There’s no denying that the cost of living crisis has many looking for ways to save money before the arrival of a highly anticipated recession in the UK, alongside rising energy bills and inflation at an all time high. However, did anyone expect Amazon to announce Prime Day 2, set to take on 11th and 12th October this year?
Is this an opportunity for retailers, or a little too close to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which takes place at the end of November every year?
Read Circus’s ULTIMATE Guide to Black Friday here.
We spoke to Client Services Manager, Anna Wood, and PPC Executive, Inny Vaiciute, about what Prime Day 2 means for participating retailers, and how retailers who are unsure should approach it.
“Due to Prime Day 2 being a new thing, it’s not engrained into ‘retail culture’ like Black Friday is. It’s hard to tell how hard Amazon have been pushing a second Prime Day, but the majority of customers will be very much aware of Black Friday, and not necessarily aware of Prime Day 2. My advice to retailers thinking about whether to change strategy as they approach Prime Day 2 would be to sit tight and hold out until Black Friday.
For retailers that can afford to jump on the bandwagon, it may be good opportunity. However, given the current climate, it could prove difficult to run two big sales and maintain steady and satisfactory profit.”
Anna Wood, Client Services Manager
“I think the biggest benefit for retailers looking to participate in Prime Day 2 is that there might not be as much competition as there will be on Black Friday. However, due to how famous and widely anticipated Black Friday is, search volumes will be lower, which means sales will be lower. So, for retailers that have limited budget, but want high visibility and sales volume, Black Friday might be better suited as more people know about and expect it.”
Inny Vaiciute, PPC Executive
Essentially, the most important thing, like always, is to do what’s best for your business, which might prove harder to determine now that we’re facing a time of economic crisis and a reduction in consumer spending. Keep your eyes peeled for more as we approach Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year!
Performance Max: What We Know So Far
Those familiar with Google and Google Ads will also be familiar with the new-to-2022 campaign type from Google, Performance Max.
At the beginning of the year, Google announced its plans for all campaigns to eventually be upgraded to Performance Max, which in turn, drove many advertisers to beat them to it, upgrading their campaigns earlier on and finding out exactly what Performance Max is all about.
Now that we’ve reached the end of the timeline for upgrades to be completed – whether automatically or manually –, we’re taking a look at what we know so far when it comes to Performance Max.
Take Back Your Time
Advancements within Performance Max mean that automation is more prevalent, which takes away some of the ‘responsibility’ or day-to-day work that needs to be put into maintaining and optimising accounts. For many who are new automation, this might be a scary thought. However, it’s beneficial when it comes to providing advertisers with more time to focus on larger-scale strategy for accounts over simpler, yet time-consuming, tasks.
“Performance Max isn’t a lazy way of managing but gives you back more time so you can concentrate on more strategy to ensure you aren’t wasting your time on much simpler tasks.”
Ahmed Chopdat, Commercial Director, Circus PPC Agency
Never Stop Testing
Despite the advancements that Performance Max has offered to advertisers, it’s still important to test any new method of advertising to ensure that you’re aware of the effects it could have on both a short and long term basis when it comes to your client’s accounts.
“The idea of upgrading to Performance Max might be scary – like anything unknown. However, how can you possibly get an idea of the potential results without even giving it a try? The worst case scenario is that a test is unsuccessful, and a campaign is reverted back to Standard Shopping after a month or two.”
Inny Vaiciute, PPC Executive, Circus PPC Agency
But, what do I tell my clients if it does fail?
When it comes to testing, the bad news is that… well, it can work both ways. There’s no way of knowing if it’ll work or not without taking the plunge.
The good news, however, is that you are the expert, and hopefully, you’ve built enough trust with your clients to explain the testing process and how this might affect results.
Think about it like this: there’s not guarantee that anything will work, and you’ve given that a go before, so think of this as another test to
Recently, our client saw a 3-month revenue increase of 88% as a result of the implementation of Performance Max across some of their campaigns. Read more about it here.
