Automation in advertising is a trend that has gained much prominence in recent years. Internet giants like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft keep improving and rolling out advanced AI features that facilitate easier campaign management and ultimately boost productivity and results.
Nowadays, the number of third-party apps available is rapidly increasing for various PPC market tasks. They also help you in managing your time while boosting your performance without in-depth expertise in advertising.
Small businesses trying to set PPC campaigns have faced many issues whenever things have settled for PPC automation. However, their lack of experience toward their market audience restricts them from subscribing to various tools.
How to not overpay for all the features and tools you may not use? How do you balance out things while looking for PPC automation? We will take you around all the opportunities along with their merits and demerits to help you understand them properly.
Table of Contents
1. Built-in Ad-Platform Automation
Ad platforms provide various resources to enhance the advertisers’ experience and increase the campaign’s ROAS. As for Google Ads, which is considered one of the best PPC platforms, you may also benefit from the help of machine learning along with tools built into these platforms for accumulating a higher number of conversions.
There are various platforms and tools that one should always pay attention to. For example, Google’s Smart Bidding allows users to strategize the bidding process in an automated version. In addition, it will enable users to process their unique context, signals, and conversion rate.
At first glance, this automated bidding may look like an easy process. All you have to do is structure your target CPA or the ROAS and let the system do the magic to get your adequate number of conversions.
However, in reality, these advertisements often end up underperforming. This can be due to various reasons, like the allocation of your model for low CPA values. To give your performance in Smart bidding a boost, experience in PPC and understanding of setting is a must.
To save you from all the Smart Bidding procedures, Google provides various features and a set of tools that can help you a lot in this.
- Google Keyword Planner – Used for efficient grouping of the keyword along with the research.
- Google Ads Scripts – Used for various tasks, including reporting, monitoring your budget, stats of your campaigns, and much more.
- Dynamic Keyword Insertion – It benefits users by processing their queries into the descriptions and headlines for higher Quality Score.
- Dynamic Ads – Used for creating dynamic automated headlines for your ads.
- Automated Rules – It is an interesting tool that allows you to take actions in bulk across your account, campaigns, ad groups, and other levels.
These tools are free but can be useless without proper guidance. Therefore, Google also left a set of routines for improving the usage of features mentioned in the list above.
For example, you should manage the PPC reporting along with competitor analysis by yourself. Research of the keywords by Google’s tools needs time as well. This is why advertisers typically choose to opt for several or just one specially optimized toolkit for automating their tasks.
Pros
● All the tools and features are offered for free
● Your campaigns are connected with all these tools directly
● Machine learning along with restricted audience data can be beneficial for you
Cons
● You can only properly leverage these tools if you are experienced with them
● The majority of these tools can only be used through the native platform advertising
● Ad platforms do not handle all tasks throughout the advertising process
2. Standalone Automation Tools For Specific Tasks
There are various types of tools that PPC advertisers can use. These tools have the capability of performing high-value tasks that are particularly specialized, including:
- Keyword Collecting – Examples include Ubersuggest, Keywordtool.io, Answerthepublic, and so many more.
- Fraud Protection – Examples include PPC Protectors, TrafficGuard, and much more.
- Analytics and Reporting – Examples include Kissmetrics, Supermetrics, and much more.
- Competitor Analysis – Examples include SpyFu, iSpionage, and much more.
Many of these helpful tools are easy-to-use, although a few do need some experience to become proficient. However, you’ve got to make sure to pay for at least 3-4 types of tools for success in the advertising process.
You may also want to try some of the tools that offer a wide array of functionality. These include Serpstat, SimilarWeb, or even SemRush. They enable you to collect distinct and unique PPC and SEO data and easily resolve most of your tasks.
Apart from all this, there’s also a little disadvantage of using these types of tools. As they work separately from your campaigns, you can’t create reports, manage alerts, perform various tasks in-built, or even link your advertising account.
Pros
● Tools are considered suitable for many advertising platforms
● Task needed to be handle can be automated by you
● When it’s about analytics and keyword research, specially optimized marketing tools traditionally offer more benefits than ad platforms’ in-built features.
Cons
● Advertising account linking is sparsely supported
● Shifting between various tools may be needed
● You may have to pay for multiple subscriptions
3. PPC Automation Platforms For Small Businesses
For small businesses or advertisers who don’t wish to pay for expensive tools and insights, it’s better to leverage a single platform that provides you with accurate profit reports and automates your routine tasks.
These types of tools are specifically created for PPC advertisers, who need all-in-one tools. That not only automates their tasks but frees them from the pain of using scripts, competitor analysis, and similar tools. You don’t have to pay for those tools that not only waste your time but aggregate your data as well.
According to a survey by PromoNavi, which is a digital marketing platform for small businesses and advertisers, there are certain reasons for entrepreneurs to start using these tools, including:
● 86% state that the PromoNavi platform allows them to access special data that they won’t find with any Google or Facebook tools (It comes with keyword recommendation, goal analysis that depends on behavioral metrics, and much more).
● 79% state that PromoNavi allows them to work efficiently and helps them reduce time performing daily tasks (including campaign monitoring, reporting, keyword research, and more).
● 72% state that PromoNavi also allows managing their campaigns only in a single interface without shifting between many platforms and tools.
If you wish to use an automated platform, ensure that these features are included:
- Research – Before running your campaign, you must be already aware of your competitors’ strategies, their scopes, and the keywords they’re using. This means they must also contain the ability of competitor analysis.
- Optimization – The automated platforms must always keep on analyzing your account and help with improvements for campaign improvement. But, unfortunately, few platforms also allow you to imitate these interfaces without any need for Google Ads Editor.
- Monitoring – Must have a track of your real-time campaign performance for receiving alerts if things go up the wrong way. It should also get updated when your competitors make any change in their keywords or ads.
- Summarizing – Automated reporting will always take care of the data that you would’ve reported through Excel as all of the required data is checked and confirmed.
Pros
● Allowance to link your account used for advertising
● Need to pay for only one subscription
● No certain need for changing in between multiple websites
● Provide support for the majority of the websites
● Every tool you need for advertisement when you are analyzing, running, optimizing, and creating your campaigns is provided
Cons
● Some platforms cost more in comparison to other specially optimized tools
● Some of the platforms don’t provide a specially optimized toolkit for PPC marketers
Final Thoughts
Using various types of automated platforms ultimately enhances your work output. Not only is this more efficient, but you start getting better performance and conversion rates that are vital for small businesses.
While most advertisers take advantage of free tools to handle a wide variety of their daily tasks, they often leverage paid third-party tools to assist them with more specialized tasks.
Your best bet for saving money and managing your campaigns in a single, streamlined interface is to opt into the PPC automation platform. From there, you can rapidly create a campaign, then launch, monitor, and optimize it all within a single dashboard. By linking your advertising account, you’ll ultimately achieve greater results.
