TPE #72: 5 PPC Trends to prepare for in 2024
Dec 11, 2023Read time: 4 minutes
Hey guys, welcome back to The PPC Edge.
The new year is right around the corner.
In today’s issue, we want to look at trends and expectations for the PPC world in 2024.
We’ve asked members of The PPC Hub for input as well.
Let’s not waste any time and dive right in!
5 PPC Trends to prepare for in 2024.
I don’t think any industry moved faster than PPC this year.
And I don’t expect it to slow down in 2024.
Here are 5 trends we expect to see in the upcoming year:
- Tracking is a mess and will become even worse.
- Your edge lies outside of Google Ads: Offers and Positioning will be crucial.
- Google will continue to lower the barrier to entry (with AI).
- First-party data will become even more important.
- Video campaigns (Shorts) will get pushed more.
Breakdown below!
1: Tracking is a mess and will become even worse.
Many advertisers are gonna have a hard time in 2024 because conversion tracking will be a huge mess due to:
- Third-party cookies are going away.
- Lack of user consent.
- Privacy regulations.
- Attribution issues.
- Wrong setups.
- Ad blockers.
On top of that, there will be huge data discrepancies, as ad platforms process and report data differently.
The current landscape causes a huge problem: without proper conversion tracking, you will never get your desired results.
It will be harder to optimize and Smart Bidding won’t work as well…
So here’s what to do about it:
- Use Server-Side Tagging.
- Use Consent Mode.
- Use Third-Party Attribution.
Implement these to track more conversion than your competitors (giving you a huge competitive edge).
1.1: Use Server-Side Tagging.
- It prevents data loss due to client-side issues such as ad blockers, cookie restrictions, or browser limitations.
- It increases tracking accuracy.
- It leads to faster page load times and improved UX, because the processing load is shifted from the user’s device to your server.
1.2: Use Consent Mode.
- Track conversions even when users don’t give permission.
- Consent Mode uses Conversion Modelling and Machine Learning to estimate the potential conversions when no consent is given.
- Consent Mode analyzes historical/existing data to predict the likelihood of conversions.
Here’s a simple graph that shows how it works:
You can see the uplift of measured conversions in Google Ads — we expect it to be much higher in 2024.
Implementing Server-Side Tagging and Consent Mode is a bit of a technical story so we won’t go too much into the details now, but please put them on your roadmap for 2024 if you haven’t implemented them already.
They will give you your biggest competitive edge in 2024.
When everyone else will be struggling, you have crystal-clear data.
And as we all know: whoever has the most high-quality data, wins.
Quick note before we move on: we’re spending a lot of time on Server-Side Tagging (including implementation resources) in our upcoming Google Ads Masterclass in January.
Want to start your year strong? Then join us and upgrade your Google Ads skills in 4 short weeks (this is an advanced training program for experienced PPC Pros, not for beginners).
1.3: Use Third-Party Attribution.
Ad platforms like Google and Meta love to take credit for every conversion — this can cause big issues.
Third-party attribution tools like Northbeam or TripleWhale give you an unbiased view of your performance across every touchpoint.
This is especially relevant for bigger advertisers, and not so much for the smaller ones.
And the best part: they use first-party data and don’t rely on third-party cookies.
2: Your edge lies outside of Google Ads: Offers and Positioning will be crucial.
I spoke to Bob recently and he made an excellent point.
He said:
“Every year, it becomes more important to finetune your offers. Take Lead Gen or SaaS advertisers for example: how do you REALLY make a difference when everyone’s using the same setups and tech?
Think about how you can create a unique offer, and how you can show that in your creatives so you can truly scale your advertising.
The same applies to Ecom: pricing is going to be more important (especially for retailers without their own brands). You’ll need a smart (dynamic) pricing strategy to stay ahead of your competition — especially on Google Shopping.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Most accounts have similar campaign setups (at least the ones that are set up properly), so how do you make a difference? How do you get an edge?
By constantly tweaking your offers.
