Hero Conf is the most beneficial to account analysts, SEM specialists or managers. This year, we wanted to be there ourselves and give you an inside scoop on the discussions happening behind closed doors, involving some of the biggest PPC experts in the world.

Some of the topics covered in this conference are:

• How to manage PPC accounts better;
• How to improve PPC campaigns; 
• Alternative PPC management approaches; 
• The new trends in the PPC industry.

Image: Hero conf.

This year’s keynote speakers were:

• Kirsty Hulse, founder of Roar Training;
• Frederick Vallaeys, CEO of OPTMYZR;
• Dan Gilbert, Global CEO of BRAINLABS;
• Ian Turner, Head of Partner Solutions Google UK;
• Timothy Armoo, a Founder of Fanbytes by BRAINLABS.

At Whatagraph, we noticed that tracking trends and constantly learning about innovations helps provide a better product and experience for our customers. This is why Whatagraph was one of this year’s Hero conf sponsors, and our team members decided to go.

Luckily, Whatagraph’s VP Marketing, Linas Žemaitis, Client Partner, Liza Leikina, and Head of Growth, Mantas Malūkas, got to attend this event and learn firsthand from PPC experts around the globe.

According to Linas Zemaitis, the biggest benefit of this conference is seeing the different approaches to PPC used across industries and niches. Sometimes, you can uncover hidden gems in the unlikeliest places.

Mantas Malukas, on the other hand, stated that there is immense value in the new tools that each presenter uses for their everyday work. For Liza Leikina, finding the scope of the PPC projects across different industries was the high point of Hero Conf.

Inspiration, insights into innovations, extended networks with the world’s industry experts… These are just a few of the souvenirs brought back from the conference. And we would like to gift you some of them!

Here is a quick rundown of what you could have heard at Hero Conf this year.

Using Google Analytics 4 to Analyze Paid Media Strategies

Jill, a co-founder of The Coloring in Department, mainly focused on new GA4 features and provided insights into how efficiently to use the tool. 

Here are some of the takeaways:

• Temporary exclude remarketing lists. Define a rule to temporarily exclude users for a set amount of time where they would not see your remarketing;
• Enable audience time constraints;
• Use audience predictions to find your most valuable audiences;
• Avoid double counting conversions. You will need to plan your migration and how your import conversions. 

Geo Experiments to Estimate Ad Effectiveness

The geo experiments model was designed to measure advertising effectiveness using the rigor of a randomized experiment with replication across geographic units providing confidence interval estimates.

Gianluca Binelli, a Managing Director at Booster Box, suggests using the Geo Experiment Time Based approach:

• Use counterfactuals;
• Ensure real causality;
• See time progression of results; 
• Run with limited numbers of Geos. 

Machine-Learning Friendly Campaign Structures

Sam Tomlinson, the Executive VP at Warschawski and Managing Partner at W Ventures, shared his balanced approach on how to structure campaigns:

BE JUDICIOUS WITH MATCH TYPES 

If you're using an EM | PM structure, don't mix match types within an ad group; instead, use exclusions liberally. Remember that EM, PM, and BM are no longer as narrow as they once were.

AUTOMATE WHERE POSSIBLE

‘Scripts are your friend; we use them for everything from auto-updating negative keyword lists using a Google sheet (shared between Google + Bing) to pause under-performing keywords to push the budget to the correct terms. Scripts + Rules (if you don’t like scripts) are WONDERFUL (as long as you keep an eye on them)’.

BALANCE VOLUME + GRANULARITY 

Strive for about 50 appropriate conversions per month per ad group - this guarantees the robotic systems have the data they need to optimize and serves as a good benchmark/target for budgeting.

New Bidding Strategy For Lead Gen 

Harriet Barter, Paid Media Director at Launch.

Value-based bidding - is bidding for the maximum conversion value possible.

Harriet Barter gave insights into the normalization period. Here are the three key variables that impact the normalization period: 

1. Try to choose a period with a less active market (no seasonal period in the next three cycles). 
2. Conversion actions with high volume and shorter conversion cycles tend to normalize faster. 
3. Reduce additional campaign changes whenever possible. 

Bottom Line

The PPC industry is constantly evolving, making it difficult to predict new developments and keep up with every trend. Hero Conf London is an excellent place to get all of the latest news and information while also networking.

We strongly recommend you to go there next year to improve your professional skills and knowledge. In 2023, the Whatagraph team will also be there to bring you the latest and greatest news in the PPC industry.