Notes from a state-of-PPC sort of call from earlier this week. Mainly paid search, but I hope it’s helpful to the SME community at large. 
Google had a strong quarter, but missed earnings. Stock down 10% in premarket.  Push into mobile was expensive  Saw weakness in Europe. They blamed on currency fluctuations, could be too much supply. Live by the auction die by the auction.Google international sales were 53% of revenue this quarter.Search: Spending in Europe rose 14% in the quarter. 22% in US. The record US ecommerce numbers did not translate to search.Lots of new ad formats increased number of clicks, but also supplies. Contributed to CPCs being down 8%Growth in spend and CTRThe downward CPC is bad for Google and % of media spend agencies, but seems good for everyone else. Total clicks on ads are up 34% this quarter. More first time Adwords folks. Adwords Express. We see some negative experiences with self-serve. People feel like “they put their money in the Google slot machine and lost.” Some don’t want to come back, even with an agency.  

Search, Plus Your World makes things interesting. Google is leveraging search dominance to win in social. + has 90million users now.  

Mobile: Google says 61% of consumers call a business after searching, 59% visit a physical location. Ad views on handsets are considered less valuable, I don’t think they should be. Marin software says a 49%increase in UK mobile paid search during Q4. Mobile site development and solutions is a growing sector. 

Facebook:Better demographic targeting. Easy to create campaigns for i.e. “men in Cleveland, 18-45 who like dogs”Targeting by employer is effective Supposedly “45% reduction in CPC for campaigns where consumers stay on the social network in an app, compared to clicks out to websites. CPC is trending up on Facebook

From the front lines:Business want CPA. Not fair where they have a mediocre offering. Lead gen campaigns are working great in India, mixed on ecommerce (lack of trust). Education is great. Retargeting worksBranding is still important Exact match is performing better than broad match