5 Local PPC Trends for San Diego Businesses To Adopt Today

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is changing. An expert San Diego PPC agency helps you become resilient by keeping clients like you updated with the latest industry trends and technologies.

And this article highlights five of these:

• Voice search to tap into localized user queries
• Automation to enhance efficiency
• Diversification to widen ad reach
• Visual ads to increase engagement
• Customer segmentation to raise relevance

PPC is highly competitive, and as a small business, you must stay ahead. Read the article below on how to achieve it! Let’s go!

If you want to learn how Digital Authority Partners can increase your PPC effectiveness, watch this video!

1. Voice Search to Tap into Localized User Queries

More people rely on voice assistants for almost everything, from weather tracking to shopping, and the United States is one of the biggest markets.

What does this mean for your PPC campaigns? You must adjust your plans to accommodate localized user queries. One strategy is to activate weather-triggered advertising.

This technique involves creating ads that appear during or after a major weather event, such as an unexpected rainstorm. It can also use keywords related to the local climate, such as “San Diego sun” or “Southern California beach.” (For more on local keywords, check out our article on San Diego local SEO.)

Here is a typical process for local SEO in San Diego:

• Let us say you are a retail shop selling sunscreens. You start by creating a list of keywords related to sunny weather. These include “sunny day,” “beach day,” “sunscreen,” “sunblock,” “SPF,” and “UV protection.”
• Create ads that promote your sunscreen products and include these keywords. For instance, you can highlight the benefits of using sunscreen.
• Set up a weather data API to track weather conditions in San Diego.
• Configure your PPC campaign to show ads only when the weather conditions meet certain criteria, such as UV index and temperature.
• Set your campaign to target people in the San Diego area.

2. Automation To Enhance Efficiency

Because PPC can be complex, you benefit more from working with a San Diego PPC agency. You can count on its expertise to manage resources more effectively, especially costs and budgets.

But you and the team can also increase efficiency with automation, like with AI for San Diego businesses. Recently, Google is testing using artificial intelligence (AI) to make ads based on existing assets. These can be videos, texts, or images.

Automation is also used in:

• Bidding, where it lets you automatically adjust your bids to optimize for your target goals, such as maximizing clicks, conversions, or returns;
• Dynamic search ads, where Google combines different headlines and descriptions to closely match user intent or queries;
• Remarketing, which shows ads to people who have previously interacted with your brand by visiting your website or downloading your app;
• Performance alert setups, which send notifications on your email or phones when certain metrics reach set thresholds;
• Keyword research, which uses machine learning algorithms to identify relevant keywords and suggest new ones to add to your campaign.

3. Diversification To Widen Ad Reach

One of the biggest PPC mistakes San Diego businesses should avoid is believing that PPC is only limited to Google.

By diversifying your ad output, you can cover more ground and reach more people with your message. This activity creates a domino effect on leads, views, and sales. You can also use this opportunity to test different tactics regarding content and visuals.

These include Bing, a rival of Google. Thanks to its ChatGPT integration, Microsoft’s search engine grew its audience by 100 million active daily users. Plus, you can use PPC features that make it superior to Google. These include:

• the ability to create campaigns according to time zones
• more control over ad groups and campaigns
• appeal to older demographics (according to some studies)
• high popularity in Europe because of Google’s issues with privacy

You can also diversify and complement your search engine ads with social media advertising. Websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, have unique ad formats and features that you can use to reach different types of people.

For example:

• Carousel ads on Facebook and Instagram, where you can show multiple images or videos in a single ad
• Geotargeting filters on Snapchat allow you to show ads to people in specific areas.
• LinkedIn’s sponsored content, which lets you promote news articles, blog posts, and other content types on the newsfeed
• Pinterest’s pinned ads, where paid copies appear alongside organic pins

4. Visual Ads To Increase Engagement

Visuals are a powerful tool for customer engagement. They bridge the gap between product understanding and purchase decisions. So as you pay for online visibility, it is best to use visuals to stand out against competitors.

Videos are one of the most effective forms of visual content marketing today. It is also an ideal format for PPC, as people can quickly digest what you are trying to say and be more likely to take action afterward.

You can use these in different ways in your PPC ads:

• Product videos are a type of pre-roll ad (short clips that appear before the full video plays, usually on YouTube or other streaming sites).
• Tutorials and demos to teach people how to use products
• Testimonials for social proof and building trust with potential customers
• Short stories to show the value that your product or service brings

Apart from videos, you can also use visuals such as infographics and images in your PPC campaigns. You can create an ad that displays a visual of a product and includes information about it. This way, you can provide more detail without overwhelming potential customers.

You can also use technology to ensure your visuals are attractive. AI-powered photo editors, video makers, and graphic design tools let you create stunning images with little effort.

5. Customer Segmentation To Raise Relevance

As the ad competition becomes more intense, relevance is key to success. Ads highly targeted at customers can significantly increase engagement rates and conversions. This is because customers see the messages as more personal and helpful.

You can achieve customer segmentation through ad retargeting. This is a targeted approach to showing ads to people who have previously interacted with your brand or website.

Another PPC trend is hyper-segmentation, which expands the audience-targeting capabilities of PPC campaigns. Besides demographics, it considers:

• Behavioral patterns (preferences, interests, purchase history)
• Psychographics (personality traits and lifestyle choices)
• Location-based targeting (targeting ads to people in specific areas)

With the right data, you can create tailored messages that best meet each segment’s needs.

Summing Up San Diego PPC

Running a successful PPC campaign in San Diego means embracing trends and best practices. Whether it is understanding the local market or creating visuals for higher engagement, you have plenty of options to adapt campaigns to the changes.

But if you want to maximize PPC plans, let experienced professionals help you. Digital Authority Partners (DAP) is a full-service San Diego PPC agency offering customized solutions for local businesses. Contact us today to learn more.