When thinking about the most efficient way to bring in sales to your e-commerce brand, the promise of paid advertising sounds like the perfect solution. Just create an ad and let that ad lead people to your website. Simple, right?
Well, no.
Creating effective Google Ads can get complicated, so we put together this article to help you understand how Google Ads work, the types of ads you can create, and a strategy you can use to maximize your sales and ROI.
When potential customers are looking for a specific product, their first stop is going to be Google. As one of the biggest and most widely used search engines in the world (we’re talking over 5 billion searches per day), Google can be an extremely useful tool for advertisers.
The kind of paid advertising that Google offers is called Pay-Per-Click (PPC). This means that advertisers bid on specific keywords or terms that a potential customer might search for in Google, and every time someone clicks on an ad, the advertiser pays a fee. When bidding on these keywords, your ads will show up at either the top or the bottom of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
It looks something like this:
Google Ads, also known as Google Adwords, provides several types of campaigns that you can choose from, including:
Let’s see what each of them can do for you and your brand.
Search campaigns are shown at the top and bottom of the search results page. You are able to distinguish between the organic search results and the paid search results because there will be bold, black letters that say Ad right above the paid advertisement. These Search campaigns are great for targeting your brand name and keywords that show an intent to purchase.
Shopping campaigns appear at the top of the search results with an image of the product, the title and price.
Shopping campaigns operate differently from Search campaigns, though. Instead of bidding on keywords, Google relies on your product feed to provide all the information about your product, like the title, description, price, special attributes, etc. It is then Google’s job to match your product to the search term based on what is represented in your product feed. This is why having your product feed up to date and optimized is so important – it’s all that Google has to place your product in front of your target audience.
This is a great way to gather new leads and retarget those who have already visited your site. Google display networks allow you to appear on YouTube, Gmail and over 2 million other websites that partner with Google.
Using media visuals in your marketing strategy is extremely beneficial, with brands that use
visual content securing up to seven times more conversions than those that neglect visual appeal.
Video ads have three different placements throughout YouTube. They can show up as pre-rolls, just like the Display ads, as in-video ads that you see before or in the middle of your YouTube video, or as Discovery ads that appear on the search results page.
One of the greatest advantages that Video campaigns give you is the ability to be precise with your target audience. You can target specific channels, videos, and people who are searching high intent to purchase keywords on Google.
This is Google’s newest campaign type. It is the super version of a Smart Shopping Campaign, and it is designed to automatically take over the Smart Shopping campaigns altogether at the end of September.
Performance Max campaigns allow you to advertise across channels such as Search, Display, Discover, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube, giving your ads more visibility.
App Campaigns are mostly to encourage app or game downloads. They are showcased across Google Search, Google Play, YouTube, Discover, and the Display Network. Working very similarly to Smart Campaigns, it uses machine learning to show your ads to the audience that’s most likely to convert.
As an e-commerce brand, when creating your campaign structure in Google Ads, it is vital to create a strategy that is going to help you reach your customers in all the stages of their customer journey. Utilizing the different types of campaigns Google provides can help you achieve this goal.
There are 3 types of Shopping Campaigns out there:
Manual Shopping Campaigns give you the freedom to pick your bid strategy, budget, and targeting, whereas Smart Shopping Campaigns use an automated bidding and targeting system. Smart Campaigns also use machine learning to put your ads in front of the audiences that are most likely to convert.
Then you have Performance Max, the newest edition. This campaign type needs special attention because it is designed to take a majority share of the traffic and budget. So if you are testing out Performance Max with a Smart Shopping or Manual Shopping campaign, be sure not to duplicate products within the campaigns, this can cause the Smart or Manual Campaign to underperform.
The best way to break up your Search Campaigns is by branded and non-branded keywords. Separating campaigns that target the keywords of your own brand, actual products or SKUs is going to help you get noticed by those Bottom of the Funnel audiences who are actively looking to purchase from your brand.
Splitting up your Search Campaigns this way is going to be the best way to hit potential customers at the top of the funnel while they are still in their researching phase. It also allows you to capture those customers at the bottom of the funnel who are more familiar with your brand and products.
Remarketing campaigns are a crucial part of creating a full-funnel marketing structure. They allow you to target those who have visited your website and products with Display ads. Your Display Campaigns can get as specific as showing ads for a product that users have viewed – these are called Dynamic Display Campaigns.
In the eyes of the potential customer, if your brand is out of sight, then you are out of mind. The goal is to stay in the eyes of your target audience so that when in need of your product, you will be the first that comes to mind. Remarketing Campaigns are the perfect way to do that.
Dynamic Search campaigns are the smart version of text campaigns. They use your site and product feed to match users’ queries to your product. Google then dynamically creates headlines and descriptions based on your website and product feed.
Dynamic Search campaigns do not require you to add keywords, leaving all of the targeting up to Google and their sharp machine learning.
There you have it, the insider scoop to help you run Google Ads for e-commerce. The key to optimizing your campaigns to perfection is to keep tweaking and testing until you find the right strategy that works for your brand.
Need help perfecting your ad strategy? We’ve got you! Our Growth Gurus are true marketing mavericks with all the experience and know-how to help your brand take off.
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