ArticlesThe Convergence of Pay Per Click and Real-Time Bid Marketing

Search marketing is becoming an increasingly crowded playground. AdWords and Google Shopping, which had started out as fairly straightforward solutions have had hundreds of features added to them over the years, effectively bolstering the sophistication of search marketing arsenals, but failing to give them any real competitive edge.

High Frequency Bidding

Add to this the explosion of variables to take into account before launching a valuable online ad and the scenario is ripe for confusion. Factors such as device ownership, landing pages, time of day, user segmentation and much more need to be taken into account when calculating the value of a click. This not only makes search marketing an increasingly complex field, but only understandable to those with exceptional computational prowess.

High frequency bidding, however, has come to the rescue of hapless marketers. The algorithms of real-time bidding (RTB) can not only weed out patterns hidden in complex reams of data, but facilitate better and faster decision making. In the past, the norm was to manually set and adjust campaign bids over the course of the day. However with the rise of automated, high frequency bidding, things have become a lot simpler for search marketers.

The marketing technology landscape has now started to resemble the stock market, when high-frequency trading first became the order of the day. Martech companies have invested time and money developing their own algorithms and robots which have greatly streamlined the bidding processes in digital advertising. In the world of programmatic advertising, audience segmentation and context have emerged as primary factors for real-time bidding platforms to sell ad space to the highest bidders within a fraction of a second.

Fortunately, search marketing platforms have also been updated. The most algorithmically advanced ones are now capable of bidding in real-time on Google Shopping and AdWords. With finely tuned segmentation, product intelligence and user intent data now within reach, PPC and RTB have converged.

Enablers Driving Search Marketing

The next evolutionary step of search marketing is being driven by these three main factors:

• Audience segmentation: Audience segmentation is gradually coming to hold prime importance. So far the effectiveness of search marketing has rested on understanding user intent. With the further addition of segmentation capabilities through Google’s RLSA, campaign managers are now beginning to gain valuable insights into the user driving intent.
• Product data: Access to trend data of products is of absolute importance. Popular products are always undergoing changes and organizations that have access to the greatest amount of data will naturally have the most competitive edge. Advanced tracking also allows marketers to track ‘weak signals’ along the purchase funnel and adjust their campaigns according to that data. Marketers are striving to parse the meaning behind certain consumer behaviors. For instance has the user viewed this product several times? Was the purchase finalized after it was added to the cart? Product-driven data such as this is responsible for greater clarity during the search marketing process.
• Real-time bidding: Real-time bidding has now begun in earnest. Armed with in-depth knowledge of user segmentation, search intent and product data, search marketers can now make the best bidding decisions instantly.