The benefits of Automation in paid search marketing

Before we dwell deeper to understand the benefits of Automation in Paid Search Marketing or otherwise known as Pay Per Click (PPC), let us first understand the origin, the process and the benefits of PPC. The world of digital marketing knows the evolution of PPC was quite advantageous in the initial days of Digital Marketing when Google Search and other search engines were just gaining their prominence. Since Cost Per Impression (CPM) was the order of the day in the initial days of digital marketing and everybody were invariably opting for it, the option of PPC was a kind of blessing in disguise to many marketers since it aided in cost saving and most significantly targeting the right kind of lead.

The origin of Pay Per Click (PPC)

The origin of PPC was because the Cost Per Impression (CPM) didn’t serve the larger objective of digital marketing which was precise targeting to obtain the right kind of leads. The commencement of pay per click process gave Digital Marketers the freedom to choose and deliver value to the overall process of digital marketing. The PPC without any doubt was an appropriate tool in the overall process of digital marketing since it targeted the right kind of audience and communicated the desired message and with costs that were paid only for those clicked ads; a value quotient was established that made commercial sense to the digital marketers.

The benefits of Pay Per Click (PPC)

While the debate to count on the multiple benefits of PPC could open a pandoras box, it is advisable that the marketer plans the PPC basis the objectives of the brand and most importantly the budget for the entire digital campaign. The automation of the Pay Per Click (PPC) has its own benefits and advantages, the most common benefit is the optimization and control of the cost. The overall analysis of the digital marketing campaign with respect to the PPC should be thoroughly understood, the analysis should be more data oriented leading to clear insights for the way forward. With clear insights obtained from the data there would be more clarity on the automation aspect of the PPC campaign which would enable to optimize the overall campaign.

In order to automate the solutions, one needs to have a broader perspective on the methods and the process which needs to be automated. There should also be more clarity with respect to data and the methods that should be put to practice to use them, be it big data or the back-end data which needs to be integrated into the presumed solution stream. The entire process needs to be streamlined towards automation which would yield maximum optimization.

Building an inventory which would be automated with the respective accounts would again be a logical step towards total optimization. The front-end aspects and accounts which should be considered for automation are the Campaign budgets, keyword bids, Ad group bids, Location bid modifiers, Day of week bid modifiers, Hour of day bid modifiers, Device bid modifiers, Demographic bid modifiers, Audience bid modifiers, Ad flighting and rules, GDN bid only modifiers, and Front-end performance metrics. The back-end aspects and accounts for due consideration are the Inquiries & Prospects, Customers, Leads, Sales-qualified leads, Revenue, Profit, ROAS, ROI, and CRM Data.

Owning the technology versus building the technology

The perennial debate between owning the technology or building the technology is always a mind-buster for all Marketers and Clients. The business objectives would be a decisive factor for buying / investing in a third-party marketing automation tool, the business goals should include full integration of various marketing channels and backed systems. Investing in an automation tool would be ideal for people who need time for setting up of the processes and integrating it.

If the business objectives include custom functionality then building an automation system and solution is recommended. Building the automation system could be cost-effective and the means of optimization of pivots are very limited during the building process.

Automation of the digital marketing process can be a boon in disguise for Marketers and Clients if the business objectives are thoroughly understood and articulated. Choosing the right kind of automation could only be the fall-out of the same.