Lean Into Automation
Data collection through automated practices is hugely beneficial to the management of clients accounts, and can help PPC experts to drive success where needed by touching upon relevant data points and using this information to inspire an increase in performance.
“Performance Max boasts Google’s most advanced machine learning to date. The amalgamation of campaign types coming together under one umbrella not only saves time, but allows us to follow users across different devices and platforms to make sure we’re at the forefront of their online experience.”
Chloe Tetmajeris, PPC Analyst, Circus PPC Agency
Mini Case Study: Performance Max
Our retail client has seen good performance over the past 30 days (06/08/22-05/09/22) from Performance Max, with 75% of sales attributed to Google campaigns coming from those upgraded to Performance Max. These campaigns also pose an average CVR of 6.9% – over double the clients’ industry average of 3.36%.
So far, we’ve noticed some positive results on account performance from using Performance Max, along other benefits including the ability to align and oversee the effects of multiple campaigns, and embracing automation to take back some of the time usually spent on minor account activity.
It’ll be a while before we’ll be able to provide a more in-depth analysis of our findings, and how Performance Max has changed accounts, but right now, we’re seeing some positive results from the campaigns so far.
AI For Ad Copy? It’ll Never Hold A Candle To Humans
Brand Communications Manager, Stephanie Caldecott, investigates the new ways that AI is being explored for content, and why this method of content creation doesn’t hold a candle to the more traditional, human-led way of creating content.
For anyone that, like me, spends a large majority of their down time scrolling TikTok, you might have seen some of the hilarious, yet slightly unhinged, accounts that showcase the image and video content created by AI.
More often that not, it’s terrible, wooden, cheesy, and cliched – to be expected from an AI that’s only creating this content from the information its already processed.
In 2021, Netflix allegedly forced an AI to watch its entire catalogue of romantic comedies, before challenging it to create a romantic comedy of its own, with the following result:
Netflix also did the same with horror films, and Christmas films – which I’ve watched, but I’ll save you the pain of having to sit through, and tell you that they are just as bad as the romcom.
Despite how truly terrible these ‘films’ are, they got me thinking – what would an AI come up with for content such as landing page, blog, email or even ad copy?
I’m probably (definitely) a little late to the party, but I recently discovered AI-driven content platform copy.ai, which in principal, I think is a fantastic idea for those planning and scheduling large volumes of short-form content, who have little time to do so.
Copy.ai defines itself as an ‘AI content generator that delivers premium results in seconds,’ and true to its word, delivers content that is actually, alright. Prior to generating content, users are asked to input a few details to assist the AI such as product/service name, description, and even has a drop-down menu for the tone of voice desired.
The issue lies in both the detail and the organisation, which both feel a little out of sorts and not directly ‘on-brand,’ and overall, just a little bit dry.
In all fairness to copy.ai, they include ‘edit, polish, and publish’ as the final step in the content creation process through their website, so seem well aware that AI isn’t quite ready to create content without the input of the user.
However, even if AI was advanced enough to create publishing-ready content, here’s why it doesn’t hold a candle to humans when it comes to creating meaningful, effective content and copy that drives growth:
1- Emotion
The emotion we feel about certain things is, more often than not, a driving force behind the way we present it to others. Just look at the way the supporters of different football teams publicly react to the news that their team has either won or lost. For AI, the factual element of any piece of content is the driving force behind it, whereas for humans, how they feel about the topic becomes the driving force.
2- Originality
Currently, and in basic terms (because I sure don’t know enough about it to know the scientific ins and outs), the way that AI creates content is by consuming information and data, and creating something based on what it has seen. There’s no opportunity for original thought, opinions, or theories – which often makes for some of the most interesting content out there.
3- Awareness
Let’s think of the likes of Katie Hopkins or Andrew Tate as AI right now – they don’t seem to have any idea about the damaging, hurtful, or offensive content that they often put out there has, along with the consequences that might come as a result of it – imaginably as an AI wouldn’t. However, the difference is that we can’t blame an AI for not acting in a humane way… they aren’t human.
