This year it worked out that Tuesday of my SMX Advanced experienced was very SEO focused, while Wednesday saw a deep dive in to pay per click, conversion rate optimization, and better use of analytics.  Though less has changed on the PPC horizon than had last year, there was a lot to confirm that I am up to date and using the latest and greatest.

Concern Over GDPR with Audience Targeting

Adwords Audience TargetingSome big company PPC specialists working with a lot of global markets have seen a loss of 60 to 70% of that data. It is expected that these rules will eventually apply in the US, so even small businesses may eventually feel GDPR. Though many small businesses aren’t yet using some of the great tactics that audience targeting offers in Google Adwords, some do, and risk seeing a return to old targeting methods or coming up with new methods like sales funnel targeting.

Even with GDPR worries, it is still advised that we use remarketing lists and strategic uses of audience targeting such as age and gender to better convert our PPC budget into sales and success. If you have products and services where demographics can play a role, you should be looking at tweaking your adgroups by audience.  If a man searches for shoes, you will convert better with an ad that talks about men’s shoes. This is just one example of where you can pinpoint target market with your ads and landing pages and get even closer to user intent.

analytics Can Be Much Better

Andrew Garberson speaks at SMX AdvancedAmazing things can be done with analytics and though much of the analytics talk involved extra paid tools, Andrew Garberson showed us more information than we could handle about what you can do with simple old free Google tools like tag manager and analytics. I would say his presentation was worth the price of admission. Combine that with Marcus Tober from day 1 and you already have a 2 for 1 without even including all of the other great info at SMX Advanced.  Give Andrew and Marcus a follow. They are definitely worthwhile.

As always, I was very happy with the experience at SMX Advanced and need a few days in the woods to decompress and begin to apply much of this knowledge to my small business clients. Never disappointed in the experience here and I would recommend an SMX experience to anyone interested in being better at search engine marketing.

Summary
SMX Advanced Wednesday - PPC, Conversions, and Analytics
Article Name
SMX Advanced Wednesday - PPC, Conversions, and Analytics
Google Certified Partner and SEM Specialist
This year it worked out that Tuesday of my SMX Advanced experienced was very SEO focused, while Wednesday saw a deep dive in to pay per click, conversion rate optimization, and better use of analytics.
Jeremy Skillings
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