Dystopian-sounding reports and robotics advancements shutting down warehouses and factories have been unsettling for those that work with tech. Is there a way for automation and human jobs to exist harmoniously?
Meg Wilson-Taylor, PPC Manager at Circus PPC, explores automation’s benefits and how – despite its alleged potential to make human roles redundant – it can be a help, not a threat, to marketers looking for ways to enhance the way they work.
Since beginning my PPC career over four years ago, there’s been many changes made to PPC and how we as PPC experts do our jobs.
Simultaneously, we’ve also experienced a global pandemic – something we never thought we’d have to adapt to, but have somehow made it work.
Scepticism around automation is damaging to the future of PPC, and unfortunately, those who can’t – or should I say won’t – adapt their ways of working to welcome automation, will be the ones who are left behind.
Tech adoption can help businesses keep up with competitors
Timing is everything when it comes to PPC – and is something that we’re constantly considering when strategising for client accounts.
Timing is just as important when it comes to the early adoption of automation techniques, as it can help you to keep up with or even outpace competitors who might not yet have explored the benefits of automation.
Understanding how different automation methods work for you will also give you the opportunity to discover what does and doesn’t work across different client accounts, or, if you work in-house, what works for your business.
After all, testing multiple ways of working – automated or not – is the best way to ensure that you’re implementing the most efficient and successful strategy on your accounts.
Using automation to your advantage
Automation can be a huge time-saver when carefully tested. The more things that marketers are able to automate, the more time can be saved and further spent analysing data that will inform future strategy.
Extra time accumulated as a result of newly automated processes also frees up time for things that automation isn’t yet able to do, such as analysing competitor websites, or continuing to build on client relationships.
Repetitive tasks, however, such as repeat ad campaigns, weekly reporting, and even budget allocation – automation is smart! – can be left to automated processes, which have collated more knowledge around what works, doesn’t work, and might work for our accounts than we could ever dream of holding in our human brains.
Getting sceptics on board
One of the biggest arguments against automation comes from a scepticism around how it can really help account performance – in some circumstances, its ability to make certain job roles redundant.
It’s important to look at automation as something that can help you, not hinder you, in order to appreciate and understand its value.
Not every automated bidding strategy will be right for your campaign, but, as previously mentioned, robust testing will help establish the optimum method for driving the results you desire. There’s no set way for a PPC campaign to be carried out, so making sure it works is essential to ensure continued success and efficiency throughout your management of the account.
Automation products, services and methods are constantly – along with the technologies we use on a daily basis – improving and advancing. Taking this into consideration, re-trialling previously tested methods that might not have worked in the past could prove to now be more sophisticated and better suited to your needs.
We need to embrace automation, because frankly, those who don’t will be left behind – and the technologies behind automation will only get bigger and better, making it harder for those rejecting automated processes to integrate such methods into their campaigns.
Those who are fixed in their ways of working are not truly adding value to their clients’ business; they’re regurgitating old methods which are becoming obsolete. Those utilising automation, however, are giving themselves more time to focus on the bigger picture and a client’s wider goals, while simultaneously using smarter technologies to propel performance to the next level.
We’re only touching the surface when it comes to the benefits that automation could bring to marketers. There’s plenty of ways that, in retrospect, it’s already helping us to provide clients with reports, estimations and forecasts.
By working with, not against, automation, marketers can experience the ways that it can positively enhance the work that they’re already doing, giving both themselves and their clients more ways to measure how they can be more successful in their campaigns.
