Google Shopping
Product listing ads (PLAs) account for about half of all non-branded, paid search clicks according to the Rimm-Kaufman Group's first quarter 2014 Digital Marketing Report. These PLAs produce substantially higher returns on investments and conversion to sales rates than non-branded, text ads. As a result, a quality product feed with an appropriately jointed Google Shopping platform may help businesses find success with their pay-per-click accounts. Additionally, businesses should check their Google merchant center and associate fees to ensure that their Google shopping campaigns are functioning correctly. When these strategies work correctly, they provide quicker results and add customer volume to an e-commerce website. Furthermore, they generally cost less than text ads. Businesses may also want to consider adding Bing Product Ads as part of their Google shopping platform. Although customer clicking rates are still low, the set up on Bing is relatively simple and similar to setting up Google shopping. Also, these Bing product ads have had strong returns on investment results, and the search site is expected to become more important in the next couple of years.
Remarketing
Remarketing campaigns are an essential part of a successful e-commerce business. These remarketing strategies should be based on standard and dynamic marketing for static text and image ads, standard and dynamic remarketing on Facebook and remarketing for dynamic search ads. This form of marketing, on top of Google and Bing advertising can yield great results. While the standard versions of remarketing produce efficient results, customer volume isn't high enough when targeting dynamically. As with Google shopping, getting to a product level can improve performance especially in cost per conversion to sale rates. AdWords dynamic remarketing permits businesses to advertise to various audiences with tiered bids. In this type of marketing, shoppers who abandon their carts will yield a higher bid than those who simply view a product. It's worth noting that Google's Display Network isn't the only place to run remarketing campaigns. Other successful sites include Perfect Audience and AdRoll, which permit Facebook static and dynamic remarketing. While customer volume in remarketing is still lower than pay-per-click advertising, remarketing campaigns yield great results when combined with other advertising strategies.
Search Network Ads and Extensions
Text advertisements are built around website products, categories and themes, and they are a common aspect of e-commerce marketing strategies. Researching keywords and adding them to ad groups and campaigns is important for online companies to increase profits. Text ads perform effectively with clicks on their own; however, businesses may increase their profits by adding ad extensions that make text ads stand out. Moreover, adding ad headlines with extensions typically increases click per rates in most cases. Oftentimes, it's not content that gets a consumer to click, but how much a particular ad stands out to the consumer. While good text ads can convert to sales, ads that stand out can produce even higher profits. It's crucial when creating these ads that they still align with a search query and landing page in order to get quality traffic onto an e-commerce site. While text ads don't stand out as much without extensions on their own, they still yield decent results if built with quality.
Dynamic Search Ads
No more than 25 percent of an e-commerce site should represent dynamic search advertisements. The problem is that dynamic search ads can generate irrelevant customer traffic that won't convert to sales. For example, if a site sells Nike shoes, Nike should be a negative keyword in a dynamic search campaign because consumers may be searching for other Nike items. Advertising bids should also be lower with dynamic search ads than search network keywords. Taking these precautions will assist in lowering the cost of irrelevant consumer traffic and help e-commerce businesses. Dynamic search ad campaigns often have lower conversion to sales rates than other advertisement strategies. While lower bids will also likely attract more irrelevant traffic, some of these bids will help get consumers on a site and produce sales.
Google Display Network
Google Adwords display network can yield good results despite low conversion rates. It's important when implementing this strategy to use layered and quality targeting. While it can take patience and testing, this display network can raise awareness of a company and help make conversions. However, businesses may want to wait until their shopping, remarketing and search strategies are yielding profits before implementing Google display network strategies.
Running a successful online company means taking full advantage of PPC campaign tools to promote a business. Keywords are not the only driver of qualified search traffic. Instead, businesses must understand consumer habits. By prioritizing PPC builds based on performance and time management, businesses can increase profits.