Search Engine Marketing (SEM) suffered numerous changes in the past couple of years, and they don’t seem to stop here.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is part of SEM, which is an umbrella concept that encompasses multiple aspects of Digital Marketing. Technology evolves at a rapid pace, and it influences every single aspect of a person’s life, not to mention the way processes are being handled in various industries. With technology, people’s expectations grow too, which makes it even more difficult to step up the game and follow the current trends.
SEM is big in 2019, but it will grow even more during the future year, as the digital revolution starts altering digital marketing as we know it today. Staying informed in regard to the changes that are about to happen is a condition for people who depend on the use of SEM or SEO as a whole. Continue reading to find out more about the directions in which SEM will go in 2020. Of interest, see also this piece, Top Search Engines to Consider in 2020
Google algorithms are constantly changing
Google’s algorithm updates are the ones that dictate where Digital Marketing goes. The 2018 updates caused a lot of changes in SEM, so why would 2019 be any different? Google never sleeps in terms of updating algorithms, which means that all people who depend on Digital Marketing must keep an eye on all changes. The most impactful updates of 2018 included the zero-result SERP test, the mobile-first index (which caused a lot of fuss in the world of SEM), video carousels and the Medic core update. Google Medic impacted search rankings tremendously. The main purpose of Google’s algorithm updates is to encourage people to adopt better practices in terms of SEM. Google gets smarter with its indexing strategies, slowly but steady. Soon, people will have to invest more attention in the way they run their digital marketing campaigns.
The Google update that directly affects SEM (a part of it, to be more specific – PPC) is the new component added to the Ad Rank formula. An ad’s position is no longer calculated using the keyword Quality Score and the CPC bid. Instead, Google brought Ad Extensions to the table. This change was perceived as an ice breaker in the world of digital marketing. Google tries to balance out the number of organic listings and paid ads. Basically, the giant tries to force advertisers to adopt search-centric approaches. This is where SEM is headed in 2020.
Everything shifts to mobile
According to Statista, mobile phone Internet penetration increased from 48,8% in 2014 to 63,4% in 2019, and these insights exclude tablets. Since the rise of IoT, people have more chances to access information from all sorts of sources. The digital transformation affected how SEM works as well and this might be one of the reasons behind Google’s decision to focus more on mobile usage. Using smartphones becomes habitual, and the number of search queries coming from smaller devices managed to overtake the ones coming from desktops. IoT devices will reach a fascinating number of 8.5 billion by the year 2020, which will definitely affect the opportunities for digital marketers (most likely in a positive manner).
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering that smartphones are now more powerful than a mid-range laptop. Professionals predict that the number of mobile phone users will go up to 9 million in 2020, a considerable part of this number using smartphones exclusively. This forecast might suffer changes in the following months, taking into account that mobile phones become more and more capable. SEM might suffer changes because of this digital shift – everything will become multi-platform and personalized in real time. SEM professionals have to remain open to shifting market demands.
Consumer-centered versus ROAS-centered approaches
Paid search programs will need to be perceived with a different pair of eyes. The year 2020 will bring a fresh perspective to the table – consumer-centered approaches. Today, as well as in the past couple of years, the approach selected by online marketers is a ROAS-centered one. ROAS is short from Return Of Advertising Spending and it is a KPI (Key Performance Indicator). These elements determine how effective an SEM plan is. Or – at least – they did until now.
Online marketers focused on ROAS because it seemed the most relevant KPI to follow – is the advertising budget they use generating enough revenue? Approaches are financially-driven at the moment, and marketers work their way towards maximizing advertising results from a very technical point of view. In 2020, the approaches will be entirely different. Google is trying its best to eliminate these overly-technical approaches and to bring customer-centered ones in the attention of online marketers.
After all, the purpose of any search engine is to provide great services to its users, instead of throwing irrelevant ads at them and making them hate the experience. In 2020, this aspect will be more accentuated than ever. Parxavenue digital marketers already found a method to combine both great results and consumer-centered approaches in their SEM plans.
Smarter audience targeting
Today, audience targeting practices are pretty general. In order to come up with a good SEM strategy that has visible results in a short period of time, selecting the audience the proper way can determine whether the strategy will be effective or not. The methods used today do their job, but it’s not enough for what the future holds in terms of Search Engine Marketing. One of the predictions is that digital marketing is going to be entirely based on psychographic segmentation.
Because personalized ads gained ground fast, there is no wonder why segmentation will be done based on the personality traits, lifestyle and value systems of people. Psychographic segmentation relies on selecting audiences according to their way of thinking, their behavior, and feelings. This will definitely impact the way SEM works, how efficient it is and what direction it adopts in future years. There is not much left to do, other than waiting for these changes to happen and embrace them.