Changing a PPC Campaign Year on Year

Advertisers that use PPC as primarily their source of advertising will realise how successful PPC can be and is for them. There are so many positives to PPC which I could go through but that is a totally different article completely. The question I want to ask today is what effect does a new year have on advertising a PPC campaign? You will find many people making new year resolutions to make this year even better than the previous. Are you as online advertisers doing the same for your PPC because you should be! PPC is an always adapting and increasing market making it even more crucial to keep up with the trends in the market.
A new year may to some people seem the same but in actual fact, they are always very different. Think of 2010 and then think of 2011. There was so much that went on that made 2011 different to 2010. Here is a rule I think is suitable to stick to. Never think two years will ever be the same. Those that prepare for a different annual year in their advertising campaigns are the ones that will have more successful results further on and at the start of the year.
 
What you need to understand is that there are many influences that can affect your PPC campaign’s performance. Some are internal meaning they are caused by yourself. Others on the other hand are out of your control. These are known as the external factors of PPC. Now, to quickly sum up, here are the main external influences (PESTEL):

• Politics
• Economy
• Society
• Technology
• Environment
• Legality

Politics
Politics will not change much between 2011 and 2012. The only new rule that may affect us online advertisers is the SOPA rule. Although it won’t affect advertisers directly, it will affect the websites that the advertisers wish to advertise on.
 
Economy 
It is still clear we are in a depression that has just got that bit worse. The euro is extremely weak now which won’t help promote sales between the European countries. Will 2012 be the year that the euro collapses? There is a strong possibility it will be as the situation does not look to be improving.
 
Society
What is morally right and wrong is always changing. Society is always changing too. However, because PPC is online, societies are not as important a factor. You will be getting clicks from all over the world. The only society that is important is the online society. It seems that the online society is always increasing which brings me quite nicely onto…
 
Technology
CES 2012 has just happened and at the event, there was some promising technology from new OLED TVs to smarter smartphones and tablets. The main similarity between these devices was the internet capability. Every new device whatever it is now has internet capability. This is great for advertisers as the target market they are aiming their adverts at is continually increasing all the time at a staggering rate. More people are going online every minute than anything else in the world.
 
Environment
Over the last few years, we have become continually more aware of the environment and what effect we have on it. This won’t affect your campaign as much but sales of your product or service. Your business needs to be as green and friendly as possible because some people are so environmentally friendly they will refuse to buy from you if they think you are not helping mother nature.
As well as that, there is the weather that can have affects on your campaign. Yet, I am yet to see the weather as a hinderer. There was terrible snow (5 inches is considered terrible in England!) today which I thought would have impacted on Ask Will Online. However, there has been no traffic drops or increases due to it which surprised me seeing that more people are at home than travelling.
 
Legality 
This links well in with Politics. It seems with the new rules brought out such as SOPA, there will be more regulations regarding freedom of speech etc.. on the internet. Again, this won’t impact you but the websites you advertise on.
 
Above, I have done a quick analyse of the main external factors that might affect a PPC campaign in 2012. I strongly reccomend you do the same. If you know what you are going against, you can much easily prepare for it when it comes.