Certain industries (such as fitness or streaming services) saw a peak in sales due to COVID-19 in Q2. With some locales slowly reopening, those sales have likely dipped. As an ecom marketer, it is my job to boost ROAS and revenue as much as possible no matter the demand. My team and I were recently challenged with the task of figuring out how to maximize sales and ROAS for a fitness equipment brand that was coming off of Q2 peak demand.
Curious how we tackled the challenge? Look no further!
Here are 5 steps we took to maximize ROAS and revenue.
1. Do Your Research
See where you can expand keywords. Start by running a search term analysis.
(If you want more info on running a search term analysis, Chloe Pascoe wrote a wonderful blog on the subject: Search Terms Report: Why and What To Look For.)
Doing so will tell you what users searched to trigger your ads. From there, you can expand or remove keywords that would be beneficial for increasing traffic.
Google Trends will tell you how often a search term is plugged into Google in comparison to the overall search volume. Below is a screenshot of performance for the search term, fitness equipment. This chart tells us that searches peaked during COVID and then slowly decreased. We saw these trends relevant in our sales and revenue which indicated the rise and fall was an overall dip in what people were searching for on Google.
2. Increase Non-Brand and Brand Keywords
Based on your research, are there non-brand or brand keywords with which you can expand your brand’s reach? Both Google Trends and search term reports will tell you what users are looking for. The data doesn’t lie! Be sure to add negative keywords as well to minimize irrelevant traffic. It is also helpful to perform an audit to ensure there are no gaps between the products your brand sells and your ads representing all of that inventory.
3. Offer Free Resources
This varies from business to business, but if you are able to offer resources such as a free workout video or a free trial, it gives customers a glimpse into your brand. Be sure to note what they’ll gain from taking advantage of said download. Will investing in your program help them shed a few pounds or gain muscle mass? Tell them! Put yourself in your customer’s shoes, give them what they want, and help them understand why your product will provide that for them.
4. Add Audiences In Observation Mode
I’m a huge advocate for custom affinity audiences. Set audiences in observation mode, at first, as this ensures reach will not be limited. Once you have data from observation mode, you can cater your ads to the audiences performing the best. This helps ensure that you’re driving high-quality traffic to your site.
5. Optimize Your Bid Modifiers
Google Ads allows you to gain insights on your customers such as gender, age, location, income level, etc. (Click on Demographics and/or Locations on the side menu). Placing bid modifiers for highly concentrated demographics will increase traffic quality as well, assuming your products are more popular with certain demographics vs. others.
Overall, our research showed that we were missing out on some non-brand opportunities. Our focus was primarily branded keywords, but a bulk of potential customers were searching for non-brand products. We also were able to identify some branded areas we had the potential to expand in. Being able to identify these missed opportunities helps grow the brand name overall.
Hopefully, these tips help you hit the ground running in your next quest to increase sales and/or ROAS.
Unprecedented times call for shifting the status quo. Taking these steps can redirect your strategy during challenging times.
