A guide to identifying untapped opportunities in PPC

There are thousands of daily tasks that you could look into when optimising your PPC campaigns and leveling up your digital marketing strategy. We all know the tried and tested approaches to taking things to the next level. But while working with what you know best can deliver strong results, it often leaves a wealth of useful opportunities unexplored.

There are undiscovered platforms, underutilised campaign types and totally new audiences just waiting to be identified. By looking beyond the obvious and the everyday, you can unlock new avenues for growth, overtake your competition and boost your ROI.

Ready to think outside the box? Let us be your guide.

• Expanding beyond the major platforms
• Analysing audience insights
• Experimenting with campaign types
• Look beyond primary keywords
• Exploring automation and AI tools for enhanced targeting
• Creative testing
• Refining remarketing strategies

Expanding beyond the major platforms

Have you ever ventured outside of the protective bubble of Google Ads? Every PPC marketer is used to creating and analysing this major and significant platform, but there is so much more out there to explore. 

Your first port of call should be to look into other PPC platforms. There’s a wide range of options available to you, each catering to a slightly different demographic, engagement rate and overall style. With that comes flexibility; some platforms may be perfect for your ideal marketing goals and outcomes, and others will be more suited to seasonal campaigns. It’s all about what resonates with your audience the most.

We’d recommend you start your adventures with the following steps:

Explore platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, and Amazon
The key here is to tap into user bases that reflect your audience demographics, on platforms that they are already more likely to be using.

• LinkedIn excels for B2B targeting, especially for niche industries.

• TikTok offers high engagement rates for younger demographics with creative and interactive formats.

• Amazon provides exceptional targeting for e-commerce businesses, especially for product-based ads.

Diversify by industry
It’s not just about professional vs public customers and audience groups. Take things a step further and consider what industries make the most use of specific platforms. How does this best apply to your campaign?

• B2B brands can benefit from LinkedIn and Microsoft Ads.

• B2C campaigns often thrive on TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram.

• Niche marketplaces (e.g., Etsy or eBay Ads) can connect directly with specific audiences that are incredibly niche.

Benefits of a diversified approach

A diversified approach to your PPC campaign can help with:

• Reducing dependency on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

• Reaching audiences where competitors may not have ventured.

• Providing a unique edge by tailoring campaigns to underused platforms.

Analysing audience insights

Your most successful campaigns are always the result of strong audience engagement levels at meaningful moments in your campaign funnel. This kind of level of interaction comes from a deeper understanding of your audience.

Go beyond the obvious demographic details and assumptions and look a little closer to really understand how your audience interacts with online content and ads. 

There are a few steps to this important element of leveling up your PPC campaigns:

Identify overlooked audience segments:

• Use platform data (e.g., Google Analytics, social media insights) to uncover demographics, interests, and behaviours that you’ve not previously targeted.

• Discover micro-audiences, such as those engaging with specific content or interests relevant to your brand. These small but highly engaged sub-sections of your audience can really impact your eventual conversion rate.

Refine buyer personas

• Develop personas based on niche interests, motivations, and behaviours identified through data analysis. This way you’re communicating directly to that group.

• Test campaigns targeting these sub-segments to assess their conversion potential.

Explore cross-channel insights

• Use insights from other platforms (e.g., social media trends or website analytics) to inform PPC strategy. None of this data needs to be viewed in isolation; it’s often stronger when supplemented with what you know about your audience already.

Experimenting with campaign types

If you’ve put the work in to craft the perfect ads for your audience you need to spread the word. One way to bring in a wider audience is to experiment with a diverse range of campaign types.

This may seem a little daunting, but hear us out: if you start with a wider range, you’ll discover pretty quickly which campaign types are bringing in good levels of interaction. Then, over time, you can keep the campaign types that really work and either close any underperforming campaign types, or open them up to smaller, more niche audience segments who interacted with them when the campaigns first ran.

Without testing these more unconventional campaign types, you’re automatically missing out on discovering unexpected segments. For example, you may find a younger audience interacts with your video campaign, when that same demographic had previously had poor engagement levels with any search ads. The hunt is on! Go and find the perfect ad format for your audience!

Discovery campaigns
Discover campaigns are perfect for generating awareness by showcasing your brand to users who may not be actively searching but have relevant interests. It’s a great option for brand campaigns, or any campaign where you specifically want to bring a new, fresh audience.

Shopping ads
These ads are highly visual, ideal for e-commerce brands targeting buyers actively looking for products. You’ll benefit from focusing on the details here, specificity is key for any customer looking to make a purchase directly from an ad.

