There are two types of people among us.

There are those who start the year firing on every kind of cylinder imaginable and there are those who start the year so bleary-eyed they can’t even remember what a cylinder is.

Well, we here at Adzooma have got three ways to help you perform like the former, even if you feel like the latter.

Why is automation so great?

PPC has come a long way in the last 20 years. There was once a time when it was easy to juggle multiple accounts alongside the strategic management of your business.

But in this ever-changing discipline, anyone attempting to do the same with success today will be working 70 hour weeks and then asking their friends or family to chip in too.

However, with automation, it is possible. Automation is a fail-safe in case anything goes wrong. It’s a way to automatically carry out the micro-changes you don’t have time for. It’s a custom alarm system, letting you know when you need to spring into action.

Put simply, Automation can be the personal PPC assistant you’ve always wanted (that isn’t your friends or family).

As PPC grew in its complexity, so did the technology to support it – like us here at Adzooma.

Founded in 2015, our platform’s automation capability has evolved alongside Google, Microsoft and Facebook’s ever-changing platform updates to now cover over 50 different metrics and offer a rule creating system that allows you to scale and manage your ads faster than ever before.

From pausing underperforming keywords to being notified in a rising CPC, our Automation suite, with rules that now fire every 30 minutes, will always be on hand to help you out.

Using automation effectively makes your day to day management so much easier. But you can also use it to get a little bit creative too.

And to start 2021 right, I want to show you how.

1. Run your own January (or any month!) sales month

Everyone knows about (and a lot of them love) the January sales. Indeed, for an increasing number of people, it’s becoming one of the highest spending months of the calendar.

January is also the month where people look to start anew with enthusiastic positivity and eye-bulging optimism. Usually, this is reflected by a big uptick in experience purchasing – the travel sector advertises incessantly in January because so many people book holidays this time of year – but 2021 is different.

With experiences indefinitely postponed, people will be looking for ways they can bring positivity to themselves and their home life; be that a treadmill to work off the Christmas overindulgence or new furniture to add comfort to the home office.

No matter what industry you’re in, you can tap into people’s January mindset, and with so many people currently inside and online, now is a great chance for digital marketers to catch consumers’ eyes.

So this January, think about what you can do to make yourself stand out in a positive manner. Tap into the demand that is out there, because despite the negative news cycle, the demand really is there – especially online.

These times aren’t the easiest, especially if you’re in something like the catering or travel industry, but your January campaign doesn’t have to be expensive (and our Automation suite has features in place to prevent this). It just needs to be effective.

Once you’ve come up with your idea and created your PPC campaign (info on how to do that here), head to the Adzooma Automations tab, click “New Automation Rule” in the top right, then “Choose Template”, and go to “Campaign Enable Scheduler”.

From here you can set your campaign to run throughout January but no further, and introduce conditions regarding spend, performance, impressions, conversions, clicks, so if your campaign isn’t performing the way you want, it’ll automatically pause itself. Whatever you want to do, the choice is yours. You control the conditions and our software does the hard work.

All our rules will also notify you via email or in app when your conditions have been met. There’s more information in this blog post should you need it.

We at Adzooma know the importance of always being on top of a new campaign, especially when you’re running something a little bespoke and different. And that’s exactly the reason why this Automation template was created, to combine your creativity with our prudence.

2. Enable one-off adverts

This is something that can tie in nicely to the section above or it can work in isolation.

Maybe you need to shift some stock quickly? Or maybe you just want to shift some stock quickly? How about creating ads that only run on a certain week? Or for a certain day?

For example, you could offer a low deposit or free delivery on the 31st of January for the last day of sales.

There are so many people who are going to be in that January sale mindset, so tap into it with a one-time special offer.

That immediacy proposition is an age-old tactic, something that would’ve been commonplace even at the Agoras of Ancient Greece, “Can’t buy the bracer today, sir? Oh, that’s a shame, we only have three left and they’ll be all gone by tomorrow.” Socrates would’ve been led in by that one at some point.

But it’s still commonplace today because it works.

If you want to try it for yourself, create your ad then head to the Adzooma Automations tab, click “New Automation Rule”, then “Choose Template”, and go to “Enable Advert”.

From here, under the “Frequency” tab, click “Once” and select the date you want it to run.

Then once you’ve gone through that process go to “Pause Advert” and make sure you turn it off for whenever you want it to finish.

3. Liven up your ads and install automation failsafes

With the world being so weird, right now is the best time to tap into that weirdness. I don’t mean by manipulating the current situation, I mean by creating something different, something wacky, something exciting, something joyful.

So many of the best business ideas throughout history have been created during times of struggle. Heck, even William Shakespeare’s best work (including Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello) is thought to have been written while London was being ravaged by the bubonic plague.

People are generally more receptive and impressionable in this climate. They have more time to think, they’re more open-hearted, willing to listen and try something different – especially if what you are offering will provide them with joy.

It’s important to get the balance right, sure. This is still a nightmarish world for many. But if you can inspire joy in people, those people are going to warm to your brand.

So how about trying some different and quirky ad copy? Maybe something that’s funny or self-deprecating? Maybe something that’s eye-catching and bizarre? Maybe something that’s coursing with joy? Here’s some inspiration you can learn from.

This may be quite different from what you usually do, and you might feel a little uneasy about trying it, but that’s where the automation comes in.

Once you’ve created your ads in the usual way, head to the Adzooma Automations tab again, click “New Automation Rule”, then “Choose Template”, and go to “Pause Ads With Low CTR”.

This automation rule runs every 30 minutes to check whether your ads are performing, and if they’re not up to the standard you expect, they’ll stop. You can also do the same by using the template “Ad Pausing on Scale” or “Pause Advert” if the CTR is fine but the conversion rate is low.

You could also go a bit further and bid on keywords that aren’t necessarily related to your business. This is very out there, but there are some great creative examples of that working effectively in the article I linked to above.

If you do go for that, make sure you have the “Pause Underperforming Keywords,” “Pause Keyword”, or the “Pause Non-Converting Keywords” automation template running to catch you if it doesn’t work out.

Automations are a gold mine

Automations are something you can use on a day to day basis. Once you get into the swing of it, they become part of your day to day working life and give you loads of time back in your week.

This piece is a great introduction into Automation if you’re still a little bit sceptical about its effectiveness.

However, aside from the day to day stuff, sometimes it’s good to think outside the box a little and try something different. That’s why Automation’s great because it allows you to be both efficient and creative.

And when is a better time to start something new than the new year?

Happy automating!