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eCommerce Cookbook - using Google ads to promote your store (1)

12-19-2017 11:16 AM #1 caurmen (Administrator)
eCommerce Cookbook - using Google ads to promote your store

I mentioned that Google Adwords was a big enough source of opportunity for eCommerce that I was going to write a separate mini-post about using it for your eComm stores.

Well, here it is, covering both Google Adwords Search and Shopping.

Thanks to Matuloo and Shishev for their contributions here, which have added a load of depth to this guide.

Adwords Search

Search can be very, very powerful for ecommerce - but it won't work for all stores. Definitely test it, but keep a close eye on results.

In general, higher-margin items will work better on search traffic. If you've got an item with a margin close to $100 it's definitely worth a test.
Highly targeted linking is key. Don't run a single Adwords ad for an entire store: run ads for individual products or tight product categories.
Negative keywords are very important for all Adwords campaigns, and ecomm is no exception. Make sure to scour your results for useless searches frequently and exclude them.
Don't forget that you'll end up losing tracking on some sales thanks to repeat visits. If you're breaking even or at a low ROI with a campaign, look out for apparently organic sales that might be related.
You may not be able to scale massively with search, but it's a steady source of income. A good Adwords campaign can run for years if it's in a low-competition niche.
Benefits-focused, tightly-written ads are key. Special offers and scarcity are really powerful. And make sure it's very clear what you're advertising - a mistake that's easy to make in a very short search ad.
Search traffic and retargeting go together very well. It's almost always worth retargeting visitors you get from search traffic.
Pay close attention to your landing page when you're using search traffic. Clear description and overcoming objections are absolutely key. A visitor should never feel that the page doesn't give the information they need.
Make sure to include hard statistics on your landing page. Weight, size, capacity - if there's a number someone could potentially want to know, it should be clearly laid out!
As Matuloo said, "we had answers for all the questions you would normally ask a shopping assistant". Don't let a paid-for visitor get away just because they have a question! (Live Chat widgets go great with search traffic, btw.)

Adwords Shopping

Google Shopping is a very different animal to Search, and it'll be confusing but exciting if you're used to Search.

Shopping works off product feeds, and functions a bit like an RON buy on a pop network. You throw them your entire product feed, and Google lists all of those products and drives traffic to you.

There's a Shopify app for Google Shopping: https://apps.shopify.com/google-shopping . That'll make things easier for you to get started.

Google Merchant/Shopping is not available in every country, and requires you to submit product feeds in the correct local language. If your product feeds are English, you can target the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Switzerland. It's also not available in a lot of countries - see the current list.
Staying organized with ad groups and product groups is key - i.e. don't have 1 campaign, 1 ad group and 4589374958734895 product groups. You could do the 1 camp/1 ad group/1 product group in some cases, though it would take a big budget to optimize - the more products you have the more you have to spend to test them all.
Cheapish products can actually work quite well with shopping ads. I.e. $20~ . This is a big difference compared to Search.
Bids and bidding modes have to be tested here as with everything else on Adwords. Manual bids usually work well, but Shishev mentioned he had seen great results with Enhanced CPC and Target ROAS. Those two will need significant data before you attempt them; Google has tons of detailed documentation on bidding.
Products` titles should be optimized, can see improved performance/more impressions/sales. Remember, given the ads are based on your product feed, your product names are now part of your copywriting.
There is a quality score for shopping ads though information on this is scarce. Here's a (rather minimal) discussion on the subject: https://www.en.advertisercommunity.c...re/td-p/544673
Optimizing by item ID is the most efficient way to organise your ad efforts. Shishev says "I like grouping up the best selling item IDs, then the ones that have an OK ROI, then the poorly performing ones etc. - it's MUCH easier to keep track of performance that way, plus you can play around with bids."
As with Search, you need to keep an eye out on search terms and add unrelated negative keywords regularly or you can waste a ton of budget.
Ad scheduling can also make a surprising difference to your ROI. Keep a close eye on your time of day and day of week stats.
Bid adjustments by device can save you a TON of cash. Shishev mentioned - "I noticed that tablets weren't converting and were just eating up 1/3 of my budget or more -> -90% bid adjustment helped solve that. The same applies for day & time / ad scheduling."
If you have a "permanent huge discount", make sure it shows in your feeds. Show the discounted price instead of the full one - it will most likely see better conversions. Competitive pricing in shopping campaigns is another key point.
Location targeting can help too (e.g. US states/cities etc.) though you need tons of solid data for this to work well.

And that's it! Do you have any tips for using Google ad products to advertise eCommerce stores? Post 'em below!

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