Video campaigns
Aside from the usual cliches that say “video is the future” (they’re not wrong!) video campaigns are especially useful for brands looking to engage with a younger audience. Make use of any existing YouTube or TikTok to captivate audiences through storytelling, tutorials, or product demonstrations.

Align formats with the customer journey
It’s worth taking the time to align campaign types with users at various stages of your sales funnel, too. By diversifying your campaign types, you are increasing the likelihood of capturing user’s attention at all stages. 

Here are our recommendations for ad types at all stages of the funnel:

• Awareness: Discovery and video campaigns.

• Consideration: Shopping and demand generation campaigns.

• Conversion: Remarketing and dynamic ads.

Look beyond primary keywords

It takes very little time to create your top keyword list for any new campaign. It’s often a mix of highly obvious or famous associated words and phrases to do with your brand, product or service. But looking at long-tail keywords and more niche, specific search queries can have a significant benefit. 

You may not find that your top ads come from these keywords, but the portion of user engagement that you can pick up could uncover all sorts of hidden opportunities.

Benefits of long-tail keywords:

• Expect lower competition, reduced CPCs, and higher conversion rates.

• It’s your chance to capture highly specific searches that signal strong purchase intent. Any user searching with a long-tail keyword is after something specific!

Strategies for finding hidden gems:

• Use keyword research tools (e.g., SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner) to uncover niche phrases competitors are missing.

• Analyse search query reports to identify underused terms with high potential.
• Tap into voice search trends for conversational queries. This also links to future-proofing AI searches that your users may well be engaging with already.

Exploring automation and AI tools for enhanced targeting

The future is here and it looks a lot like AI. Now is the ideal time to embrace all that AI has to offer, experimenting with newly developed and emerging automation and AI features designed to save you time and money.

Automation within platforms:
AI has been used in PPC for many years now, and often features in existing platforms for PPC management in less obvious ways. 

• Use Smart Bidding in Google Ads to optimise bids based on real-time data.

• Microsoft Ads’ AI-powered targeting tools help refine audiences and ad delivery.

Third-party tools:

• Platforms like Adzooma or WordStream can identify untapped micro-segments and streamline campaign management.

The Benefits of Automation

• Reduces manual work, freeing up more of your time to focus on strategy and management.

• Identifies audience behaviours and patterns that may not be visible through traditional analysis. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Creative testing

Aside from the more “behind the scenes” elements of your campaigns, you can also split test any creative assets. Be bold and take some risks. Testing out more experimental, creative and unusual elements can uncover surprising results.

Ad visuals:

• Test different colours, layouts, or formats to see what resonates.

• Try some more interactive formats like carousel ads or playable ads on platforms like TikTok or Facebook.

Ad copy:

• Split-test messaging styles: direct sales pitches vs. storytelling approaches.

• Experiment with CTAs to determine what drives clicks and conversions.

Measure and Optimise

• Use A/B testing to refine ad elements systematically.

• Continuously monitor CTR, conversion rates, and engagement metrics. With these more experimental styles of ad and campaign type, the results may surprise you.

Refining remarketing strategies

Every day, millions of pounds in revenue is lost to unchased customers who got close to making that purchase, but dipped at the last moment.

Your remarketing efforts can also be a part of your strategy, if you bring them more into the foreground and treat them as less of an afterthought in your overall PPC strategy. 

Here’s what to do to avoid losing out on some of your most engaged future customers:

Analyse engagement patterns:

• Identify points where users dropped off in the conversion funnel.

• Tailor remarketing ads to address specific barriers or objections.

Optimise remarketing timing and frequency:

• Avoid ad fatigue by testing the frequency of ad impressions. Leave a memorable impression on your customers, rather than making them feel overwhelmed with persistent ads.

• Time ads strategically to align with purchasing windows. If you know your audience well, you’ll already know the best time to reach out to them.

Refresh creative regularly:

• Use new visuals, offers, or messages to rekindle interest from previous visitors. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh reminder of what your customers are missing out on!

Final thoughts

Untapped opportunities in PPC can spell the difference between a successful or under-performing campaign. By venturing beyond the big platforms, leading your curiosity towards meaningful audience insights, and experimenting with your creative strategies, you can uncover areas your competitors may have overlooked.

By testing out some of the strategies outlined in this guide, you’ll be ready to navigate your next PPC campaign with renewed focus. Now it’s time to get started on seeing PPC with a new perspective.

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