All in all, whilst the future of AI looks exciting and promising (if not a little scary), right now, it requires human intervention in order to create content that adds value and does what it has been written to do. Essentially, humans can do both – ensure that the factual, informative and SEO-optimised content is present alongside human emotions and opinions.
For ad copy especially, it’s hard to imagine that AI could ever reach a level of sophistication that would remove the need for vetting by humans – especially with the sheer amount of work, research, and previous training that goes into recognising how to write fully optimised, effective, and relevant ad copy.
At the risk of sounding biased, I’d recommend that businesses continue to invest in the tried and tested (and human) methods of content creation to best promote their services and products, and drive business growth – something that here at Circus, we’re pretty skilled in… check out our previous success stories here.
P.S. I promise this article wasn’t written by a robot.
Circus PPC Wins Jonny Wilkinson’s No.1 Living Account
No.1 Living, rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson’s wellness beverage brand, has appointed Circus PPC to manage their PPC.
The award-winning brand sells drinks inspired by gut health, which includes kombucha, kefir, and wellness shots – all of which can be purchased individually and as part of a subscription, to help people care for their wellbeing.
Rick Tobin, Founder and Managing Director at Circus, said:
“It’s extremely exciting to have won such a prestigious account, and we look forward to using our expertise to drive the business towards it’s goals!”
This news was first shared here, by Prolific North.
Prime Day 2022: What To Expect
Everyone knows about Black Friday, and the mayhem that ensues as brands and businesses slash the prices of many of their products to compete with fellow businesses looking to drive sales with exclusive and short-term product deals. But before that, is Prime Day!
For more on what to expect for Black Friday, check out our last deep dive into how it can affect PPC campaigns.
Over the 12th-13th July, which is this week, Amazon will be reducing the prices of thousands of their products for their annual ‘Prime Day.’ Despite it maybe not being as popular as the infamous Black Friday, it’s a great opportunity for both brands and their respective agencies to make the most of the potential wins that can come from promoting their products during this time.
The organic uplift that occurs as a result of Prime Day makes it a ‘prime’ time for retailers to capitalise on the heightened traffic and drive account performance. Since it’s launch in 2015, Prime Day has experienced over a 1000% increase in revenue, which was highlighted in 2021, when Prime Day sales equated to a colossal $11bn (or £9.1bn).
According to Criteo, retailers that have taken advantage of the organic uplift in online traffic due to Prime Day have seen a 19% increase in traffic to their website, a 45% increase in sales, and a 23% increase in CVR. For those that don’t partake, the difference in results is astounding, with, in the past, retailers having experienced a 9% decrease in traffic to the website, a 14% decrease in sales, and a 6% decrease in CVR.
It’s important to remember that, despite Prime Day being created by Amazon, retailers that ‘take part’ in Prime Day don’t have to do so as Amazon retailers, and can see just as many advantages by optimising their own website to drive heightened traffic, and consequently, drive sales and CVR.
So, as an agency, what are the things that you should be doing to best benefit your clients during Prime Day?
First and foremost, make sure your clients actually know that Prime Day is coming up, and don’t let the day pass by without giving your clients the opportunity to capitalise on the potentially ground-breaking results.
In addition to this, you should also be asking yourself the following questions to best set yourself and your clients up for success:
- Does my client have a plan?
- Do budgets need to change?
- What did last year’s Prime Day look like for my client?
- What are the expected spikes and trends for this year?
- Does my client have any product lines that Amazon might also be promoting?
- What product ranges should my client be promoting?
When you’ve answered these questions and discussed Prime Day’s potential for your clients, it’s time to put your decisions into actions, changing and updating campaigns accordingly to best drive account performance in a way that suits your clients’ business goals and objectives.
So, remember to promote, prepare, and push to ensure that you and your clients see the potential uplift in results that can come as a result of making the most of Prime Day.
