – Cost Cap or Bid Cap (no pref) Start at CPA Target (increase Cap by $5 until daily budget exhausts) We run this to video views and page engagers routinely.
From Cody Plofker (@codyplof):
Beta Creative Testing –
Want to test angles/hooks with no ad spend? Start with TikTok organic. If you find great traction on an angle, create 3 hooks and run them as dark posts then as spark ads. Guaranteed 1 is a hit. Now create 3 new variations and run it on FB.
Beyonce Dog Rental –
Random interest clusters to completely mess with the FB algo and drive incremental purchases “Beyonce”, “dogs”, “car rentals” -> basically interests around people spending money without any rhyme or reason or connection to your brand.
Find your strongest broad interest audiences by testing your highest converting affinity audiences in Google Analytics, and highly indexed audiences from Quantcast. Combine both ingredients and bake at 350°F until out of learning. Bon appétit!👌
From Akvile DeFazio (@AkvileDeFazio)
UTM Param Audience Assist –
A targeting move that is sure to score. 🗑️
Append &utm_aud= for native audience ads, extend their shelf life as lookalikes, so if/when they go away, you can use them a little longer as you set your next shot. 🏀
From Dara Denney (@DenneyDara)
🟨 Post-it Notes –
🟨 Take your top-performing ad’s voiceover and text overlay and re-create it using low-fi post-it notes to communicate instead.
🟧 More fun
🟦 More focus
🟪 More native
🟩 More effective
From Courtney Alexander (@courtfalexander)
The Nashville Two-Step –
Step 1: Create the ideal customer persona with layered interests (i.e. Twilight, DIY crafts, Bud Light, etc.)
Step 2: Use TikTok style UGC with a hook that resonates with the persona’s psychology, their needs, fears, and dreams.
From Sarah Levinger (@sarahlevinger)
You’ve Been Primed –
You can “prime” potential customer brains to BUY by exposing them to FUTURE steps of the ordering process as they move down the funnel.
(Backwards order works best!)
TOF = Unboxing.
MOF = Website ordering.
BOF = Product selection.