Weird/sensational title? Nope. I really am going to talk about feminine products and PPC.  This one is as “Miscellaneous Monday” as they come.

After sitting down in front of the computer, I noticed my wife’s Pinterest account was open. There, screaming for my attention, was one of the funniest memes I think I have ever seen:

Bahahahaha. Get it?! That poor, young teenage girl that has to deal with that torturous/hillarious father! I thought it was pretty funny and wanted to share the laughter. Hope you enjoyed it. Now to find a way to bring this back to the topic of online advertising/ PPC…. At the Get Found First HQ (900 square foot office), I was discussing

Enhanced Campaigns with Paul and Steve. They are doing great work for Get Found First and we started chatting about how it changes the game and even how it threatens our jobs as PPC experts.

Enhanced…Nothing!

Google says that Enhanced Campaigns is all about helping advertisers. Enhanced implies “better.”  At SMX West 2013, a Google employee tried defending Google’s reasons for switching to Enhanced Campaigns.  When industry leader after industry leader got up and complained and pointed out the flaws of Enhanced Campaigns, all the poor Google employee could do was say, “thank you for the feedback” and shy away as he realized any answer he gave just left himself digging into a deeper hole. You see, Google has always been about transparency and about user experience.

They say that their number one goal is giving seachers relevant search results, exactly what they need, every time.  And that we, as advertisers on Google, should work to make the most relevant ads possible,, targeted at the most relevant demographic possible.  Google has always allowed for very specific ad targeting, and frankly, that is how we win as PPC managers.  Only by being extremely well-targeted can we get the return on ad spend (ROAS) that we and our clients or bosses need/expect.

The Problem The Problem Is

Enhanced Campaigns did nothing but blur the lines.  Google is less transparent than ever before. Google made it harder for us as PPC managers to get ultra-specific in our targeting efforts.  I won’t go into all of the pros and cons of enhanced campaigns. Jill DuPre did a good write up on exactly that. Suffice it to say that as PPC managers we are not as free, and it is not as easy, to target the exact audience on the exact device that we want to target.

The Solution Diversify.

At Get Found First we are doing everything that we can to be better at finding ways for our clients to win on other online ad networks and platforms.  You may be thinking to yourself, “how is that a solution? Are those ad networks more targeted than Google?” It really isn’t a solution to the problem of getting more targeted traffic.  What it does do for you though is help you find other ways to have success online, and, with my tongue in cheek I say, it will help you prepare when buying ads on Google becomes just like buying TV ads and billboards.

Seriously though, if Google stays on the track they are on, someday it won’t take a special skill set to run PPC ad campaigns. Think about it. One legal battle in the name of “privacy” that doesn’t go Google’s way and Google could lose their ability to share any data with us advertisers about what keywords people search when they click on our ads. Seem far fetched? It really isn’t that far away.  Just look at what has happened to the data that Google Analytics provides. In the case of this client, over 30% of their traffic comes from searchers where the keyword data is “not provided.”

And how is this going to tie back into feminine products and PPC?

Not a ton, but there is a correlation. If you are like me, you analyze every TV commercial, radio ad, billboard, etc. that you see.  Have you ever sat down to enjoy a show and seen an ad that didn’t relate to you at all? Today as I discussed Enhanced Campaigns with Paul and Steve, I was telling them that some day, Google ads could be as poorly targeted as TV ads. I said, “It could be as bad as running a Tampax commercial during a UFC fight night or something.” Random, right? The example is relevant. The only reason I could think of for why that was the first thing that popped in my head as an example was because of that silly meme.

What do you think? Am I off my rocker?

Is Google PPC always going to stay as targeted as it has always been? Or will the day come when buying ad space on Google is the same as buying ad space from any other online ad network? I don’t think Enhanced Campaigns is going to push us out of a job any time soon, but do you think the PPC skill set will become obsolete? Will we all just be media buyers?