What does being a Google Premier Partner mean?
This year, the criteria for qualification as a Google Premier Partner changed, looking more closely at client growth and retention, product diversification, and annual ad spend.
We’re extremely proud and excited to have maintained our Google Premier Partner status for 2022, which puts us in the top 3% of UK agencies, and allows us access to a number of benefits that help us to improve and enhance the services we provide to our clients.
So, what are the benefits we have access to as a Google Premier Partner?
Google Premier Partner Awards
The prestigious Google Premier Partner Awards allows us, as an agency, to showcase the outstanding work we’ve been doing for our clients, and includes categories such as lead generation, brand awareness, online sales, workplace excellence, international growth, and app growth.
In addition to the ability to highlight the amazing work we’ve been doing, we’re able to receive recognition for the way in which we’ve used Google Ads products to drive success within our client accounts, and position ourselves as expertise and thought leaders in PPC.
In fact, today is the deadline for this year’s awards, and we’re excited to have entered three categories – one of which has been newly introduced this year.
Dedicated Account Management
Having been Premier Partners for, well, longer than we can remember, and having maintained that status this year despite changes to qualification criteria, we’ve built a close relationship with the team at Google, who we work with on a daily basis to ensure that we utilise Google products to the best of our ability.
Our account management team at Google provide us with the insight and support we need to navigate new products, best practices, and general updates, ensuring that we’re driving success and results for our clients.
Chloe Tetmajeris, PPC Analyst at Circus, talked about how having access to account management helps the team to navigate the Google landscape:
“Being a premier partner means that we get to have very close contact with our google reps/account managers. we’re given exclusive training, 1-2-1 help from the Google Tag Team, and insight into upcoming products which has been, and will continue to be, especially helpful when navigating the new Google landscape (Performance Max/Enhanced Conversions/Conversion Tracking/Consent Mode/GA4 pathways) in the upcoming months.”
Data Insights and Support
We’re experts in our own right, however, obtaining access to insights and support provided by Google that we can use to improve our clients’ account performance is extremely useful and enhances our outstanding services even further. Having access to data and being able to speak with the team at Google about previous successes from specific products isn’t only beneficial for us, but also for our clients – giving them the confidence that they’re working with an agency that knows what they’re doing and how to drive success.
Will Cheng, Operations Director at Circus, said of the support:
“Being a Google Premier Partner doesn’t mean that we do everything Google tells us to do. Rather it gives us another sounding board on how to implement new ideas & new features in their ever-changing landscape. We still need to think critically about what is best for our clients & having the inside track from Google helps us assess this.”
Ultimately, our status as Google Premier Partners, and our ever-growing relationship with the team at Google, is a testament to the work we’ve put into becoming experts in PPC, and means that we can use discussed benefits and knowledge to better develop campaigns and drive results for our clients.
Full Service VS Specialist Agencies
Which type of agency should you be working with, a full-service, or specialist agency?
Did you know that in the UK alone, there are more than 25,000 marketing agencies? All of which range from full-service agencies covering a multitude of marketing disciplines, to often smaller, more niche agencies specialising in specific areas of marketing.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder that businesses find it so difficult to make a confident decision on the agency that they want to work with. On top of the sheer amount of marketing agencies out there, it’s also important for businesses to consider their needs, budget, capabilities, and in turn, whether they want to work with a full-service, or specialist agency.
What is a full-service agency?
Full-service agencies offer management across a range of marketing disciplines, from social media and content marketing, to influencer and email marketing.
What is a specialist agency?
Specialist agencies, on the other hand, focus on the management of a specific service, where they have developed and honed their expertise as an agency, and, in turn, have become experts in that particular discipline.
For example, here at Circus PPC – as you might have been able to tell by our name – we are a PPC agency, and focus on delivering expert account management for PPC alone.
