The Future of Paid Search

1. Local Paid Search Features

Recently Google has been experimenting with Local Inventory Ads and Local Business Cards, which make it possible to display the location and inventory status of your store when someone searches for a product that you sell. With this being a relatively new approach, it’s likely that it could be the beginning of a local advertising solution via Google Shopping. There’s certainly enough revenue in the local markets to make the move worthwhile for Google and other search engines.

2. Expanding the Presence of Paid Search Ads

Many analysts also believe that we’ll start seeing more paid search results in different areas of the search engines and their products. For example, many people have already reported that Google Shopping ads are popping up within the Image Search interface. Apparently Google is also working on a new kind of chat service that would allow users to conduct searches from directly within the chat interface. As search engines continue to expand their product lines, it’s inevitable that we’ll see paid search popping up in more places than ever before.

3. More Automated Processes

As every industry continues to move towards automation and algorithms over human decision-making, there’s no doubt that paid search providers will be looking for ways to make the practice of buying and adjusting bids a more programmatic, streamlined process. Ultimately, this will lead to less effort on behalf of ad campaign managers because they won’t have to put in as much manual effort.

4. Personalised Mobile Suggestions

Paid search ads have typically been confided to the world of voluntary search, where you view results after inputting a specific search query. However, as voice and natural search platforms like Cortana and Siri continue to become more advanced, it’s likely that paid search ads will be incorporated into suggestions based on your recent interests, current location, and hot trends.

5. More Ads Within App Content

As the line between desktop interfaces and apps becomes thinner, we can expect to see paid search results appearing within apps on a more frequent basis. Google has already been using app indexingApp indexing is a way for Google to crawl and index your app content. If you have an app, then you can use App Indexing to help users find your app content on Google. to allow searchers to view and engage with app content from within the standard search results, even if you don’t have the app installed on your device

Preparing to Take Advantage of the Changes

By being knowledgeable about what is to come you can take steps to optimise your strategies so that paid search will continue to work for you as well as it has in the past. The key to ensuring a strong campaign in any effort is to stay up-to-date on industry practices, so it’s important to do the same if you plan to continue using paid search as an advertising platform.