Google Ads is effective for ecommerce. However, it has some challenges for businesses looking to set up campaigns for the first time and run them to achieve optimal results.
For businesses that are looking to run their own campaigns, there can often be a steep learning curve. And it can take weeks or months to master it, which can be expensive for many advertisers. However, some businesses choose instead to hire a Google Ads expert to run their campaigns.
In this article, I’ll share some tips on how to set up a Google Ads campaign for your ecommerce business. And this should help you set up an effective campaign.
1. Campaign Objective
First, you need to pick a campaign objective to direct the campaign machine learning system on what you want to achieve. The best Google Ads objectives for an ecommerce business is Sales, to drive online orders on your website.
And the objective helps you choose other features that align with it like conversion type, bid strategy, ad scheduling and so on.
However, you can also set up a campaign without an objective. This will allow you to update the campaign settings without guidance from the Google Ads system.
2. Campaign Type
The choice of objective also determines the campaign type that is available for you in Google Ads. For an ecommerce shop the two primary types to choose from are Search and Shopping. And each has its pros and cons, and your selection will depend on a number of factors.
Shopping campaigns usually have a higher conversion rate than Search. That’s because they appear in the search results with an image, title and price which is usually enough information for a searcher to make a purchasing decision.
With Search, these appear as text ads in the results and often visitors click through to learn more and that is not always a purchase intent. So, the conversion rate can be a bit lower than Shopping.
So, it’s a good idea to start with a Shopping campaign and then later add Search as performance improves.
3. Campaign Budget
A Google Ads campaign for an ecommerce business should have sufficient budget to make the campaign profitable. A budget that’s too low will fail to achieve a significant number of clicks and sales, so it will be a wasted opportunity.
But with a good budget, clicks and sales will continue to grow, and you’ll be able to add more budget to drive more profitability.
However, setting an initial budget can be a challenge. It’s not always easy to know what budget to start with. An effective way is to do some keyword research to find out what the average cost per click is for your keywords. However, it’s ok to start with a small budget like $500 per month, and then increase it as performance improves.
4. Bidding Strategy
Next, you’ll need to pick a bid strategy that aligns with your goals. So, a Google Ads campaign for an ecommerce store will be looking to drive sales and will pick that objective at campaign set up. And then pick a bid strategy that focuses on driving as many sales as possible or sales value.
A good strategy for that would be a Smart bidding strategy like Maximize Conversions. This is an automated bidding, and it will try to get as many conversions as possible, and then later you can add a target cost per action when the campaign has more data.
5. Keyword Selection
Keyword research is one of the first things you should consider doing for your new campaign. However, this can be a challenge for an ecommerce site, because of the wide range of searches that are to be covered, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of products to sell.
But a tool like the Keyword Planner tool will help you to carry out this research and you can find it in your Google Ads account.
However, if you are going to run a Shopping campaign instead, as advised above, then you won’t need to carry out any keyword research. Your product feed data will match search queries to your products and list your products on Google.
6. Text Ads
Next, you’ll need to create some text ads in your Search campaign. These will appear on Google and its search partners as people search for your products online. And, they’ll be able to click through to your website and purchase when they want.
However, if you set up Shopping ads instead, then you’ll not need to create any text ads. Instead, your products will appear on Google as product listings with a title, price and image and users will be able to click through and purchase on your website.
7. Ad Scheduling
Ad scheduling or day parting is a feature in Google Ads for an ecommerce business to set the days and hours to run its ads. This can be at any time of your choosing that makes sense for your business, and you can update this as time goes.
However, when you’re launching a new campaign, it’s usually better to run ads on all days and hours. And you can change this later when you’ve had some clicks and conversions so you can assess your reports to see how ads are performing at different times.
Conclusion
As a Google Ads specialist for ecommerce businesses, I have a lot of experience setting up and managing Search and Shopping campaigns. Contact me to find out how I can help you set up effective ads.
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