PPC trends we’re likely to see in the egaming industry in 2018

2018 is here, and so Circus PPC are giving their top PPC tips for the year ahead.  Whether you’re an operator or an affiliate, keeping on top of your paid search activity will be key to your success in 2018.

Last year, there were many changes to paid search, including a change to the AdWords dashboard and the rise of voice search, the latter we’re likely to see a lot more of over the course of the next 12 months.

But what about other aspects of PPC? Will robots take over our accounts? Will it become smarter? Here are our thoughts for the year ahead:

• Increased focus on audience

Ensuring that you correctly target your audience is vital for the success of your PPC campaigns. Targeting the wrong demographics will result in your campaign falling flat, but correctly targeting your audience and you could see a significant click-through rate (CTR) from your ads, and a considerable return on investment (ROI) in terms of customer longevity and average player value. It’s likely that we’ll see more focus being shifted towards audience targeting this year, and by using similar and in-market audiences, as well as retargeting based on integrated data from search, display and video, you’re more likely to serve ads which are relevant to the end user.

• Keywords 

Keywords will always be king, but they key to a good keyword strategy, aside from that all-important keyword research, is recognising inferred intent. In simple terms, what does the user want from their search? Do they really want betting tips for a particular fixture, or do they actually want to place a bet on that fixture and get the best odds for it? By really understanding the end user intent, you’re more likely to be able to provide better ad copy, and in turn more relevant ads, and a greater CTR.

The rise of voice search will also have an effect on the keywords players use when looking for odds and betting tips. Keywords and phrases used when typing are likely to be different to those used with voice search, and so there’s likely to be a shift in the keyword data. By monitoring these changes, you’ll be able to see whether voice search is influencing the top keywords, and be able to tailor your ad copy, meaning you’re more likely to capture players using voice search.

• Further mobile growth

2017 saw another increase in the number of mobile searches being made, and 2018 is likely to continue down this path. With this in mind, it’s important that the basics are done right – for example ensuring that the landing pages of your adverts are mobile friendly, and that the site has good mobile load speed. Although this is strictly more an SEO problem than a PPC one, it does have an effect on your paid search activity. After all, why invest in PPC campaigns, bidding on some of the most expensive keywords around, to just direct traffic to a website from which users are likely to bounce from?

• Automation

Automation is likely to play a part in your PPC strategy for 2018, with Google already moving away from manager control, instead bringing in automated ad rotation and even creating ads for you. We prefer to give the accounts we manage the human touch, and have people monitoring them and looking for ways to improve them at all times. The danger with automation is falling into the trap of letting the account run itself, which can potentially pose problems. Of course, automation has its advantages, but having a PPC Manager giving it a more human touch is much more likely to see the account run smoothly.

• Voice search

It’s no secret that voice search is on the rise, with Google Home and Amazon Alexa devices becoming increasingly common in peoples’ homes, and Siri, Bixby or Cortana found on nearly every smartphone.

The question is ‘how will this affect PPC campaigns?’. The behaviour from a voice search is likely to be very different to that of a typical mobile user, and so your strategy will need to change to try and capture traffic from voice search. Unfortunately, at this stage, it’s not possible to differentiate between voice searches and more traditional searches, neither is it possible to serve ads specifically to voice searches only. Having said this, it’s only a matter of time before this becomes a possibility. 2018 may be the year where we’re able to ask Alexa “what are the best odds on tomorrow’s match” or “what are the odds on a Liverpool win tonight?”.

Rick has been involved with PPC since 2004. After managing departments in two of the UK’s biggest agencies, he decided to set up a specialist PPC agency that could focus on delivering the right strategies for his clients. He has worked with some of the UK’s biggest brands, including several in the egaming industry, and has overseen more than £80 million in budget during his career. Rick is a strategic and experienced expert who generates successful ROI across highly competitive markets