The Paid Search Association Conference (PSAC) 2020 began zooming today to paid search professionals for their first-ever free virtual conference. With nearly eight hours of instruction and discussion over the next three days, we know there were be lots of good insight and direction here from over 20 paid media experts covering topics from lessons learned about paid search during the COVID-19 pandemic to other crucial everyday topics related to paid search tools and areas of interest. (Plus, we are one of the major sponsors of this virtual conference!)

Here are some highlights you won’t want to miss from the first day:

The Quintessential PPC Audit

Navah Hopkins- Director of Paid Media at Hennessey Digital

Navah Hopkins, who describes herself as a speaker and thought leader, as well as a PPC Jedi at Hennessey Digital, kicked off the conference with her presentation, “The Quintessential PPC Audit.” Hopkins discussed what metrics you should be using, as well as when you should take action and when you should hold off. She even shared a couple of hidden settings (dare we call them Jedi-paid-search tricks? Probably not…)

Some of the key takeaways from her presentation include:

• Improving your Impression share. There is an average impression share of 47 percent for any paid search. The rest is either lost to rank or budget. To improve your share to rank, use bids, and be aggressive at the start. Hopkins also cautions you to stick to keyword relevance and don’t fall into the SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Group) trap.  To improve your impressions lost to budget, ensure that they can get at least ten clicks every day. Anything less, and your campaign will likely not be profitable.
• When should you act and when should you wait? Hopkins says that new campaigns can take anywhere from two to six weeks to ramp up, and the difference in the time frame is how much you can spend. You should act when you see wasteful search terms by adding negatives, but you should wait when you see interesting terms that are converting. She adds only to add new keywords if they are better than your existing keywords. You should also act when you see no conversions. Hopkins recommends checking your tracking settings and if codes are working properly. However, you should wait if you are in “learning” status with the campaign. Your bidding strategy might take some time, as much as five days.
• Hidden settings you should know about. Hopkins had great tips about settings you might have missed. From Auto-Applying ads/extensions to starting “Smart Campaigns,” to choosing bidding strategies, Hopkins has lots of boxes for you to check. To learn more, consider emailing her at navah@Hennessey.com.

To see the entire presentation on The Quintessential PPC Audit, please click here.

LinkedIn Ads: The B2B Marketer’s Secret Weapon?

AJ Wilcox, Founder of B2Linked.com and host of The LinkedIn Ads Show

Taking the stage on Wednesday was AJ Wilcox, who is the host of The LinkedIn Ads Show podcast and founder of B2Linked.com. He shared a bit of his insight on how to effectively advertise on LinkedIn. Here are a few key takeaways in case you missed it this morning:

• Add creation tips: When it comes to ad copy, Wilcox says keep it short and to the point. Also, he says to remember everybody’s favorite radio station, WIIFM. (For those of you not “in the know” that stands for What’s In It For Me.) It’s important when you are writing copy that you make it clear what the benefits are to the reader. Also, no ad is complete without a specific and easy-to-understand call to action (CTA). When it comes to graphics, Wilcox says that imagery’s job is to draw attention to the copy. He also advises you to avoid blues, grays, and whites in your color scheme. He prefers having orange, greens, and purples.
• High-performing ads: One of the things Wilcox says is crucial to your LinkedIn ad is your introduction. Your introduction is everything less than 130 characters in your ad copy. First and foremost this section should include why you, the reader, should pay attention. Furthermore, you need a clear, easy CTA. 
• Which offers perform? Wilcox also offers specific advice on which kind of offers perform best on LinkedIn. When comparing different offers most encountered on LinkedIn from blog posts all the way up to trial/demo, the “sweet spot” for offers was the guide/white paper, e-book, or webinar.
• LinkedIn ads pros and cons: Wilcox also shares the LinkedIn ads pros and cons, which he cleverly calls challenges. When it comes to pros, LinkedIn is best business targeting at scale, it gives you very up-to-date data, and the people involved have a business mentality. Furthermore, you have larger deal sizes available and opportunities available to you here. When it comes to Challenges, Wilcox says that clicks can cost as much as $8 to $11. Also there’s no device-level bidding and no day-parting. Also, there’s no visible relevancy score. Wilcox also thinks that the best fits are high-value lead generation, meaning $15,000 plus deal sizes or loan-to-values. Of course, LinkedIn is also good for white-collar recruiting, for reasons obvious. Another great area that’s excellent for advertising on LinkedIn is higher education recruiting. In other words, MBA programs do great.

Automation in a Time of Crisis

Aaron Levy, Group Director, SEM at Tinuiti

The last day of the Paid Search Association Conference 2020 kicked off with Aaron Levy, Group Direction SEM, at Tinuiti on Automation in a Time of Crisis. There are many great takeaways from this presentation, but perhaps one of the best is one of the simplest. “If your automation worked in volatile times before the crisis, it’s work just fine during the crisis.” 

Automation in the New Normal World

Frederick Vallaeys, Co-Founder Optmyzr

Keeping the automation theme running, Frederick Vallaeys, Co-Founder at Optmyzr, presented on how to use Google Ads scripts to create some useful PPC automation. Among his other excellent insights, Vallaeys maintains that PPC is better with automation layering. He reasons that machine learning helps find new queries that may drive conversions for advertisers, and then advertisers use Automation Layering to limit how aggressively Google can test new queries.

Optimizing DSA Page Feeds and Audiences

Purna Virji, Sr. Manager, Global Engagement at Microsoft

When it comes to optimizing, there are almost not suggestions that are too small, by definition. Purna Virji, who is Senior Manager of Global Engagement at Microsoft, had a lot of great things to say about getting small to optimize dynamic search ads. Virji recommends restructuring campaigns to bid on different audiences granularly. Moreover, if you are already granular, get more so. By creating your desired autotargets in detail, you increase your chances of talking to precisely the right people with your clients’ message. 

And that’s a wrap for the first-ever Paid Search Association’s PPC Conference. We want to thank all our presenters and attendees for making this exchange of insight and ideas a success. Here’s to doing it even better next year!

PPC Ad Editor is the first all-in-one tool that allows teams to create, share, and edit PPC ads with their clients and then upload directly into Google Ads. For more information, visit www.ppcadeditor.com.