People don’t buy because you have great campaigns.
They buy because you have great offers.
“Make offers so good, people feel stupid saying no.” - Alex Hormozi
It’s not our responsibility as Google Ads Specialists to create our clients’ offers — but it is our responsibility to challenge them if their offers aren’t good.
Nothing has a bigger impact on your conversion rates than your offers and positioning.
That’s how you truly get an edge and stay ahead of your competitors.
In the upcoming Google Ads Masterclass, we’re diving deep into pricing strategies for Shopping/pMax — you’ll love it. Feel free to join here.
Aditya Bajpai, member of The PPC Hub, agrees:
3: Google will continue to lower the barrier to entry (with AI).
The barrier to entry for advertisers has never been lower due to simplified solutions as Performance Max.
Anyone get set up a campaign now within minutes.
We expect this trend to continue as Google rolls out Generative AI in Q1.
- Business owners will quickly find out how easy it is to set up campaigns — and how hard it is to actually optimize for good results.
- Average Google Ads Specialists will rely too much on GenAI, which may produce low-quality creatives and copy.
Lots of accounts will be mismanaged and of low quality.
That leaves A-players with a great opportunity!
4: First-party data will become even more important.
Ruben Runneboom, Co-Founder of Taskforce Agency and member of The PPC Hub predicts that first-party data will be crucial in order to be successful in 2024:
His full prediction:
“In 2024, I expect first-party data to play an even more significant role than it does already right now. As Google Ads specialists, we must adapt to this situation. We can no longer depend on reactive or outdated campaign structures.
We need to come up with proactive and innovative solutions whereby we utilize all possible data points.
For example, you should consider leveraging historical performance data, returns, profit margins, size availability and price benchmark data to segment your campaigns to run different strategies aiming to maximize the net profit at the bottom line.”
He’s absolutely right: the more (first-party) data you use, the better your results will be.
By the way, Ruben is building his agency “Taskforce” in public. He shares insights in his weekly newsletter “Building Open Agency”. You’ll like it, subscribe here for free if you want.
5: Video campaigns (Shorts) will get pushed more.
Violeta Balbae, Founder @ KLIQBLE Agency and member of The PPC Hub expects Google to push Video campaigns (specifically Shorts) more in 2024.
And we agree.
It can become one of Google’s major cash cows as people consume more shortform video content.
Shorts is still huge, untapped potential for both Google and advertisers.
Adriaan Dekker, Freelance Google Ads Specialist and member of The PPC Hub also predicts Google to push upper funnel campaigns more (especially after the launch of Demand Gen):
Adriaan also has a newsletter (on LinkedIn). I recommend you to subscribe to stay on top of all the latest developments (big and small).
If there’s one thing that you take away… Focus on your data quality!
So there you have it: 5 trends/expectations for the PPC world in 2024:
- Tracking is a mess and will become even worse.
- Your edge lies outside of Google Ads: Offers and Positioning will be crucial.
- Google will continue to lower the barrier to entry (with AI).
- First-party data will become even more important.
- Video campaigns (Shorts) will get pushed more.
If there’s only one thing you take away from this issue: focus on your data quality!
In 2024, you NEED Server-Side Tagging and Consent Mode in order to properly track conversions.
This may not seem urgent now, but when third-party cookies go away, you’ll wish you had started sooner.
And if you want our help with that, consider enrolling in the next Google Ads Masterclass.
You’ll get up to speed with all the latest strategies, tactics, and experiments that work.
We’ll ensure you have best-in-class conversion tracking setups in 2024, so you can dominate Google Ads and stay ahead of your competition.
And that’s just 1 of 5 workshops — we have so much more for you around Search, Shopping/pMax, the Future of PPC, and a ton of Experiments.
If that sounds interesting to you, feel free to enroll here.
And a big thanks to PPC Hub members Aditya, Ruben, and Violeta for their contributions to this issue, be sure to follow them on LinkedIn!
Have an awesome week ahead!
Cheers,
Miles (& Bob)