Anna Wood, Client Services Manager at Circus PPC, talked about the reception from the clients we work with:
“The feedback I quite often hear from clients is that they love working with Circus because of the level of expertise our account managers are able to provide and the insights we receive from Google – a more premium standard of PPC delivery that you may not receive from full-service agencies.”
So, which kind of agency is REALLY the best? Full-service, or specialist?
One thing we know for sure about working with an agency, is that there are management fees involved, so it’s important for businesses to be well-informed and aware of their own business needs before making a decision.
Like with most things, there are pros and cons to both full-service and specialist agencies, all of which should be taken into account by businesses when deciding on who they should work with. Now, to avoid bias, let’s discuss the benefits of full-service agencies first:
Consistency
If an agency is working across more than one aspect of your marketing strategy, remaining on brand across all marketing channels and campaigns might be easier, creating multi-use content and assets that can work beneficially and simultaneously in a number of different ways.
Communication
Working with a full-service agency removes the need for you to act as the middleman across a number of different third-parties, and rather, provides you and your business with a trusted account manager to communicate effectively on behalf of the agency and all of the disciplines involved.
Naturally, the more third parties that are involved, the more complicated keeping on top of communication could become difficult and overwhelming, so having one point of contact for all marketing needs can save time, effort, and resources.
Transparency
Working across different marketing disciplines gives full-service agencies an insight across a businesses’ wider marketing strategy, so can understand how different aspects of marketing are performing and where budget can be best allocated.
Specialist agencies also possess many benefits and characteristics that can help businesses to reach their business goals and objectives:
Specialism
Like it says on the tin, specialist agencies specialise in a certain marketing discipline, which mean that they’ve honed their expertise and have a breadth of knowledge in their respective discipline – whether an SEO, PR, or PPC agency. For businesses that know exactly what they need and the results they want to work towards, a specialist agency can help look at that single area and help strategically drive businesses towards their goals.
Clarity
Specialist agencies, due to working across only one marketing discipline, have much more clarity and understanding as to where success can be attributed. If something isn’t working, it’s clearer where changes need to be made, whereas with full-service agencies, it’s much more difficult to see what the problem might be if measuring success across a range of disciplines, rather than individually.
Expertise
Specialist agencies understand what they’re good at, and won’t try to upsell you with a service that they don’t even offer. Specialising in a single discipline also means that agencies are more likely to develop relationships with other specialist agencies, who they can refer clients to if their require extra services across other disciplines.
Rick Tobin, Managing Director at Circus PPC, talked about how he navigates relationships with partner agencies:
“We’re a PPC agency, and we don’t try to do anything else. We know what we’re good at, and what we’ve spent the past 12 years understanding and gaining experience in – why would we try to do anything else? We’re also totally upfront with clients when they do ask us about potential other services, and we’ve developed plenty of relationships with trusted partners across a range of marketing disciplines that we happily refer our clients to. After all, we’d much rather know that our clients’ marketing activity is being dealt with by other agencies that we know are experts in what they do.”
What’s the verdict?
Realistically, there’s no ‘better’ type of agency, and rather, making a decision around the agency to work with when it comes to your company’s marketing strategy comes down to your own business goals, needs, and capabilities.
If you want less hands-on, full-service management that works across a range of marketing activity, then looking into a full-service agency might be the best thing for you. However, if you are more certain on the marketing needs of your business, and only require a certain aspect of marketing, seeking out a specialist agency could be the ideal solution to help you to reach your business goals and objectives.
No matter your decision, before making one, it’s important to thoroughly analyse and confirm exactly what you need, in order to best allocate budget and reap the results you want from investing in working with an agency.
Circus PPC Ranked In Prolific North’s Top Digital Agencies
Circus PPC has been ranked 33rd in Prolific North’s Top 50 Digital Agencies 2022.
After hitting a number of exciting, growth-focussed milestones last year, including their first £1m month and £10m year, the agency moved to headquarters in Leeds City Centre at the beginning of the year, showing themselves as serious competitors amongst fellow digital agencies as they sit in the heart of the Leeds digital landscape.
