Now that the holiday madness is over, it’s time for digital marketers to plan where we’ll be spending in 2015. According to The State of Paid Search survey, the PPC market is predicted to have slower growth in 2015 than it did in 2014. However, account managers are still excited about growth opportunities for the new year.

Image of ad spend infographic

70% of account managers who plan to increase spend will focus account growth in Google AdWords. This additional spend in AdWords will most likely be used for the Display Network and for overall account expansion into new products and services.

Expect to see even more growth in Facebook Ads as well. Account managers at Hanapin Marketing are looking forward to getting more performance insight with Facebook’s new reporting features.

52% of account managers are planning to increase spend in Bing Ads. Again, some of this predicted growth may be a result of increased spending in general, however, there may be another factor.

Yahoo Stream Ads

Clients are getting more excited about using native advertising in 2015. Yahoo Stream Ads are gaining popularity among our clients at Hanapin Marketing and can be especially beneficial when it comes to brand awareness and overall reach. As this interest in Yahoo Stream Ads increases, you might see a growth in overall spend in the Yahoo Bing Network (not just Bing Ads).

Clients like the fact that Yahoo Stream Ads contain both an image and text. Yahoo Stream Ads do not only show up in their search result pages, but they also appear above user email inboxes and most Yahoo sites including the Yahoo homepage. Since these ads are basically imbedded in the news feeds of consumers, they are more likely to be read, and hopefully clicked.

If you’re thinking about using Yahoo Stream Ads, plan to take advantage of their user-interest-based targeting capabilities. Yahoo uses Enhanced Targeting, which takes the following into account when serving ads to their users:

  • Audience demographics
  • Location
  • The category of your client’s business

Yahoo also serves ads based on users’ past search activity, previously clicked articles, and their Yahoo profile information. This information ensures that the most qualified and likely to convert users are seeing your ads.

Download the entire 2014-2015 State of Paid Search right now! 

Conclusion

Among the survey findings:

  • 52% of account managers plan to put more focus on entering new ad networks this year
  • 38% plan to have the same amount of focus as they did in 2014
  • 10% plan to have less focus on entering new ad networks.

With a variety of improved and new ad network features spanning from Twitter “Offers” buttons to Yahoo Stream Ads, account managers won’t have trouble finding growth opportunities in 2015. Where are you planning to increase spend this year?