Did you know that nearly 65% of businesses invest in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising? In today’s digitally advanced world, you most likely classify your business within this 65% bracket (at least I hope you do). But classifying your business within isn’t enough; you need to have the right PPC strategies in place that drive you visitors and, ultimately, sales.
Are your Google Ads strategies driving you the kind of sales you desire or are you struggling to get that dream ROAS? Most likely, if you’re here, you might be looking for ways to have your ads perform better.
Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Read on as we outline some tips to create more effective PPC ads for eCommerce businesses.
Tips and Tricks for PPC Ads For eCommerce
Whether you’ve been doing eCommerce since the early days or recently had to figure out how to switch to a digital medium, it’s never a bad idea to understand what elements go into creating a successful search engine marketing ad.
You already know that keywords power traditional search and shopping campaigns, but you have to be more aware of your product feed when it comes to PPC ads for eCommerce. If you’re wondering how to get started with an eCommerce campaign, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll break down what steps to take when creating paid search ads for your online store.
The Benefit of PPC for eCommerce Companies
First, let’s talk about the benefits of using PPC ads for eCommerce companies. Since the pandemic started, online shopping has swiftly become the new normal, which makes it essential for you to have a strategy in place so you can take advantage of the online marketplace.
PPC ads are 100% one of the best ways to take visitors and convert them to sales. There are several platforms you can use to create PPC ads: Google Ads (Google Shopping and Google Search), Bing Ads, and various social platforms.
Creating a strategy across multiple platforms is essential if you want the most return on your investments. PPC shopping ads can be very similar to search ads, and they allow you to promote products on search engines and within social platforms to reach more people.
It’s different from a typical search ad because a shopping ad gives you a photo to go with your ad copy, and you’re allowed to include the price. Plus, you have the added benefit of appearing right at the top of a Google search. eCommerce ads typically have better conversion rates and click-through rates than typical search ads.
Are you feeling overwhelmed? Yoru Marketing can help. Schedule a consultation with us today, and we’ll walk you through the process.
Feeling good? Keep reading for tips to help you maximize your current efforts.
Stay On Top Of Your Product Feed
Once you’ve set up your Google Ads account, we want to warn you not to set it and forget it. This is a dangerous mindset to fall into and can ultimately cost you money. Instead, make sure your product feed is set up correctly and updated constantly. You don’t want a potential customer to click on your ad and see that the item they want is out of stock or priced higher than your original ad.
Your products will remain active for 30 days after their initial input with a Google Merchant Center account. After that, those products expire if you don’t update your feed regularly, meaning that your target audience won’t see them.
You can update your product list by reprocessing your feed, or setting up automatic processing, depending on how often your inventory changes. First, however, we stress that it is super important to keep your prices updated. In 2021, Google implemented an update that increased the scrutiny on prices, meaning prices must match in your product data, on your landing pages, and during the checkout.
They will suspend your account if you don’t resolve any mismatches within 28 days, so keep that in mind as you’re creating your sales funnel.
Get More Targeted
The next tip we have for PPC ads for eCommerce is to get more targeted. The more specific a product search is, the higher the purchase intent is likely to be (and the higher your quality score). That means when you segment out your products, you can be more targeted with your PPC ads.
Think about the intention of your buyer. If they are searching for a specific brand, color, style, or size of a product, they are likely more motivated to buy than someone entering generic terms into search engines.
If the search term is really broad, they are likely looking for more educational information. On the other hand, if their search is extremely specific, you can assume they are looking to buy.
The great thing about PPC ads is that you can usually split products into separate campaigns and ad groups that can also be divided into product groups. With a smaller number of products, you can use single-product product groups. This comes into play specifically if you sell multiple different types of products.
For example, if you primarily sell shoes, but 20% of your business includes accessories, then you’ll want to separate your accessory products into a separate campaign. That way, you can monitor your budget and ensure that the bulk of your ad funds is going to your core products.
You can also separate traffic based on how specific the search is. Set up campaign priorities and use negative keywords to separate those searches. Google shopping is unique because it has a priority system. You can manually set low, medium, or high priority campaigns. This is handy when you have several Shopping campaigns because the procedure dictates which ads are shown first.
Remember To Optimize
Your PPC Ads for eCommerce can only go so far if you’re not optimizing them as often as you can. Optimizing will help you manage your budget because it allows you to put more effort into what is working. For example, if you’re on a manual bidding strategy, pay attention to conversion volume and the result of conversion value over cost. That way, you have a better idea of your return on ad spend.
Many companies start by bidding low and adjusting as they get more data. Once you have more information about what your customers are doing, you can decrease bids that aren’t meeting your goals and increase them on items that have the best conversion value compared to ad spend. Automatic bidding strategies within Shopping are powered by data so in theory, they should get better the longer you run them.
You can optimize in other ways too. For example, you can experiment with different ad types like text ads vs. product listing ads or using ad extensions that give ads more context. Also, consider adding prices to your ads if you want a more competitive edge.
One tip we want to mention is to not run the same products in your traditional campaigns as your Smart shopping campaign. Smart shopping will automatically take precedence, and the product(s) will not end up spending anything at all within the standard shopping campaign.
In fact, if the Smart shopping campaign ends up depleting the entire campaign budget at 6:30 PM, the standard shopping campaign might begin showing those same products and run through its entire budget from 6:30 PM to 11:59 PM. Obviously, this can lead to faulty data and lots of lost money.
Consistently Test Your Ads
If you want high-performing eCommerce ads, you must repeatedly test your ads. There are several things you can A/B test, like imagery, ad copy, call to action, and more. What works well on social media might be a flop for search engines. You might consider testing an image of your product in action against a flat-lay image against a white background.
Even if you think you know your target audience like the back of your hands, testing your campaign efforts might give you data that surprises you.
PPC Ads Go Beyond Google
Though we at Yoru Marketing specialize in Google Ads specifically, it might be a good idea to look beyond Google. If you see success with Google and your impressions are high, why limit yourself?
It’s not that hard to carry your campaigns over to Bing Ads (now known as Microsoft Advertising). There is a large demographic of people who aren’t using Google. Depending on your product, you might even find less competition on Bing and potentially a cheaper cost per click.
Microsoft Ads processes your data just like Google Ads does. Once it reviews the product information, you can create a shopping campaign or even import your Google campaign that you already know is working.
Another benefit is that Microsoft Ads even allows you to import regularly, meaning you can optimize in one place and make sure it’s carried over easily.
See How My Agency Can 10x Your Brand's Sales With Google Ads
Google Ads – effective targeting and scaling methods for ROI.
Bing Ads – dominating the market of a fairly untouched platform.
Facebook Ads (Retargeting) – helping stop the leaks from all sides of the bucket, especially with retargeting.
Final Thoughts
No matter the size of your business or how many competitors you have, there will always be work involved if you want to make your PPC ads stand out. eCommerce ads are a great way to take your sales to the next level.
When you correctly set up your Google Merchant Center account, keep your product inventory information fresh and up to date, and test your efforts on an ongoing basis. Pretty soon, you’ll start to see more sales and identify a strategy that will help your business thrive.Let the experts at Yoru Marketing show you the way if you want help setting up your campaigns and finding ways to optimize your efforts and get the most out of your ad budget. We help you create exponential growth with Google Ads so that you can scale your revenue and profits. Set up a free strategy call with us here.