Founder and Managing Director, Rick Tobin, said of the ranking:
“It feels great to know that our hard work is paying off, and that we’re being recognised by our industry peers as ones to watch in the digital landscape. We’ve made, and are continuing to make, big moves in the agency this year, which we hope will allow us to replicate and exceed the success of 2021.”
Circus PPC Hosts ‘The Ultimate Games Night’ Celebrating New Leeds City Centre Location
Last week, we hosted ‘The Ultimate Games Night’ at our brand new offices in Leeds… and it was a roaring success!
Event management agency, The Secret Event Service, came to us with the idea of hosting ‘The Ultimate Games Night’, which we knew would appeal to our clients, suppliers and partners, industry friends and of course, our fantastic team.
Our new office spaces were completely transformed into games haven – with beer pong, VR provided by Bryght, activities provided by JC Events, Mario Kart, a DJ and saxophonist duo provided by Jonny Ross Music, and fantastic magician, Alex Sladman, entertaining guests throughout the night.
Guests enjoyed an open cocktail bar manned by the brilliant Oskar and LJ – both fantastic mixologists working at prestigious Leeds establishments – and delicious vegan food provided by Honest Supper Club and Doboy Donuts.
The night continued at the new Roxy Lanes venue at The Light in Leeds, where the ‘games night’ theme carried on as attendees took part in bowling, ice-free ice curling, shuffleboard, and pool.
Managing Director, Rick Tobin, said:
“We want to thank all attendees again for coming along to celebrate our new offices spaces with us – it was great to share such a fun and exciting experience with those that have all been so integral to the success of Circus, and who we’ll continue to work with as we become BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER and STRONGER.”
Here’s to more opportunities to share and celebrate our successes as we grow the agency and continue to deliver outstanding results for our clients 🚀
Meet The Team – Steph
Steph is our Brand Communications Manager and joined the Circus PPC Team back in November 2021. Read on to get to know her better…
Name: Steph
Date Started at Circus: November 2021
What first made you want to work at Circus?
The company culture massively stood out to me, and after hearing about the plans for the business and what my role would entail, I couldn’t say no to such a great opportunity at a brilliant agency.
What’s your favourite thing about working at Circus?
The people – I’ve never worked for a company where I’ve felt so valued and supported. I look forward to work every single day, which is a blessing that I’m extremely grateful for!
Who is your dream client?
I think it’d be super cool for us to work with someone like Bloom & Wild – I use them so much myself for gifts, and love what they do!
What’s your dream holiday destination?
I’d love to island-hop around the different Greek islands, but I’d also love to do the West Cost of America! Me and my partner did the East Coast back in 2019 and it was amazing!
What would your desert island meal be?
Spicy ramen with a crispy fried egg, sriracha, and lots of coriander! Oh, and some sushi to start.
Tell us something about you that might surprise people.
I’m a complete klutz. I once fell down the stairs on Christmas Day and an ambulance had to be called. And no, I wasn’t drunk!
If you could guest star on a TV show, which one would it be and why?
Naked Attraction… joking! I have a lot of comfort TV shows that I’d like to star on just to meet my favourite characters, but I’m torn between Grey’s Anatomy, Gilmore Girls and Schitt’s Creek.
Home or Office?
Both have their upsides but if I had to choose, it would be office – I like being surrounded by people and bouncing ideas around.
Morning or Evening?
Evening – I love my bed too much to be a morning person.
Dog or Cat?
It’s a close call but I love cats – they’re cute but not as hard work as dogs!
Countryside or City?
Countryside. I love working from our office in the city centre but at the weekends, you’ll find me at home or exploring a cute little countryside town.
Spender or Saver?
Neither – I’m a very happy medium I think!
Coffee or Tea?
Coffee – iced coffee on a hot summers day is elite.
Summer or Winter?
Summer… see above comment – ice-cold drinks, lighter nights, beer gardens. What’s not to love?