With all the tools available online, there’s no limit to how you can advertise your eCommerce brand to consumers. With over 12-24 million eCommerce websites across the globe, what matters is how well you leverage these tools to help your business stand out from competitors.
There’s no better way to boost your online presence than with Google, responsible for handling nearly 8.5 billion queries each day. Google’s intuitive marketing tools, such as Google Ads, are trusted by more than 7 million marketers worldwide. If you’re running an eCommerce website, however, you need to be using Google Shopping Ads.
What are Google Shopping Ads?
Launched in 2012, Google Shopping is designed to help online retailers showcase their products visually. If you’ve ever gone looking for a particular item on Google, chances are you’ve come across them at the top of the search results page, lined up horizontally. There’ll be an image, product description, price, and store name. These are Google Shopping Ads.
Google Shopping Ads vs. Google Search
Google Ads and Google Shopping Ads serve different purposes. Google Shopping Ads are essentially product listing ads that help consumers easily learn about a product and where exactly to purchase them. Google Ads (or Google Search Ads) are text-based, relying heavily on copy, while Shopping Ads include images. Google Ads have a much broader scope since you can advertise anything using them, whether they be products or services. Google Shopping Ads can only be used to promote specific products.
The Benefits of Google Shopping Ads
Since Google Shopping Ads are typically displayed at the very top of search results pages, they will be the first thing consumers see when they search for products. This means increased brand visibility for online stores. By the same token, this type of ad can also help retailers reach out to a more specific demographic.
Since Google Shopping Ads collect product information, they can directly target the right audience for your line of business. Studies have also found that Google Shopping Ads achieve 30% higher conversions compared to traditional text-based ads, therefore ensuring better ROI.
4 Ways to Make Google Shopping Ads Work for your Online Business
Having explored the history and advantages of Google Shopping Ads, let’s dive into how you can include them in your eCommerce marketing plan to help you achieve online success:
1. Prioritize Product Feed
When creating Google Shopping Ads for your online store, it is imperative to include key information about your products. Google Shopping Ads highlight product names, images, descriptions, and categories – all of which are vital to your customers being able to find your products easily. For your product titles and descriptions, you may incorporate keywords that can make it a whole lot easier to search for specific items. Using appealing and high-resolution product images can give your website a boost in terms of click-through rates. Don’t forget to include prices.
2. Leverage Customer Reviews
When you look through Google Shopping Ads, you may notice some of them have star ratings. This is because Google allows retailers to display customer reviews in their ads to help promote their products. Studies have found time and time again that 93% of consumers check product reviews before proceeding with their purchases. Posting customer reviews can aid customers in making informed decisions and show them that your brand is trustworthy.
3. Optimize Campaign Structure and Product Groups
To see improve your ROI, you can try optimizing your campaign structure. This helps you manage your campaigns easily since it involves organizing certain aspects of your business such as product types and target customers. Organizing your products by categories can also help the Google algorithm accurately find the right items shoppers are looking for.
All you have to do is simply create different ad groups for different products. For example, if you’re running a clothing store, you can make a specific ad group solely for a specific kind of pants and aim them toward shoppers who are in need of this particular product. This will help your ads drive higher conversion rates and sales since they will only be seen by those who are interested in them.
4. Add Negative Keywords
As with search, one of the many features included in Google Shopping Ads involves the use of negative keywords. Negative keywords are phrases that prevent search algorithms from displaying results that are unrelated or irrelevant to what people are actually looking for. This feature increases search accuracy and makes it way easier for shoppers to find your products.
5. Categorize Ads By Demographics
Whether you wish to expand your reach or target a specific audience, it would be wise to organize your ads according to demographics. Collect pertinent customer data such as location, gender, age, shopping habits, interests, and frequent searches – this information can help you best determine what type of ads your audience will be inclined to engage with. Once you have these details, you can effortlessly target your ideal audience and promote your products among them.
6. Adjust your Bidding Strategy
Since you’re investing resources into creating your ads, it’s important to determine how much you’re actually willing to pay for them. If you’re able to maximize your Google Ads bidding strategies, you can help your brand rank better in search results. Here are some of the popular bidding strategies you can give a try:
- Target Cost Per Action (CPA) – for improving conversions by targeting a specific CPA
- Target Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) – for improving conversions by targeting a specific ROAS
- Maximize Conversion Value – for optimizing conversion value without targeting ROAS
- Maximize Conversions -or optimizing conversion value without targeting CPA
- Maximize Enhanced Cost Per Click (ECPC) – for automatically adjusting manual bids
